EXHIBITING PATIENCE

Museums, parks weary of pandemic find creative ways to survive

The Berks County Parks and Recreation Department has engaged Bigfoot to lure people into the outdoors in response to the ongoing COVID pandemic.

Adventurous folk can track down an 8-foot-tall wooden replica of the legendary creature at various locations in the park system. Clues can be found on the department’s Facebook page.

Cathy Wegener, department director, sees it as a way for people cooped up for the past year to get out of the house, have a bit of fun and enjoy nature.

It’s good mental health anytime, she says, but especially given the unprecedented physical and mental stress inflicted by the virus.

Invoking the legend of a hairy humanoid, though perhaps a little over the top, underscores the reality facing Berks parks, museums and historical societies affected by the virus. Slow to return to in-person events, they are turning to various kinds of outdoor programming.

With COVID-19 cases on the rise in many areas across the country, including Berks and Pennsylvania, many public institutions are exercising caution in returning to pre-virus programming.

Wegener is hoping to reopen the Berks County Heritage Center perhaps by summer, resuming in

person tours of the Gruber Wagon Works and the C. Howard Hiester Canal Center.

But a lot depends on the course of the virus in the coming months.

“I foresee a slow-paced return to normalcy,” she said.

Benjamin Neely, Berks History Center executive director, also expressed caution in returning to inperson programming at the center and the Henry Janssen Library in Reading.

“We’ll have to see how the next month or two goes,” he said, “then take stock.”

‘Everyone’s hurting’

Kendra Cook, president of the Berks Heritage Council, says the virus has impacted all of its 40 member museums, historical societies and historic sites in one way or another.

“Everyone’s hurting in some way,” said Cook, executive director of the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles. “Even the ones that remained open.”

Having had to close, reduce hours or cancel income-producing programs, budgets have taken a hit.

It’s happening around the country.

A survey by the American Alliance of Museums found that one-third of respondents were not confident they could survive the next 16 months without financial relief. And 16% reported a significant risk of permanent closure.

John Graydon Smith, Reading Public Museum director, said it’s likely the organizations hit hardest will be the smaller ones.

The museum closed during mandated periods last year, but now is open to the public.

Installing a large tent on its 25-acre campus has been the museum’s saving grace, Smith said. It has allowed the museum to continue holding weddings, birthday parties and business meetings that contribute significantly to revenue.

The museum already held its Golfing in the Gallery

event in February, and the Dogs & Brews event is scheduled for May 30. Reservations for weekly summer camps, held June 14 to Aug. 16, are being taken, with some weeks sold out.

But last year there were no school field trips, one of the biggest revenue producers, Smith says. And he doesn’t expect they will resume until 2022.

Smith is confident the museum has found a model that will enable it to survive the current crisis. Should a resurgence of the virus force it to close again, he’s less certain.

“That would be a punch in the gut that I’m not sure we can survive,” he said.

Outreach effort

Personalities ranging from Benjamin Franklin to Albert Einstein have insisted that amid adversity lies opportunity.

In her own way, Cook has suggested the same thing.

“I’m amazed at the creativity our organizations have shown in facing this crisis,” she said. “Every site has been creative in finding ways to keep people involved.”

Boyertown has developed a series on YouTube that, as Cook put it, takes a deep dive into topics like the Ford Model T assembly line, the Middleby car built in Reading and how cars changed dating.

The museum is in week 25

of answering vehicle-related questions on Facebook Live.

“It’s a way to reach people at home until they can come out again,” Cook said.

The Berks History Center has moved its popular Second Saturday series on history to Zoom. It has also inaugurated a Third Thursday program online that has featured entertainment by musician Dave Kline and others, and has done programs on women’s history on BCTV.

As warmer weather allows, Neely said the center is moving toward outdoor events.

Road Ramble Spring, a self-guided road tour of

historic sites in Berks, is scheduled for May 15. Another ramble will be held in fall. The center is also planning more hikes similar to a recent one on Neversink Mountain.

Downtime inflicted by the virus, Neely said, has allowed the center to hire Muhlenberg Greene Architects to conduct a study of its exhibit space. It’s also allowed Neely time to develop a master plan aimed at expanding the scope of the center’s collection.

“Being closed has allowed us to reflect inward and figure out how we can position ourselves for the future,” he said.

PHOTOS BY BEN HASTY — MEDIANEWS GROUP A COVID-complying masked plastic horse is part of a display at the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles earlier this year. The museum in the former home of the Boyertown Auto Body Works has reopened to guests. Many similar places have not, but they want to.

In June, from left, Ben Hasselbach, 15, Randy Newnham, and John Newnham at the Reading Public Museum. The museum opened to small groups in the yellow phase in early summer, and later to the public. But its tent on the grounds has been central site for activities.

Roped-off walkways in the atrium help encourage social distancing at the Reading Public Museum.

BEN HASTY — MEDIANEWS GROUP Vehicles are on display at the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles in January. The museum is housed in the former home of the Boyertown Auto Body Works and focuses on historic vehicles from the Pennsylvania and Greater Delaware Valley.

COURTESY OF AMBER HERB Amber Herb and her sons Wyatt, 11, and Walden, 7, were among the folks able to capture the Berks County Parks and Recreation Department’s Bigfoot along a Berks trail this spring.

BEN HASTY — MEDIANEWS GROUP The Reading Public Museum is one of four institutions in Berks County to receive a state grant to offset lost revenue while closed during the pandemic.

SHEA SINGLEY — MEDIANEWS GROUP Killian McLaughlin, 5, and his dad Mike watch his putt make its way to the hole during Reading Public Museum’s Putt-Putt in the Galleries event.