New York, NY, May 13, 2007 – At its annual luncheon this year, the Nuckolls Fund for Lighting Education announced the presentation of two $20,000 grants, a $10,000 Edison Price Fellowship, and a $5,000 Jonas Bellovin Scholar Achievement Award. The grants and award were presented on May 8, 2007, during LIGHTFAIR INTERNATIONAL, held this year at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York.
Boston Architectural College in Massachusetts received a $20,000 grant to expand its course offerings in lighting education by developing three half-semester courses for students from multiple disciplines to study under the umbrella of sustainable electric and daylighting design. The College’s goal is eventually to create a minor in lighting design and, ultimately, a nationally recognized program.
The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, will use its $20,000 grant to develop a course entitled “Advanced Lighting Design Studio: Materials & Technology.” The intention of the course is to give students the tools to develop an understanding of the technology and practical steps required to realize their conceptual ideas.
The Edison Price Fellowship for $10,000 was awarded to Kevin Van Den Wymelenberg, an assistant professor at the University of Idaho College of Art and Architecture. He will spend a portion of each week for one academic year at the University of Washington College of Architecture and Urban Planning, its Integrated Design Lab in Puget Sound and the Lighting Design Lab in downtown Seattle, working to strengthen his understanding of integrated electric lighting design, HDR imaging and radiance, and controls for daylit spaces. The Fellowship was instituted in order to help lighting educators further their own education.
The 2007 Jonas Bellovin Scholar Achievement Award in the amount of $5,000 was presented to Megan Christen, currently completing both her BS and MS degrees at the University of Colorado Boulder. The award, established in 2003, rotates among the six United States colleges that offer a full lighting education program. Students are nominated by their faculty.
During the luncheon, Frank Conti, president of Enterprise Lighting Sales Corp. and a member of the Nuckolls Fund Board since its inception, was the subject of a “roast,” with commentary contributed by Richard Agriss, Manny Feris, Addison Kelly, Stephen Lees, Bob Prouse, Sonny Sonnenfeld, Charles Stone, and Matthew Tanteri.
Nuckolls Fund president Jeffrey Milham announced several major new contributions. They included a $10,000 bequest from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and $5,000 each from Enterprise Lighting Sales, the Illuminating Engineering Society New Jersey Section, the Illuminating Engineering Society New York Section, and Nulux Incorporated. The Designers Lighting Forum of New York continued its support with a new $3,000 contribution. B-K Lighting and TEKA Illumination once again sponsored a Fun Run/Walk during LIGHTFAIR as a fund raiser for the Nuckolls Fund.
Now in its 18th year, the Nuckolls Fund was established in memory of the lighting designer and educator Jim Nuckolls, who had a special ability to inspire interest in, and commitment to, the field of architectural lighting design. With this year’s grants, the Fund has made a total of $500,000 in awards drawn from the income generated by an endowment. The endowment is entirely the result of continuing financial support from a wide spectrum of the lighting community.