Museum
run of the Kara Walker exhibit. Visitors also will notice that a lot of artworks previously hung in the galleries have been replaced with other artworks, as part of the museum’s “2020/20+ Women @ NBMAA” series of femalecentric exhibits, which celebrate the 100th anniversary of women getting the right to vote.
They’ll also see a lot fewer people in the galleries than before
COVID-19 came to town. The museum will operate at first at 10% capacity, working its way up to 25%. “We are taking caution to the extreme,” Kim said. “We’re using 12 feet social distancing. … We are having entries distributed through 15-minute intervals.”
On July 7, Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme is reopening to the public, with advance online reservations only, to show two exhibits focusing on the museum’s strength: American impressionism.
These reopenings follow Connecticut Science Center and Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Mystic Seaport, Bruce Museum in Greenwich, NXTHVN in New Haven and Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, which all reopened earlier.
Tom Loughman, executive director of Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, said Tuesday that the museum is shooting for a Labor Day weekend reopening.
But as of Monday, two of the state’s biggest art museums hadn’t set reopening dates yet: Yale University Art Gallery and Yale Center for British Art in New Haven. Neither Yale museum responded to requests for comment.
Loughman, in a phone interview, said the museum is shooting for a reopening date of Labor Day weekend.
In the meantime, PPE are being stockpiled and software is being installed to implement an online, timed reservation system.
He also said “we don’t comment on security upgrades but we did make some security upgrades.”
Loughman said the bistro will not reopen at the same time as the museum, nor will the library, the Goodwin reception room or the indoor movie theater. Outdoor movies are a possibility, he said, and tours of the Austin House still will be available. Hours for the museum may be reduced, he said.
For the first few months, he added, capacity will be capped at 30 percent and admission will be free to all. “We figured that given the challenges people are going to go through to get here, the least we can do is offer them the experience for free,” he said.
When the museum reopens, Loughman said, Second Saturdays for Families will resume indoors. The Wadsworth is hosting a virtual Second Saturdays for Families event on July 11, to show how to explore the sculptures around the museum, including Alexander Calder’s “Stegosaurus” and Carl Andre’s “Stone Field Sculpture.”
Rob Kret, CEO of Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford, said CHS is taking its time to feel comfortable, first with staff and then visitors. “Our research center, library and archive will be open by appointment only after Labor Day and the galleries, we are beginning to plan a soft opening in August,” he said.
Melissa Combs, director of philanthropy and visibility at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford, said the reopening date of Jan. 2, 2021 was chosen based on many factors, two being the most important.
“One is, the Stowe house itself, the space is confined. There are rooms on the tour where we can only get two people in the room, one visitor and a guide. That was simply not sustainable,” Combs said. “Also, it became clear fairly early that disinfecting was going to be a huge part of keeping people safe but disinfecting historic interiors can be very damaging.”
In an email, spokeswoman Megan Bent said “Real Art Ways has not set a date for re-opening to the public.”
The reopening dates of other art spaces – Slater Memorial Museum in Norwich, Art Museum at University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford, the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery in Middletown, Fairfield University Art Museum, William Benton Museum of Art – have to conform to the rules determined by the schools with which they are affiliated. Some have tentative opening dates. Some are unclear or must delay full reopening for months.
Nancy Stula at the Benton at UConn in Storrs said that museum will reopen on Sept. 1, around the time fall classes resume.
Benjamin Chaffee, associate director for visual arts at Wesleyan University Center for the Arts in Middletown, said university administration will decide when the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery can reopen but hasn’t done so yet. In-person classes are tentatively scheduled to begin on Aug. 31.
Ann Sievers, director and curator of the Art Museum at University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford, said the museum will reopen to faculty, students and staff, and in a limited capacity by reservation to the public, when school starts in the fall. The museum will fully reopen to the public in January, on a date not yet determined.
“We’ve had budget cuts. I can’t afford to staff the museum for regular opening hours,” Sievers said.
“We are cutting the number of days we will be open to the public in the spring.”
Vivian Zoe, director and curator of Slater Memorial Museum, at Norwich Free Academy, said the reopening is contingent on the school reopening, and that date is not yet finalized.
“The NFA doesn’t even have a plan yet for reopening. All schools are mandated to submit a plan to the governor’s office by July 24,” Zoe said. “Plus, we have a major change at the very top, with our previous head of school having left mid-June. Our new head of school came immediately from Florida. He had to quarantine first before coming to work.”
Carey Mack Weber, executive director of Fairfield University Art Museum, said the campus’ two art spaces will open in the fall to students, faculty and staff only.
“There will be no public allowed on campus in the fall. It’s a residential college so that was one of the governor’s recommendations, that campuses be as closed as possible,” Weber said. In January, the situation will be re-evaluated, she said.
As museums reopen, online content they created to stay connected to their followers will remain online, to give museum lovers a sneak peek into what they will see when they visit in person.
The Wadsworth has launched “Artists Respond to the Modern World,” an online virtual tour of Avery Court’s art classics by Dali, Picasso, Magritte, Chagall, Mondrian and others. The museum also has created an online guide to the sculptures that sit outside the museum.
Mark Twain House & Museum has launched a virtual tour of its house where the legendary writer lived from 1874 to 1891. The Slater also has a 360-degree virtual tour on its website.
During the lockdown, Fairfield University mounted a virtual-only exhibit on a subject that has become very timely: Howard Skrill’s drawings and paintings about public monuments to historic figures, focusing on their impact and their removal. Weber said autumn exhibits will be made virtual so the public can see them.
Weber said many more people can see online content than in-person content. “We had a Cuban [exhibit] talk by a professor from Harvard. The space he was going to give it held 90 people max. By this point at least 300 people have seen it” online, she said.
Fairfield also established a YouTube channel. The Slater has created a YouTube channel, too, to show items in its collection. “Studies have shown that the more online presence you have, the more visitation you’re likely to experience rather than less, so that is not something we will reduce,” Zoe said.
Kret said the historical society has introduced a lot of online content, including 3D, high-def exhibits on quilts and maps, and upcoming exhibits about World War II and women’s suffrage. He said the society’s historical talks have been very popular.
“We are reaching people from other parts of the country. People from Europe were sitting in on virtual experiences as well,” he said.
Sievers said in the fall, the University of Saint Joseph museum plans to create a stronger online presence to provide students with educational resources. Those online materials will be open to the public, too. “It will be a brave new world and we will go forward,” she said.