Texas Scenic Supplies Gear to Witte Museum, San Antonio

Texas Scenic Company (TSC) has completed installation of specialty lighting equipment for the new Robert J. and Helen C. Kleberg South Texas Heritage Center at San Antonio's Witte Museum.

The new, 20,000-sq.-ft., two-story building incorporates the historic Pioneer Hall and serves as a permanent home for the Witte's South Texas collections. Exhibitions and public programs use the latest museum technology to illustrate the history of South Texas ranching empires and the birthplace of the American Cowboy.

TSC worked with architects Ford, Powell & Carson of San Antonio and specialty lighting consultants Available Light, of Salem, Massachusetts, on this project. The design team determined that the exhibition space needed to be more theatrical than many museum spaces with dramatic stage lighting. The exhibits are interactive and are programmed to change lighting and color to demonstrate time and weather changes. TSC assisted with budgeting and coordination with the lighting consultant to build a low-wattage and long-lasting fixture package.

The equipment supplied and installed included pipe grid and battens, ETC Source Fours, ETC Smartbars, Altman Spectra Par 100's, Altman Micro Ellipses and Master Ellipses, and LSI PAR36 and Serpentine 20 units. TSC also supplied a package of Rosco and Apollo gobo patterns, dichroic filters, and light-shaping accessories.

In addition to the two exhibit halls, the South Texas Heritage Center includes classrooms and an outdoor amphitheatre.