ALLENTOWN, PA - Art lovers rejoice! After being closed for five months to the day, the Allentown Art Museum is open once again.
"We’re ready for the public to come in this weekend! It’s just so exciting--it’s five months to the day where we reopened so it was a long wait but we are just so excited to have the doors back open, welcome the public in and we’re very committed to our community and what this means at this time for the community," explains the museum's interim president, Michelle Stringer, "We feel that opening our doors allows the public to come in and through art connect with each other."
The North Fifth Street collection reopened with CDC guidelines in place for members last week but is now reopening for the general public. To maintain social distancing and the 50% capacity limit, timed ticketing is being used for guests during their two-hour visit. Visitors are required to wear a face covering upon entry.
"The city of Allentown’s Health Department has been in to make sure that it’s a safe environment for all of the public to come in. We have social distancing guidelines and stickers to encourage everyone to remember their six feet apart spacing. We’ve done mapping through the museum so it’s a one way flow through the museum so people aren’t crossing traffic," Stringer tells PBS39 News Tonight reporter, K.C. Lopez, "We have sanitation areas for encouraging extra hand washing and sanitizing. But really museums by nature are a socially distant type of environment. We have high ceilings, big spaces, no touching so it really is by nature; I don’t think that the public will see much of a difference."
In the wake of mass closures, the museum was left to adjust to pandemic related restrictions. Opening its galleries virtually, creating online programming and holding outdoor activities, staff got creative with how to keep visitors engaged during the red, yellow and now green phases of COVID-19 reopening. Interim President Michelle Stringer says guests can expect these programs they’ve come to love to continue even as the building reopens physically.
"We did that when our doors were closed to really offer to our members," explains Steinger, "We really have such a wonderful reserve of conversations with internally known artists, so we’ve put those up on our website and shared with members and the public. We’ll continue to develop new programming. So people will have that experience virtually at home and can also have the opportunity to come to the museum and share in the artwork. There’s nothing like seeing art in person.
Walk-ins are welcome but guests are encouraged to reserve a spot online at AllentownArtMuseum.org.