After the Metropolitan Museum Of Art and the New-York Historical Society announced plans to begin reopening later this summer, in August, The Museum Of The City Of New York (MCNY) has announced that it will become one of the first NYC cultural institutions to fully reopen later this month. And looking at their reopening plans can give us a glimpse at what other museums around the city have in store as well.
MCNY will reopen its doors to visitors on July 23rd, assuming the state continues reaching certain benchmarks and positive coronavirus rates don't spike. To prepare, MCNY's COO Jerry Gallagher has participated in a weekly call every Wednesday with COO's from a variety of museums across the city. "In concert with our counterparts, we've come up with guidelines for everyone to follow," he told Gothamist. "The idea is that we'll all [provide] similar experiences for visitors—someone coming to MCNY would have a similar experience going to any other museum, so it can become routine and people will know what to expect."
The coalition of museums have created their own guidelines in conjunction with the state's reopening guidelines—in particular the best practices for "Low-Risk Indoor Arts & Entertainment"—as well as the CDC guidelines. Obviously not every museum and institution has the same space or needs, so there will be some differences between them (like what their hours will be, or how many days they'll be open), but the general guidelines should be more similar than not across the board.
For MCNY, this is what reopening will look like: they'll continue to be open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., but only for five days a week instead of seven. They'll be closed on Tuesday and Wednesdays, and anytime they're closed to the general public, they'll be doing deep cleans as well as other maintenance (there will also be daily deep cleans after visiting hours). They're limiting the capacity of people who can be inside at any one time to 25%, and they'll monitor that via timed tickets—they encourage people to purchase tickets ahead of time, but will also have a reserve available at the door. They're also considering making some of the hours on certain days exclusive for high-risk people.
Anyone over the age of two will be required to wear a mask while in the building; all employees need to wear masks, and there will also be plexiglass partitions for staff in certain parts of the museum. There will be social distance markers spread throughout the building as well as leading into the building. People will enter via the traditional 5th Avenue entrance, but everyone will exit through the 104th Street side exit, so people aren’t bypassing each other going through the same doorway.
Likewise, there are two staircases that access all floors, and one will be only for going up, and the other for going down, so people don't have to be concerned about passing in the stairwell. Elevators will only allow two people, or one household, at a time. They hope they'll be able to prop open most doors to the various galleries so people don't have to think about opening and closing doors: "We’re trying to make it as touchless an experience as possible, which we’re pretty fortunate we can do that pretty well," Gallagher said.
They are not yet sure whether their cafe operator, Amy's Bread, will be allowed to open, considering the fact that the city pulled back from restarting indoor dining last week, and has set no timetable for it returning. But all the galleries indoors will reopen, including New York at Its Core, Activist New York, Who We Are and more; the only exhibit that will be closed is the Future City Lab, because it is primarily an interactive gallery. All lectures and other types of live events will remain virtual for now.
An image slated for inclusion in the initial phase of New York Responds
The biggest new addition to the museum will be an outdoor exhibition that documents NYC during the pandemic, as well as the Black Lives Matter protests.
That exhibit, part of a multi-pronged project called New York Responds, will include documentation and collecting around the experiences of New Yorkers during the major upheavals of 2020. "It includes responsive online and on-site interpretative presentations reflecting on the pandemic, the protests, and envisioning New York's future; and remote programs for adult, families, and educator audiences," they explain. "The outdoor installation will include selections from the Museum’s open call for images documenting the pandemic and the protests and invite visitors to share their stories."
In late June, The Met said it is planning to reopen on August 29th with new social distancing guidelines in place, including shorter hours and fewer days per week; all tours, talks, concerts, and events will be canceled through the rest of 2020.
The New-York Historical Society is planning to reopen in stages starting August 14th. They will start with a special free outdoor exhibition called Hope Wanted: New York City Under Quarantine, which documents the experiences of New Yorkers during the height of the pandemic.
[Update, July 16th] Per Governor Andrew Cuomo's announcement today that Phase 4 won't include additional indoor activity like malls and cultural institutions, MCNY confirmed that they will not be reopening indoors next week as planned.
"The Museum of the City of New York trusts the experts and supports the Governor's decision," the museum said in a statement to Gothamist. "While we are disappointed to postpone our re-opening, our primary goal is for New Yorkers to be as safe as possible. To that end, we will continue to follow all of the guidelines and look forward to welcoming people back inside of the Museum when it is deemed safe to do so."
However, the outdoor portion of their new exhibit documenting NYC during the pandemic will still be open to the public next week: "We are still planning to move forward with the initial phase of New York Responds, our outdoor installation of photographs culled from #CovidStoriesNYC and #ActivistNY open calls. The first photographs will be on view as of July 23rd on our Fifth Avenue facade."
