Lighting in Design August-September 2017

Lighting a museum in the Timbavati

S ituated on the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve, the Graeme Naylor Museum is devoted entirely to the display of mammals, reptiles and birds found on the reserve. Created to enable visitors to see the fauna of the region up close, the dedicated facility is also used to great success as part of Timbavati’s outreach teaching programme, and dozens of school children in the vicinity are given the opportunity to learn about wild life and conservation in the area. The museum, which has been operational for some time, was recently enlarged and upgraded and Bergstrom Lighting along with Advanced Lighting Systems, as part of their own outreach programme, donated the lighting for the new facility. Lindsay van den Berg of Bergstrom explains that museums in general are becoming community- oriented destinations. “Although the Graeme Naylor Museum is relatively small, it is geared for visitors

to the reserve and plays an important role in the community at large. My family has been coming to Timbavati for years,” she says, “so, given the nature of our business, it was a pleasure for us to contribute in some way to the reserve”. The museum consists of three sections: the main room, which is also used for functions, and two smaller adjacent rooms, one of which houses the butterfly collection while the other is devoted to the display of birds and eggs. The preserved animals and birds (all of which died of natural causes) are housed in units built into the walls, or in free-standing wood and glass display cabinets. A number of the animals are mounted on the walls too. Says Van den Berg, “We used LEDs throughout the installation in order to reduce maintenance and operational costs, provide maxi- mum flexibility, preserve the displays and keep the colour true”.

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LiD AUG/SEP 2017