Warwick Art Centre Lighting Designers | DALI Controls

The Mead Gallery at Warwick Arts Centre reopens after a three-year refurbishment with "Dappled Light" an exhibition by Rana Begum, a prominent Bangladeshi/British artist.

Our lighting designers were called at short notice by Warwick Art Centre to resolve problems with the exhibition lighting.
As part of the restoration of Mead Gallery, a new DALI (Digital Addressable Lighting Interface) system was designed and installed by others. On handover, there was a minimal transference of knowledge on how to use or control the lighting.
As time was of the essence and with the opening of the exhibition only days away we came to site to assess the equipment and lighting controls.

DALI controls (Digital Addressable Lighting Interface) had been designed and installed by others, allowing individual light fixtures to be dimmed separately from the other 152 luminaires.

This DALI dimming method allows for precise control of lighting LUX levels remotely via a laptop or tablet. As a result, the light levels could be changed from the ground to create the required appearance and light levels but only once the light fixtures were properly positioned and tilted. This kind of system is better suited to permanent galleries rather than for temporary exhibitions.

There were also three kinds of LED light fittings provided: wall washers and two different angles of spotlights, with a CRI 97 and 4000(K) Kelvin cool temperature of light.
The art centre lighting track had been installed in a variety of locations on the central ceiling in each of the 3 galleries. This layout makes it ideal for lighting anything directly beneath or hung on the existing gallery walls; nevertheless, it also produced spaces where artworks couldn't be lit including between galleries or near to the outer walls.

Any artist's work requires meticulous lighting since they have a mental image of how it should look. Each of Rana Begum’s pieces explores the interaction of form, light, and colour with architecture, light, and shadow.
Rana was particularly concerned that the net sculpture shouldn't generate a net shadow on the gallery walls and the largest sculpture in gallery 3 should highlight the vivid colours and provide dappled light on the floor.
The reflector tower sculptures were particularly difficult to light without creating unwanted glare and multiple floor and wall shadows. This we overcame by using extra spots to burn out the unwanted shadows, whilst maintaining the sparkle that made them POP.

Natural light (daylighting) came in via the skylights in each of the three galleries. Throughout the day, natural light would interact with the artworks, altering how they were perceived and interacting with the building. Fortunately, all of the galleries had motorised skylight blinds, which we could closer to view just the artificial light, before leaving the blinds open permanently. All of this work was made possible by collaborating closely with the artist, Mead Gallery’s own senior curator Sarah Shalgosky, Curator Thomas Ellmer and the Centres technicians.

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