The Art Gallery of Onatrio

Toronta, Canada

With a physical presence spanning 583,000 square feet, the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) is one of North America's largest art galleries. It holds the largest collection of Canadian art and an enormous variety of works from the Renaissance and Baroque eras, European art, African and Oceanic art and modern and contemporary collections.

UFO was selected to supply a range of fibre optic products to illuminate the large collection of model ships on display in the museum. Fibre optics provided the ideal solution for illuminating the precious and irreplaceable items as they don't emit heat or ultra violet rays which can be detrimental to delicate, historical artefacts.

A series of mini downlight fittings are installed inside the top of the cabinet walls and used to light the items on display below. Each downlight is fully adjustable and so can be rotated and tilted to illuminate specific details on the ships.

The downlights are powered by our Aurora light sources, one of which is installed in the leg of each display cabinet. Connected to each light source is a harness containing strands of end lit glass fibre that discreetly runs through vertical aluminium tubes into the downlight fittings at the top of the cabinet.

The undersides of the ships are also illuminated using the end lit fibre but don't feature any end fittings. The fibre is instead held in place by radio nuts and like the downlights is also powered by Aurora light sources that are located in the cabinets' legs.

The way in which the fibre and light sources have been cleverly concealed within the cabinets ensures that your eye is automatically drawn to the exquisite pieces on display and not the powerful system lighting them.

The Thompson Collection | © The Art Gallery of Ontario