Personally, I'd just cover the pilot lights with black tape. But if you don't want them to have power all the time, the obvious thing would seem to be a switched outlet.
On a little different note, something I learned many years ago in large scale finishing operations is to never, ever put a light that can be accidentally switched on into a film winding/loading area. If you're gonna give public workshops, it's probably just a matter of time before someone accidentally leans against that switch, or is feeling for the wall, etc. I've learned this sort of thing the hard way, and will.say that something in favor of learning this way is that the lesson tends to stick better.