Eh don't use real lightbulbs..... they get hot enough and contain enough UV radiation that even with proper ventelation they'll fade your marquees over time. More importantly they are energy inefficient and are killing our poor planet. Lowes/Homedepot have 6 packs of florescent bulbs that fit into regular light sockets for under 10 bucks. Not only are they cooler, they don't have uv light so they won't fade the artwork, they'll save you around 60 bucks a year per bulb and you won't have to replace em for 5 years!
Flourescents have UV, that's how they work. The gas generates UV, the white coating inside converts the UV energy to a lower wavelength and the glass is supposed to block whatever UV doesn't get absorbed. In practice however, not all the UV energy is absorbed by the white coating or blocked by the glass, some of the UV energy escapes. Now, how this affects a person varies. Your average office desk jocky might appreciate the small amount of UV radiation they'll get, someone who has Xeroderma Pigmentosum will probably melt. Preserving something for years to come, well, if you must use flourescents the
UV shielding don't tend to be cheap 
But I think window tinting specifically for filtering UV would work equally well. Despite the desire
not to use flourescents where I work, government desires to cut energy costs apparently supercede preservation of artifacts. Go figure.
Those people who are using flourescents will likely have faded marquees in another twenty years, depending on how the marquee is made.
Standard household incandescent bulbs, on the other hand, produce very little UV, if any at all. (Other incandescent types do produce UV, such as Halogen and Mercury vapor) If UV is the only concern, use incandescent bulbs. But like you pointed out, heat with incandescents is an issue. And heat is a damn good destructor of all things precious. While museums recommend using incadescents over flourescents, even they make a note never to place the bulbs too close to an artifact or to enclose the bulbs in the same case without adequate ventilation.
I suppose there are some solutions. Use UV shielding between the light source and marquee such as window tinting designed specifically to filter UV. The shielding will need replacement every ten or more years. Use low wattage incandescent with proper ventilation, but too close to the marquee would still cause burns. I think LED's are relatively safe, I've read of techniques to produce white LED's by utilizing InGaN to produce some spectrum of UV, but I haven't come across any yet. The light sheets look fun, but I haven't investigated if they produce any UV or not.
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Topic: Illuminating Classic Marquees (Read 4758 times)
