LANSING, Mich. — Many cultural institutions remain closed because of COVID-19 that includes thousands of museums around the country, but as Maya Rodriguez tells us some are now taking steps to reopen their doors with noticeable changes.
From China, to Egypt and beyond the halls of history span the globe.but it’s been lonesome lately in those halls at some of the 35,000 museums across the country.
Melissa Smith is the CEO of the Penn Museum in Philadelphia: “We, of course, wanted to reopen as soon as we could and safe a manner as we could.” It’s one of the few major museums to recently reopen to visitors after coronavirus restrictions forced them to close their doors for months.
Melissa Smith explained “for the most part, it's business as usual with our exhibits but first – a task force of 35 museum employees needed to figure out what changes might be needed. “We had to look at a number of things.”including – making masks, a must.
Placing hand sanitizing stations throughout the museum installing clear partitions to protect staff who interact with visitors, marking off benches so people can sit, socially distanced and lining the stairs and floors with arrows carefully choreographing how visitors move through the exhibits.
Soheil Eshghi, museum visitor: “they asked us to follow the arrows and it kind of was a different museum experience, but also i think very helpful, just because I guess that there wasn't any confusion.”but there’s more, Maya Rodriguez, reporting: “some of the exhibits around the museum have touchscreens, so visitors can dig a little deeper and learn more. the museum is giving out a stylus to visitors, so they can touch the touchscreen - safely”visitors say they don’t mind the changes and are just happy for the chance to come back.
Camille Lawhead, another museum visitor shared that: “I think that’s one of the things that I've been missing the most since all this shutdown started happening, ”but one that visitors here are no longer missing. “I love the museum.”
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