Investigation of Lighting Conditions and Visitors' Satisfaction in Exhibition Spaces of Museums in Korea - Focused on the 4 Cases of the Seoul Museum, the Mimesis Art Museum, the Seoul Museum of Art in Nowon and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Gwacheon -

Abstract

Museums have developed various needs of the visitors and exhibits over the past two centuries. Currently, they have multiple functions of display, conservation, research and public education about artworks and cultural events. Therefore, exhibits should be displayed in various ways so that visitors can feel inter-relations with exhibits. The exhibition areas of museums should be provided with the stable lighting environment for visitors and artworks. For the study, I selected four museums, which were the Seoul Museum, the Mimesis Art Museum, the Seoul Museum of Art in Nowon and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Gwacheon, and I measured illumination levels of the selected Museums, and then, I surveyed the visitors' responses on the lighting conditions of them. According to the results, the measurements of the illumination levels in the four museums showed that the illumination levels of them were effectively controlled to display the art works. However, the illuminance levels at some areas that drew the natural light as lighting source were much higher than recommended illumination values for museum. In the mean time, the answers of questionnaires showed that the natural light were so effective to light the museums although the natural light provided some areas with high illumination levels.