The University of Wisconsin-Superior is remodeling its Kruk Gallery.
The old gallery located in Holden Fine and Applied Arts Center was outdated and could be damaging to artwork displayed there.
Work in the gallery began Tuesday. The gallery will be unrecognizable when it is finished. The ceiling, carpeting and reception desk have left the building. The carpeted walls will be replaced with art-viewing friendly plaster.
Instead of the low wood ceiling and bright lights of the former gallery, the remodeled product will feature an open ceiling and updated lighting.
The remodeling job will bring the gallery up to today's standard of displaying art, said Tom Fennessey, director of facilities management.
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The new lights will be energy efficient and placed farther from the artwork in order to protect it, he said.
"An art gallery requires specific needs in terms of lighting and atmospheric controls," said Emile Mathis, a UWS art department alumnus who consulted on the project.
Mathis owns his own gallery in Racine. He studied gallery designs while in graduate school at UWS. He also shows work at the Kruk Gallery.
Mathis has shown paintings at Kruk in the past, and had paintings come back damaged from the lights' heat, he said.
Flecks of paint would come away from the canvas. Light can be a damaging element in regard to artwork, he said.
Kruk Gallery's new lights will give off less heat, protecting the artwork from warmth. They are also designed to bring out colors better than traditional lighting, Fennessey said.
The lights will be placed farther from the gallery's walls because of the newly heightened ceilings.
The placement of the lamps are key. They must be away from the artwork, Mathis said.
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"Whenever I go to museums I find it interesting how they handle their problems with lights," Mathis said.
Some museum exhibits reflect the light so it doesn't directly hit artwork, some others have motion censored lights that only turn on when someone enters the room. Any place that shows artwork must be conscious of how light interacts with artwork. Brightness isn't the important issue in a gallery, he said.
The remodeling project includes work on the storage and preparation areas for the gallery. It also includes a new ceiling and lighting in the student gallery on the third floor of Holden Arts Center.
In place of the carpeting in Kruk Gallery will be a concrete floor. In place of the ceiling will be exposed pipe work. The plaster walls will be plain, as will the new reception desk.
"It's a matter of being able to view the imagery or paintings more cleanly," he said. "My whole thing was to keep it simple."
The higher ceiling will allow for larger artwork to be shown.
The remodeled gallery is expected to open in late January.
