- Guests attend a reception at the multi-purpose room at the re-opening of the Wichita Falls Museum of Art.
The Wichita Falls Museum of Art held an open house on Aug. 25 to show the nearly completed renovations that began last spring to bring the building into compliance with updated requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The museum, located off Midwestern Parkway near the Student Wellness Center, received $750,444 in donations to fund the renovations, which included the widening of doorways, buttons to automatically open the front doors and the removal of all asbestos in the building.
Facility Operations Manager Jeff Desborough said the museum finished all the mandatory ADA renovations, but additional upgrades have been made to make the building more environmentally friendly.
“Part of this renovation is the green part, and the whole university is doing this,” Desborough said.
Even though it was not part of the required renovations, Desborough said most of the lighting in the building has been replaced with more energy-efficient bulbs and the air conditioning has been upgraded to be more efficient as well.
“We added this to the scope of work,” Desborough said. “The original contract is complete.”
Desborough said as the original renovations were being completed, it made sense to make the other changes that the museum staff wanted to accomplish.
“That’s how we got to ‘green up’ this area,” Desborough said, “and it will be all LED lighting only, which is as green as you can get.”
In addition to the lights inside the building, Desborough said museum staff members plan to brighten up the entrance and sidewalks to the building.
“We’re putting 15 light bollards out there so it’s safer when people come up here at night,” Desborough said. “It gets pretty dark out there.”
Desborough said the air conditioning has also been upgraded to be more economical and visual thermostats with humidity controls to protect the artwork.
“We just also got all new A/C units on top of the museum, so everything in here is less than five years old, so it’s all energy efficient,” Desborough said. “It protects the artwork and enables us to bring higher-end exhibits in here.”
Curator of Collections and Exhibitions Danny Bills said the renovations would allow the museum to hang larger pieces than before.
“You can hang artwork much higher in here,” Bills said. “There is plywood behind the sheetrock up to 16 feet.”
The height of the room has proven to be a hurdle in the path of the WFMA’s green initiative, however. Because the ceiling is so high, the staff cannot replace the light bulbs with a more environmentally friendly alternative.
“The light has to get all the way down from the ceiling track,” Bills said, “that’s the challenge.”
Desborough said LEDs strong enough to light the room are simply too expensive for the museum’s budget.
“This is the highest room in the entire place,” Desborough said. “We’re going to try to get some LEDs, but right now they’re a little pricey.”
Last spring, Desborough said there was a hard deadline of September 1to complete the required renovations, and considering the many additional quality of life upgrades made to the museum, the WFMA staff is not far off of their schedule.
“We should be done in about three weeks,” Desborough said. “That means plastic off the wall, loose boards up.”
