Nuckolls and Dimes

The Nuckolls Fund for Lighting Education has announced two $20,000 grant awards for the year 2001: in support of the University of Florida's Lighting Master Studio, an interdepartmental course for graduate students; and to support introductory lighting courses at California Polytechnic State University (San Luis Obispo, Calif.). The announcement was made at the Fund's annual luncheon during LightFair, held this year in Las Vegas.

The University of Florida course will be integrated into the lighting curricula of the Masters 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.

Cal Poly will use the grant money to 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 (awarded to individual educators to enable them to broaden their own understanding of architectural lighting for the ultimate benefit of their students) because no fundable proposal was submitted. Fund president Jeffrey Milham said the Board of Directors plans to expand efforts to reach educators who are strong candidates for the fellowship, which is currently funded at $7500.

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 web site in September 2001.