Stark Museum to host Grand Viewing

The Stark Museum of Art will be opening its doors for a Grand Viewing on Thursday. Everyone is invited to attend and see the newly remodeled galleries and lobby. Refreshments are being provided by the museum and entertainment will come in the form of Jerry Nichols and Texas Thunder, musicians. The Grand Viewing is being held for the museum to show off the work it has been undergoing for a year.

Museum Director Sarah Boehme wants visitors to take away more than trip to the local museum. "I want visitors to take away a sense of how art makes us human and enlivens our experience. I think looking at a work of art is a way to focus your tension on an ideal, and we present this collection in a way that will create an environment for people to enjoy and be inspired by art."

This remodeling has placed the museum at the forefront of museum technology. Two new attractions are the cause for this. The LED (light emitting diode) system has been put in place in order to give the interior more natural light. This natural light enables the viewer to see the work the way the artist created it.

The LED system as replaced the incandescent system that has always been present in the museum. Along with providing natural light, the new system will also be cheaper to maintain, with 350 fixtures compared to 400, and a longer lifespan in each bulb.

The second technological leap in the museum are the new iPads that are present in gallery one and the special exhibit hall. These iPads allow for viewers to see the works on a projected screen and enlarge them for closer inspection. The iPads also allow for the user to view all the works that are related to the gallery in a easy to navigate database.

The new technology is housed in all new galleries. The museum has replaced all the dull, neutral colors, that according to the Museum Director Sarah Boehme "was a good flexible system, but it was looking very dated in terms of the interior and it meant that we couldn't experiment with color."

This dated fabric has been replaced with several of these new experimental colors. For the American Frontier Gallery the color is a mix of light blue and dark green, giving the Frontier Gallery and very natural exterior feel.

For the gallery that focuses on the people that lived out west a dark shade of yellow lit with bright LED bulbs gives the viewer a sense of standing under the shining New Mexico sun. This room is populated by works from the Taos Society of Artist, among whom are Joseph Henry Sharp, E.L. Blumenschein, Bert Phillips, E.I. Couse, W.H. Dunton, E. Martin Hennings, Oscar Berninghaus, Victor Higgins, Walter Ufer and Kenneth Adams.

Their works focused on the Pueblo lifestyles and capturing what they saw as the perfect west. These works were often painted in extreme lighting and the LED bulbs really show the work at its full potential.

Along with the galleries, the lobby as also been redone. Instead of having the closed feeling that the old lobby had, the new lobby is more open with the visitors desk moved to the right of the door and on the left the museum store has been given more space.   www.bgocled.com

Young bicyclist casts bright light

Kyle Lammie travels a well-lighted path. The senior at Sylvania Northview High School is a serious cyclist who often rides after dark, when there's less traffic.

"I love biking at night," he said. "Everything from the empty streets to the cool air keeps me biking into the night."

His problem was that the flashlight he clamped to his handlebars didn't throw off the illumination he wanted, so he engineered a solution.

Kyle, a self-described "tool nerd" who is in Northview's engineering tech prep program, designed and built his own battery-powered light that can put out 1,300 lumens -- about the same brightness as his car's two headlights, he said.

Now, no matter how dark the night, he can see where he's going.

"It's a big improvement," he said. "I feel safer."

Kyle made the light in the home workshop he shares with his father, James Lammie, who is a skilled do-it-yourselfer. The 17-year-old is a whiz with technology and much sought after as the sound and light technician for school play productions in Northview's Performing Arts Center, the school's renovated theater.

For the recent production of The Wizard of Oz, he conjured up a floating head illusion that rose from fog. The special effect wowed the audience. "Kyle was the man behind the man behind the curtain," joked Nancy Crandell, a school district spokesman.

To achieve the brightness he wanted in the bike light, Kyle used three LEDs (light emitting diodes) powered by a pack of nickel-metal hydride batteries. He also used an aluminum heat sink to protect the LEDs and a device called a driver that controls the brightness settings and permits it to flash like a strobe if desired. The project involved several trips to hardware stores and ended up costing about $150.

Kyle lays out the project in meticulous detail on a Web site called instructables and includes photographs of his work in progress.

On the Web site, he describes the strobe capability at full power as a "fun feature" that has "an effect similar to a police dazzler. NOT recommended for biking. Blinding muggers and spontaneous rave parties, maybe."

Kyle's other inventions include a T-shirt launcher for sports assemblies that makes use of an air compressor. He also enjoys woodworking.

He plans to become an electrical engineer and has applied to the University of Michigan, Ohio State University, the University of Toledo, and Purdue University.

He praised Northview's engineering tech prep, where he takes college-level courses and works on projects ranging from rockets to robotics. He also plays violin in the high school's chamber orchestra.

"I keep busy," Kyle said.    www.bgocled.com