The Nuckolls Fund for Lighting Education has announced the award of two grants for the year 2001, each in the amount of $20,000. The announcement was made on May 30 at the Fund’s annual luncheon at Lightfair, held this year in Las Vegas.
A grant to the University of Florida was awarded in support of the development of a Lighting Master Studio, an interdepartmental course for graduate students. The course will be integrated into the lighting curricula of the master programs in the School of Architecture, Department of Interior Design, and Department of Theater and Dance. According to the university, the studio will serve as an intensive “immersion” experience in lighting design, and will involve hands-on design and application. The Florida grant was awarded under the Nuckolls Fund’s traditional grant approach in support of the expansion of existing lighting programs. Grants to existing lighting programs have been awarded annually since 1989.
The second year 2001 grant was awarded to California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, CA, under the Nuckolls Fund’s new program to support introductory lighting courses. Using the grant funds, Cal Poly will develop a lighting fundamentals course for third- and fourth-year architecture students. It will be offered as a required design studio with a seminar component. At present, lighting education for architecture students at the university is limited to a short segment in the environmental controls system course work, although other campuses of Cal Poly have more extensive lighting curricula.
The Nuckolls Fund did not award an Edison Price Fellowship this year because no fundable proposal was submitted. The fellowship is awarded to individual educators to enable them to broaden their own understanding of architectural lighting for the ultimate benefit of their students. Jeffrey Milham, president of the Fund, said that for the upcoming year, the Board of Directors plans to expand efforts to reach educators who are strong candidates for the fellowship, which is currently funded at $7,500.
The Nuckolls Fund was established in 1988 in memory of lighting designer and educator Jim Nuckolls. Its mission is to support educational programs that provide students with an understanding of lighting and the possibility of a career in the lighting community. The Fund can be reached at www.nuckollsfund.org. Requests for Proposals for the grant cycle for the year 2002 will be available on the website in September.