Look like a rerun of X-Files? It’s not. If you’ve been around the Museum after dark recently, you may have spotted the new LED light installation in The Sutphin Fountain. Jeff Earl, head electrician at the IMA, replaced all the original white halogen lights, many submerged underwater, with the new technology. 

Red, green and blue LEDs of the 5mm type. Source: Wikipedia

A light emitting diode (LED) is an electronic light source. The first LED was built in the 1920s by a radio technician who noticed that diodes used in radio receivers emitted light when current was passed through them. The LED was introduced as a practical electronic component in 1962 (See Wikipedia). LEDs are considered more energy efficient and require less maintenance than traditional lighting. They also boast a life of about 50,000 hours–more than five years! This replacement energy concept is certainly green for the IMA’s future. The well-known Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas uses LED technology to create its 1,500 foot light display.

The new LED technology also serves as an revenue generator. The public can request various colored lighting shows for weddings, dinners and other special events for a fee. Because the lights are run off a computer, the 17 color choices are easy to navigate between. When the NCAA was here, Jeff recalled, they requested a  blue and orange display and were very pleased with the result.

The IMA is planning several upcoming LED projects at the IMA. One of these efforts includes installing 49 energy efficient LED lights in the overlook of the Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion of the Museum. (“Just before the Star Wars’ doors,” Jeff explained.)

Meet Jeff Earl and see time lapse footage of the LED light installation in the IMA ArtBabble video below.

Sutphin Fountain

But I need some color! These deciduous shrubs with yellow, orange, green, or red stems provide it like nothing else in the middle of a Midwest winter and are a hardy easy to grow group of plants. The colors really pop against snow or evergreens but are excellent in any situation. Don’t be afraid to cut a few to bring indoors too.

The first plant I want to mention is a willow. Yes, a willow. Not a weeping willow though they can have nice twigs as well. This is Salix alba ‘Britzensis’, the coral bark willow.

Coral bark willow

It can become a tree of considerable size. But as with the other shrubs in this article, the best color is on the younger growth so you want to be cutting them back on a regular basis. Usually that means cutting out about one third of the old growth annually. ‘Britzensis’ grows so fast you can cut the whole plant to the ground in early spring and have an 8 foot shrub by late summer. It doesn’t need to be in a wet area but avoid super dry sites. In this photo of the base of the plant notice where it has been cut back in previous years. The older the stems, the weaker the color.

Some color

Another shrub that isn’t always chosen for its winter twig color is Kerria japonica, Japanese kerria (aren’t common names clever?). Kerria is grown mostly for the bright golden yellow flowers covering it in April. In the winter, when anything other than white, brown, or gray is in desperately short supply, these green twigs are a welcome sight. This is the only shrub in the blog that grows well in both sun and shade. The cultivar ‘Kincan’ has lots of yellow striping on the twigs. It’s very nice. Here’s a group of the cultivar ‘Golden Guinea’ planted near the back side of the Toby.

Golden Guinea

The majority of the shrubs we grow for the color of their stems are in the genus Cornus, generally referred to as the “twig dogwoods” – redtwig, yellowtwig, etc. Multiple species are in this group and you can also find them with white or yellow variegated leaves for even more seasons of interest, even solid chartreuse leaves (always my fave). As a general rule however these are grown for the winter interest they provide. All produce the best color in sunny sites. For yellow twigs there’s Cornus alba ‘Bud’s Yellow’ near the entrance to the Greenhouse.

‘Bud’s Yellow’

In Nonie’s Garden is the bright red Cornus sericiea ‘Cardinal’ looking really sharp right now.

Bright red Cornus sericiea

And then there is my favorite. This one is yellow, orange, coral, and pink – Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’.

Midwinter Fire

Under good conditions the twig dogwoods can put on 3-4 feet of growth in a year. Stems over 2 years old on any of these are noticeably duller. In this shot you can see clearly where the new growth occurred last year. These were trimmed high to maintain a bit of screening function. It’s a practice you won’t to attempt very often. You would soon have 4 feet of dull gray topped with 18 inches or so of bright color.

Nice color

I said earlier these are tough plants. As living proof here’s one surviving another Indiana winter in a container. Not a place for a delicate little boo-boo-baby plant.

Boo Boo baby plant?

That’s it for this week. Try to get out to the gardens and enjoy the Winter show.

First check out Christina’s Wikipedia article on the Sutphin Fountain, which even has a link to a set of pictures of the fountain on Flickr.com. Nice work, Christina!

I asked her if she thought making a Wikipedia article was hard to do and she said that once she took a few minutes to figure out how to use the software that Wikipedia employs that it was “pretty easy and kind of fun.”

Christina is finishing up her bachelor’s degree in the Museum Studies program at IUPUI, and thought that it would be a good networking opportunity to have lunch with the IMA’s director (yeah, I agree, plus the food at Pucks isn’t too shabby either).

While I was thrilled to meet Christina and see her work, I’m a little bummed that she’s the only one that’s made an article so far. I thought for sure other folks would jump at the chance to have lunch with our director. Really, I kind of thought I would be over-run with undergrad & grad students interested in museum careers from nearby universities. I thought we’d already have something like the Wikipedia article: List of Sculptures in Central Park. But, then again, I’m an optimist.

I’m not saying I’m this kind of depressed, that I’m down here in a “glass cage of emotion,” but I’m beginning to wonder if Christina and I are the only ones around here that think this is a good idea. Here’s my way of finding out: the offer is only good until April 30^th, 2008. After that, I’ll move along.

But, listen, imagine for a second if the majority of artworks in the world had Wikipedia articles; it could be like a catalogue raisonné for everything, even new artworks as they are being made. I know Wikipedia isn’t perfect, but I think Jimmy Wales’ concept of an encyclopedia being “radical” is pretty much right on.

I admit, though, my hopes might be a bit far-fetched but that’s because I’m a believer. And this is where TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) comes in; I’ve been watching all sorts of videos over there, and have begun to buy into the whole “True Global Social Organization” notion.

I won’t go on about this for long, but if you’re interested watch the Howard Rheingold video and see him go from mastodons up to super computers “leaping off the desktops” and beyond. Or, better yet, watch Robert Wright tell How Cooperation Eventually Trumps Conflict. My point is that collaboration on a global scale is happening and it might just change the world. So, we play this back to the IMA: your making an article for Wikipedia not only will get you free lunch with our director, it might just help save the world. Okay, now that’s far fetched ….