People Need Art in Times of Crisis. That’s Why Museums Should Be Among the First Institutions to Reopen for Business—Here’s How

September 11, 2001, was a Tuesday. By that weekend, many of New
York City’s museums had reopened, free to the public. I remember
seeing the faces of the visitors and how communing inside the
museum gave them a sense of comfort and security, of life
eventually recapturing its familiar rhythm.

Now, as a calamity of a different sort is ravaging our world, it
is no less urgent that museums reopen as soon (and as safely) as
possible. Switching to providing content online is kicking the can
down the road. For all its educational and entertainment value,
digital engagement, as many of us are finding, is a poor substitute
for the uniquely analog and interpersonal experience of visiting a
museum.

Although running a museum with diminished attendance and added
safety precautions is costly, and the decisions involved are hard,
a core mission imperative is to serve the public. Advocates have
long claimed that museums are essential to a functioning society.
If that claim has any merit, then museums need to demonstrate it in
real time—by being at the front of the line in rebooting
activity.

Most of our museums have ample space to welcome visitors while
allowing them to maintain physical distance. Open museums would
mean not only the resumption of employment and earned revenues, but
also, and more importantly, a host of intangible benefits, and I
don’t just mean significant, transporting, meditative encounters
with art. Museums provide a haven in a time of trauma and
disruption. As Kerry J. Sulkowicz, the president-elect of the
American Psychoanalytic Association, notes, “we’re in the midst of
two outbreaks: a pandemic of the virus, and a pandemic of
anxiety.”

Museums could offer people who have experienced weeks of
isolation a safe place to go, or a reprieve from cramped quarters.
Their opening would signal the beginnings of a return to normalcy.
What’s more, once the public is back, museums can serve as hubs of
education, information-sharing, and collective reflection as we
work together to surmount this crisis.

Getting Back

Opening up is doable. Which is not to say it will be
comfortable. Nonetheless, a few practical measures could allow
institutions to start to receive visitors, as soon as local
governments lift restrictions. These could be rolled out, then
relaxed gradually, as appropriate. I have discussed these steps
with arts leaders. None has felt they were unreasonable, although
there are logistical and regulatory hurdles to clear. Versions of
them are already being assessed in many institutions. Museums in
Asia and Europe will soon offer working models, and perhaps some
cautionary tales. It
will be crucial to share experiences and compare notes as we feel
our way forward.

1. Devise a timed-entry system in which
   visitors arrive on the quarter-hour, for example, in limited
   numbers. As a condition of buying a ticket, ask about
   active symptoms. Consider adopting the practice of
   temperature-taking at the door. Establish a waiting area for people
   to stand in line at appropriate distances. If a burger joint can
   hand out an electronic device to alert customers when their food is
   ready, so can museums.
2. Take special precautions to protect the most
   vulnerable. Dedicated entrances or opening hours may be
   helpful. When testing is in place, admit anyone who is confirmed to
   have antibodies. It is highly unlikely that older and
   immunocompromised people would be tempted to visit museums in large
   numbers at this moment. Meanwhile, museums can step in for the
   absence of school. As the father of a teenager, I know first-hand
   what an epic vacuum this situation has left for kids.
3. Lean more on younger staff, especially for
   public-facing roles. There are many in most museums, and
   some will soon be tested for antibodies. Here as elsewhere, the
   younger end of the workforce, equipped with the necessary
   protective gear of course, can help society keep going while it’s
   still risky for more vulnerable colleagues to show up. Emergency
   regulations should enable institutions to make such distinctions
   without exposing them to charges of ageism.
4. Make face masks obligatory, and available.
5. Enforce indoor distancing etiquette.
   Attendants in galleries and common areas can gently remind visitors
   to keep a distance from one another, just as they remind children
   not to touch the art. I have been impressed by how carefully people
   are observing distancing rules in bakeries and grocery stores. Is
   there any doubt they can do the same in a museum?
6. In addition to having hand sanitizer all over the
   place, if public-health experts suggest it, install some kind of
   full-body disinfecting station at entry points. Not to be
   glib, but one could imagine such a facility resembling one of our
   popular immersive art experiences. Surely we can come up with
   something acceptable, humane, and even cool. Let’s challenge our
   best artists to make it happen. It’s OK to have a sense of
   humor.

Inevitably, there will be diverging views on how such policies
could be implemented, and exactly when. The situation will be
different for highly frequented museums in urban areas than for
institutions in suburban or rural locations where parking is
abundant and visitation, moderate. Let’s be honest: Many museums
are not exactly inundated on most days, even in the best of
times.

Once We’re Back

A larger set of questions looms about what happens when museums
do reopen. Crises like the current one do not so much create new
conditions as they accelerate innovations already underway. We have
seen this in the rapid expansion of digital content and in the
remarkable migration to telecommuting. Will all these changes
stick? Unlikely. Will some remain permanent fixtures in our future?
Most definitely.

For museums, the recovery from the pandemic is likely to force
three major reckonings. First, a business model relying on
temporary blockbuster exhibitions involving international loans
(and sizable carbon footprints) is likely to recede. Every museum
director I know is doing triage on their exhibition calendars and
striking off the big-ticket items. With the cost of freight,
courier transport, and insurance predicted to rise, big traveling
shows will become a luxury, at least for a while. What comes in
their stead? Clever storytelling around the permanent collection
and attainably priced exhibitions on timely topics that attract a
wide audience.

Second, expect painful adjustments to how museums are run—the
first wave of which has already begun.
Several sacred cows are headed to the slaughterhouse. One is the
commitment to full-time staff. Like after the 2008 financial
crisis, cash-strapped museums may be forced to shift more heavily
to part-time and outsourced work. Some contemporary-art Kunsthalles
already rely principally on independent curators hired on a
freelance basis. In larger museums with permanent collections, the
financial challenges will provide a new impetus for merging the
“silos” of specialized departments. A deep and persistent crisis
may even reverse the field’s endemic aversion to closures and
mergers.

Third, and on a more positive note, the crisis will put wind in
the sails of a new museology in which service to the community is
as important as the stewardship of objects. The exciting edges of
innovation in museums these days already involve public engagement,
education, and creative storytelling. Government bailouts and
emergency funds from foundations will be contingent on service to
the community. The silver lining of this crisis may be a more rapid
descent from the “temple on the hill” model of the art museum,
which dispenses knowledge and prestige to the well-heeled and
well-behaved, to a more egalitarian, more open-ended, and more
participatory institution that can engage society in its full
contemporaneity and diversity.

Anyone who has read this far is likely to care enough about
museums to know that, in the end, what they offer to people is a
sense of discovery and transcendence, continuity and belonging.
Rarely have we needed these things more than now. As museums eye
the future beyond the pandemic, they can seize an opportunity to
stay true to their essential values. We will all be the better for
it.

András Szántó, Ph.D., a sociologist and founder of Andras Szanto LLC, is a strategic advisor
to museums, educational institutions, and corporations active in
the arts. This article builds on earlier posts on Instagram and LinkedIn.

The post People Need Art in Times of Crisis. That’s Why
Museums Should Be Among the First Institutions to Reopen for
Business—Here’s How appeared first on artnet News.