Museum Highlights: 45 Exhibits That Left A Lasting Impression

2020 was a time of crisis, innovation, anxiety, and introspection for all businesses, and museums were no different. Large galleries in cities which rely on international tourism found travel bans nearly ruinous to their business models. Some smaller regional museums, however, discovered a surprising upside as their institutions emerged as symbols of good, collaborative creativity in their communities.

Nearly every museum in the US has upped its digital offerings with online exhibits, curator video chats, and virtual kids’ activities. Many are also re-thinking their reach and collections in a time of accelerated technological change and turmoil in the U.S., debating how racial and social injustice are reflected in their art.

From a practical, COVID-fighting standpoint, directors and staffers have learned everything they could about the mechanics of their workplaces, including ventilation and airborne virus transmission. Such knowledge tipped many institutions to open back up in the summer with safety precautions (masks, social distancing) and to close down again when coronavirus infections surged in November.

“With decision-making, we are trying to be as clear, fair, and transparent as we can. Everyone was looking at the infection rate and knew it was a matter of when, not if we closed again,” Hayley Haldeman, the Mattress Factory’s interim executive director, told National Geographic. “It’s a double-edged sword, both sides blunt and painful. There’s not much more we [could have done] in 2020.”

Dips and spikes in virus cases meant galleries in London, Paris, and Rome reopened at the start of summer and closed again in the fall during new coronavirus waves and lockdowns. In the U.S., the American Alliance of Museums found that a third of the 850 museums surveyed were still shuttered in October and more than 10 percent were worried about never reopening. In some smaller U.S. cities, the crisis has spurred museum directors to spearhead bold and creative efforts to survive.

Pittsburgh, a city of 300,000 people, which has 50 museums and cultural centers, has a legacy of its industrial wealth in the early 20th century. Steven Knapp, the new executive of the four Carnegie Museums, started February 1, 2020, just weeks before a government-mandated shutdown hit Pennsylvania.

During the early days of the pandemic, Knapp and leaders from other local institutions jumped on twice-a-month Zoom calls to discuss safety standards and reopening protocols.

“For a city of its size, Pittsburgh is one of the richest cultural cities in the nation. We wanted people to come back and to feel they had a good experience,” Knapp explained.

This meant that, when museums began letting tourists back in during the summer, with social-distancing stickers on the floors, guards enforcing mask-wearing, and, at most venues, timed-entry tickets.

"In July we were seeing a quarter of the normal flow. [At the end of December, we were] seeing 40 to 50 percent and are up to 80 percent of the participation of 2019,” said Knapp. “It’s just been a question of managing the flow and keeping those one-way traffic patterns.”

Museums have a wide range of business models. Some rely heavily on endowments, others on admission fees or special event rentals. And while many museums don’t expect their revenues to rebound to 2019 levels for at least another year, some supported by local taxes or large endowments have less dire financial futures.

According to a recent survey conducted by the International Council of Museums, about 95% of all museums around the world were closed due to the pandemic, and art institutions reacted differently to having their doors shut. Some had to put staff on leave and others laid off up to half of their employees. Many museums successfully focused on expanding their digital archives and social media activity, and continue their efforts to survive.

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