Art Highlight: Skytones by Anna Valentina Murch

In partnership with Seattle Department of Transportation, the Seattle Symphony, Benaroya Hall, the Downtown Seattle Association and other community stakeholders we’ve been working to transform the Symphony Block (Third Ave between Union St and University St) into a more vibrant, creative place for everyone to enjoy through public art. This includes lighting upgrades for Skytones, a light installation by Anna Valentina Murch (1948–2014). The new programmable LED fixtures restore the artwork to its original splendor and brighten Benaroya Hall’s Boeing Company Gallery.

Originally installed in 1998, Skytones uses color and light to affect the atmospheric quality of the entire Boeing Company Gallery at Benaroya Hall.  As the west view of the sky is hidden by the building, this horizontal band of subtle, dissolving light creates the illusion of seeing a sky through the building. The lights are programmed in three different sequences which run during concerts. When the house lights are off the arcade is illuminated only by the niches; and when people leave the concert and drive past Benaroya Hall, they will see the memory of the place they have just experienced.

We got a chance to chat with Jeff Vaughan, Facilities Director at Benaroya Hall, about the changes to this historic artwork. To learn more about the new artworks on Symphony Block check out our artist highlights on “Sound/s” by Ivan Toth Depeña and Symphony Block Bike Corrals with Roy Franklin.

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Can you tell us about the upgrades and restoration work Skytones has undergone and why this work is important to Benaroya Hall?

The originally installed light source for Skytones used 240 fluorescent lamps and dimmable ballasts that gave it the color mixing and sunrise to sunset horizon over the course of the day. A lot has since changed in the world of lighting and as fluorescent lights became mandated to phase out because of the negative impact on the environment, the special, dimmable ballasts that power the lamps, stopped being manufactured. Over the years we had been keeping up on replacement of lamps and ballasts, until there came a point that we couldn’t get the replacement ballasts anymore. The installation was getting dimmer and dimmer over time as lights went dark. We would have watched it go completely dark, had we not considered a retrofit to modern LED lighting technology.

Around this same time, we were invited to participate in discussions around bringing improvement to the look and feel of Third Avenue within our block. I made mention of the challenges with Skytones and how much the piece adds to the vibrancy of our third Avenue side of Benaroya Hall. The Seattle Office of Arts and Culture had an important role as part of the third Avenue improvements and very graciously offered assistance with our idea to retrofit the piece to preserve it.

It seems to me that the entire third avenue face of Benaroya Hall was designed specifically to provide visibility of this piece. I think it would have been a tragic loss to watch Skytones go dark. The balance of the building, perhaps purposefully, is very neutral and understated and the colors of the sun and sky give it visual life and interest.

Details on how Skytones was programmed had been preserved from the original installation. With the conversion to modern fixtures, and because of the quality of the original documentation, we were able to replicate and emulate the programming and visual intent of the original installation.

What are some of the challenges in restoring a work that has been installed almost 30 years ago?

Our first challenge was to make sure we found a new fixture that could achieve the distribution and brightness of the original fixtures. We can do comparisons from written specifications, but we wanted to validate what we thought would be a close equivalent by doing some comparisons between a couple of different fixtures, directly beside the existing installation. There are a lot of options available with modern LED fixtures and our vendor-partner Hollywood Lights, and their designer helped define all of the parameters for the selection of fixtures. From a brightness perspective, the new fixtures could be set to be much brighter.  As part of our final tuning of the new installation, we dimmed everything probably 40% and the end result is that it is still brighter than it was. By dimming, we also extend the lifespan of the LED’s quite a bit.

The electrical infrastructure of the original installation was far in excess of what we needed for the new fixtures. We’re also saving significant energy. The retrofit was actually simpler than the original installation, electrically.

Are there any personal or visitor stories you can tell us about Skytones?

Following the retrofit, we received the most feedback from staff that work frequently in our Boeing Company Gallery who remarked on how the brightness and depth of color was improved.  In the darkest and dreariest days of the Seattle Winter nights, for myself personally, I think the colors of Skytones is uplifting and pulls me out of the malaise a bit. As I come to work down Union street, I find myself always wanting to get a look a Skytones.

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About Jeff Vaughan

Jeff Vaughan grew up on South Whidbey Island and his involvement as a volunteer to run the sound system for “The Wizard of Oz”, in high school, was the spark that turned into his career in the arts 40 years ago. Jeff spent 25 years as a sound engineer, technical director and production manager before assuming additional roles in facilities management. Jeff was given the privilege to serve as chief caretaker and Director of Facilities for the iconic Benaroya Hall in 2020.

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The Symphony Block temporary public art installations are in partnership with Seattle Department of Transportation, Seattle Symphony, Benaroya Hall, King County Metro, Sound Transit, Downtown Seattle Association, Unico Property Management, and the University of Washington.