The Museum of Science and Industry’s Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle exhibit has been reawakened by the magic of LED lighting.
The Museum of Science and Industry’s Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle exhibit has been reawakened by the magic of LED lighting.
The Museum of Science and Industry’s Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle exhibit has been reawakened by the magic of LED lighting. MSI completely restored and relighted the dollhouse-sized castle, which was built in 1935 by silent movie star Colleen Moore and has been on display at the museum for more than 50 years. Filled with one-of-a-kind, handcrafted miniatures like the world’s smallest Bible and a painting by Walt Disney, the newly revitalized castle will continue to enchant generations to come.
As part of the restoration effort, Lightswitch redesigned the exterior illumination of the castle. The previous lighting had left certain areas of the castle in the dark and had cast a dim, blue light over the exhibit. To resolve these issues, we used new mini LED ellipsoidal reflector spotlights and tunable LED PAR38 replacement lamps that easily retrofit into the existing fixtures. We also redesigned the lighting positions to achieve new lighting effects, such as sunlight streaming through the ballroom window.
The new LED lighting quite literally allows visitors to see this longstanding exhibit in a new light by revealing parts of the castle that had been obscured in crisp, daylight-colored illumination. It also allows the museum staff to digitally control the lighting and tune the color as needed. MSI was so pleased with the results that it used using the same tunable LED lamps in several exhibits and has added LED lighting to its museum lighting standard. Photos by JB Spector
