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The Brooklyn Museum says its new Monet and Venice exhibition, the largest Monet presentation in New York in more than 25 years, now features a 4.1.4 Dolby Atmos installation powered by Genelec monitors and an original symphonic score by composer-in-residence Niles Luther. The museum says that the installation is designed to create a multisensory environment for visitors as they navigate Monet’s Venetian works.
The system comprises four 8330 two-way monitors at ear level, four 8320 overhead monitors, and one 7350 subwoofer, all calibrated using Genelec’s GLM loudspeaker management system. Genelec says the configuration delivers Luther’s score with clarity and dimension.
Sound design for an encyclopedic museum
The exhibition was co-curated by Lisa Small, the museum’s senior curator of European art. “We wanted to create something that felt both emotional and innovative, something you can feel as much as see. The Genelec system and Niles’s score made that possible,” said Small
Luther said his goal was to translate Monet’s visual language into a musical experience inside the final gallery. “As the composer-in-residence, I wrote a symphonic multi-channel, 4.1.4, down-rendered Dolby Atmos installation in the final room where Monet’s Venice paintings reside,” he said.
When you use sufficiently advanced technology and it’s deployed in a very careful, meticulous and thoughtful way, you get to this point where it almost becomes an illusion.
Composer Niles Luther
He added that adapting high-end production tools for a traditional museum environment was a significant challenge. “This really advanced technology that we work with is not often present or available to encyclopedic museums,” he said. “When you use sufficiently advanced technology and it’s deployed in a very careful, meticulous and thoughtful way, you get to this point where it almost becomes an illusion. It becomes like magic, and it’s less about the technical details and more about how the work makes you feel. When you walk into that space, does it stop your heart? Does it make you catch your breath? We have achieved that in the final gallery room.”
Luther said the creative process unfolded over several months. “From the creative side, as a composer, part of the challenge was how do I take what’s contained in these paintings, and then translate them into the language of music,” he said. “Write the score, give the score to musicians, go into the studio, rehearse, record, mix, master, install — all within several months.”
He said the system’s calibration was essential to the final result. “We have Genelec for all the speakers, the 8330s at the ear level, four of them,” he said. “And then for the 0.1, we have the sub, the 7350, and then four overheads, the 8320s, to give us a 4.1.4 fully supported Dolby Atmos mix. All of this was possible because we were able to calibrate it within GLM, and I was able to take my master file and just come into the museum, and it just plays back beautifully on the calibrated system.”
Managing a reflective gallery environment
Genelec says its Smart Active Monitoring system helped overcome the acoustic challenges of the large and reverberant space. The company reports that GLM calibration and detailed grade reports enabled the team to refine frequency balance and reverberation control, achieving a natural and transparent listening environment.
Paul Stewart, Genelec Inc.’s senior technical sales manager, said the installation demonstrates how monitoring precision can support artistic intent. “This installation beautifully demonstrates how precision monitoring can elevate the emotional impact of art,” he said. “Genelec systems are designed to disappear sonically, and what remains is the artist’s intent. In this case, that means letting Niles’s composition and Monet’s vision merge seamlessly into a single, deeply moving experience. We’re proud to help the Brooklyn Museum realize such an ambitious and innovative concept.”
Small said the result has become a defining element of the exhibition. “It sounds incredible. I mean, the symphony is beautiful. The paintings are beautiful. The design in the gallery and the speakers just make the experience what it is,” she said. “We really could not be happier about it. And again, that sort of intervention in that gallery is one of the types of things that make a Brooklyn Museum exhibition a kind of unique experience. You won’t get too many other Monet exhibitions where a full-scale symphony is part of the experience.”
“Monet and Venice” runs until Feb. 1, 2026.
You can watch a video of Genelec’s “Monet and Venice” installation here.
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