Each year, southeast Michigan’s premiere news outlet publishes a list of the 20 outstanding young leaders who are stepping up and making a difference in metro Detroit—and still have not reached their 30th birthday. Honorees were selected from nominees by Crain’s editorial staff. They were selected based on professional accomplishments and nonprofit and civic involvement with the aim of recognizing a diverse range of people and industries.
This year I was honored to be recognized as part of this prestigious list and I’m proud to share my work with the Detroit community each and every time they visit the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Marc Langlois, 29
Lighting Designer, Detroit Institute of Arts
Photo: Jacob Lewkow
Marc Langlois got into lighting design at the Detroit Institute of Arts by happenstance, when he was an intern in the prints, drawings and photographs department.
The museum’s lighting technician was out on medical leave. Langlois, who holds associate degrees in graphic and web design, agreed to step in.
"The first day we started, I fell in love with lighting," Langlois said. "Once I saw what I could do to a piece of art with lighting, I was blown away."
Over the past five years, he’s made a name for himself as one of only a handful of museum lighting designers around the country.
He was mentored by local lighting designer Robert White, who designed the award-winning lighting at the Qatar National Convention Centre and the McNamara Terminal at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
Today, he is responsible for lighting every piece of art at the museum and the environment around them in a way that helps tell the story the artists had in mind when they created the pieces. From a conservation standpoint, he’s also charged with minimizing the damage light exposure can do to historic pieces on display.
His work ranges from changing light bulbs when needed to designing lighting for individual pieces of art to working with exhibition designers on major exhibitions in the two-year run-up to their public opening.
As part of that, he considers nuances like how to reduce glare, how a stained glass window might have appeared when it hung in a building and how lighting can help transport visitors to the flight deck of Darth Vader’s ship, with a view of the stars in the ship’s window behind him.
Langlois has been the lighting designer on the two most successful exhibitions the DIA has hosted in the past 20 years: Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit and Star Wars and the Power of Costume.
He’s also leading museum-wide conversion of its 6,000 or so light fixtures to LED — a move that is showing early savings of 30 percent or more in energy costs — while still keeping aesthetics and conservation in mind.
With the idea of paying it forward, Langlois is now interviewing intern candidates interested in lighting design or in exploring it.
