It’s a Catch-22 for museums: drawings, watercolors and other delicate masterpieces often must be kept hidden away in dark storage rooms, because displaying them would expose them to damage from light.
But UTEP Chemistry Professor Carl W. Dirk, Ph.D., believes he’s found a way to free the precious works from their gloomy museum cells.

Dirk has invented a light filter that removes a significant amount of damaging light, without leaving patrons in the dark. “We can actually slice out parts of the visible light spectrum that you don’t need to see the object,” Dirk says.

The project was funded by The Getty Conservation Institute. Since completing initial filter optimizations for the protection of Old Master Drawings in the Getty collection, an additional collaboration was begun with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, NM to adapt these filters to protect sensitive works of art in the O’Keeffe collection.

Dirk’s research also was highlighted at the California Science Center in Los Angeles in an exhibit titled FADE: The Dark Side of Light.

“It is a special privilege for academic scientists to work on projects like this. Developing a practical solution for this lighting problem has been a high point for my career,” says Dirk.


Carl W. Dirk, Ph.D.
915-747-7560

“Scientists usually work on abstract things. This is rewarding
because people can understand it and appreciate it.”