WAG takes reopening lead as museums grapple with pandemic guidelines

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This article was published 29/04/2020 (1605 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Despite getting the green light from the province, most Manitoba museums and art galleries won’t be reopening to the public next week.

“That is going to be dependent on how quickly we can get hand sanitizer and gloves for staff and cleaning solutions,” said Alanna Horejda, curator of the Transcona Museum. “Some of these items are very hard to come by at the moment.”

On Wednesday, Premier Brian Pallister unveiled an ambitious plan for reopening some establishments shuttered by public health orders, beginning May 4.

Museums and galleries made the cut, but many need more time to sort out logistics and meet the guidelines — which include limiting visitation to 50 per cent of normal capacity, creating COVID-19 protocol signage, making hand sanitizer stations available, and closing high-touch displays.

For the Transcona Museum, this will mean closing the centre children’s area, removing items without display cases, and figuring out how many people can safely occupy the 850-square-foot gallery. Admission is by donation, so staff aren’t able to determine visitor numbers ahead of time with pre-sold tickets.

“Once we hit capacity… they would just have to wait to come in,” Horejda said. “We’re trying to figure all that out.”

The Association of Manitoba Museums has roughly 200 members across the province; its executive director, Monique Brandt, wasn’t aware of any museums that were on track to open Monday.

“Our museums are really pleased in some ways, because we want to be open,” Brandt said Thursday. “But they’re a little bit scared, because it’s a big responsibility to make sure everything is following the proper safety protocols.”

The association has been communicating with members about how to implement the province’s guidelines, how to approach staffing and volunteer hours, and how to sanitize properly — a complicated task for centres with delicate artifacts.

“How do you clean things like historic handrails in a historic house?” Brandt said. “You can’t just take your standard wipe and use it on these things because it might be potentially damaging.”

The Canadian Conservation Institute has published a detailed list of cleaning and care tips for museum curators.

Andrea Reichert, curator of the Manitoba Craft Museum and Library — which shares space with the Manitoba Craft Council at the C2 Centre for Craft on Cumberland Avenue — said Wednesday’s announcement came as a surprise.

“No one in the facility was prepared for it,” she said. “I didn’t think that museums and galleries would be that high on the list to reopen.”

Spring and summer are the busiest times of the year for most museums and galleries. Reichert said the goal is to reopen the craft museum by late May, pending a shipment of hand sanitizer, but she isn’t sure they’ll be able to offer the usual slate of family programming and workshops this year.

“I guess it depends how the regulations are doing in July and August,” she said. “Honestly, everything is really up in the air.”

In Winnipeg, the Manitoba Museum, Manitoba Children’s Museum and Canadian Museum for Human Rights confirmed with the Free Press they will not be reopening to the public next week.

While the CMHR has ample room to meet physical-distancing recommendations, staff are working out the best way to manage occupancy and deliver a worthwhile experience to guests, a spokesman said.

Outside of Winnipeg, the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre will not be reopening any time soon. The facility, which is home to Bruce, the Guinness World Record mosasaur, is owned by the City of Morden, and the local government hasn’t authorized its reopening yet.

“I am taking advantage of this situation and doing some improvements in the exhibitions,” Adolfo Cuetara, CFDC executive director, said via email, adding none of Manitoba’s seven “Signature Museums,” which includes the Mennonite Heritage Village and New Iceland Heritage Museum, have indicated they will be open next week.

The Winnipeg Art Gallery appears to be the lone facility ready to welcome visitors, beginning May 5.

“We anticipated (reopening) would happen sometime in the early summer, but all along we had a plan for the re-emergence of the art gallery,” said Stephen Borys, WAG director and chief executive officer.

Visitors can expect to see extra signage and hand sanitizer stations throughout the gallery’s 125,000 sq. ft. Capacity will be monitored during opening hours and the gallery plans to show work from its permanent collection over the next few months to fill gaps left by exhibits that have been postponed.

Into the Light, a show of 200 works by Manitoba Group of Seven member, Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald, will open next week.

The WAG is dedicating its first two days of operations to front-line workers, meaning health-care staff, food service employees and postal workers will be able to visit the gallery for free May 5-6, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The gallery will reopen to the general public May 7.

eva.wasney@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @evawasney