IU Art Museum makes light totem permanent fixture

The metal piece surrounding the IU Art Museum’s Light Totem is gone, and a crane holds the structure aloft.

What was meant to be a temporary structure celebrating the 25th anniversary of the museum now has a permanent place on campus, and some changes need to be made.

“When we first put the tower up, we thought it would only last three months,” said Linda Baden, associate director for editorial services at the IU Art Museum and director of the project. “By popular demand, we left it up.”

Designed by Robert Shakespeare, a professor of lighting design in the Department of Theatre and Drama, the structure was first erected in October 2007, Baden said.

In February 2010 the IU Board of Trustees approved the totem for permanent placement, she said.

Currently, Baden said the project team is replacing the top of the structure, retrofitting it to make the totem permanent and making other adjustments.

“It was just the time,” she said. “We started the project to bring it up-to-date.”
Baden said Shakespeare will climb a lift to work on the structure himself to help with smaller repairs Tuesday.

— Bailey Loosemore