Gallery Opens With a Green Twist
By: Katrina Irwin
Updated: August 9, 2012
It's a place where the old lives on. But thanks to some new technology the future is looking bright at the John L. Wehle gallery at the Genesee Country Village and Museum.
"The gallery had been here since 1976, what we've done is a 2.7 million dollar renovation which really gave us much better control over the interior of the gallery in particularl the environment." says President and CEO of GCVM Peter Arnold.
They've installed a geo-thermal heating and cooling system. They updated the storage units to make them better insulated and most importantly, they've changed out the old lights and put in led's.
"All the lightbulbs in the gallery and of course there are many of them, used to be in the region of 100 watt bulbs now they are 7 watt bulbs so it is pretty tremendous," says Arnold.
The construction process took about 2 years, and not only is it helping out the environment, it is also helping to preserve the exhibits here."
"It's protecting the artwork, we are protecting it from harmful UV rays also because the lights aren't generating the heat, we don't need to crank the air conditioning up to keep the galleries cool. So it all works together hand in hand," says Patricia Tice. She is the gallery's curator. She says the changes allow her to properly show off one of the finest collections of sporting art in the world.
"The quality of the art has always been there, but now the gallery setting allows it to really shine through and it really is a jewel, this collection."
To celebrate the renovations, admission to the gallery is free for the rest of this season.
