After months of lockdown, museums in New York City are open and operating at a 25 percent capacity. Picture Credit Susan Thorson.
Outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a long socially-distanced line formed as a stream of eager New Yorkers waited to enter the museum. Security guards smiling through their masks, armed with temperature guns and gloves, welcomed back museum-lovers and provided an overall sterile environment. The crowds gathered to admire the Greek statues on this sunny Saturday afternoon, while others wrangled masked children running around the hallways.
Welcome to the new normal of museums in the age of COVID.
On August 24, Governor Andrew Cuomo gave the greenlight for cultural institutions, such as museums, to reopen at 25 percent capacity as part of phase four of the state’s safety plan. Social distancing guidelines, cleaning procedures and other restrictions have been instituted to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Now that the museums have opened their doors again, lovers of art and history can find a colorful sensory experience across the bridge. The Brooklyn Museum pays homage to the wildly glamorous disco era of the 1970s. Studio 54: Night Magic was set to open on March 16 of this year, but due to COVID-19, plans changed. The historic club may be long gone after its closing in March 1995, but the exhibit, now in full swing, gives everyone a chance to travel back in time.
With regulated times for people to enter the museum and the exhibit, there’s more room for museumgoers to explore. Some art lovers enjoy having more space. “There’s less people than normal,” said Cheyenne Vesper, a 39-year-old mother who works in fashion industry. “With the [David] Bowie exhibit [in 2018], it was swarming with people.”
The Studio 54 exhibit, which focuses on 1977 to 1979, offers an opportunity to escape the pandemic blues for a more extravagant snapshot of nostalgia—also known as “a-time-before-masks.”
Antoinette Schrock, who has lived in New York for 12 years, hasn’t been able to go to a museum in months. Once they reopened, she was drawn to the exhibit. “When I saw the Brooklyn Museum was having the Studio 54 [exhibit], I thought what a fun way to get out and experience what New York used to be like,” said Schrock, a 34-year-old art director.
The exhibit displays photographs of celebrities, news clippings and video reports inside the famous club, along with glamorous fashion statements. “[It] was particularly interesting because of all the graphic design,” Schrock continued. “Behind the logos and materials that went out—just a lot of like the beautiful graphic photography that came out of the era.”
