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Neuberger Museum of Art

backstory: closing, closing, closed

As we see many of the large, freestanding museums around the world close due to COVID-19, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Louvre in Paris, what is less well known is how many of the academic museums around the world remain open if the campuses to which they are attached are also still open and housing students.
Museum Closed sign For example, as of Friday, Purchase College developed a new timetable for the semester, moving its Spring Break up by a week and then moving to 100% remote instruction as of March 28. It was originally envisioned that the Neuberger would follow this pattern, closing to visitors on that same date, March 28. By the end of the day on Friday, however, it became apparent that, for a variety of reasons, we were no longer going to be able to meet our obligations to the visiting public. Thus, we closed prior to our expected closure date.

This afternoon, I and three of my colleagues in the field led a remote panel discussion for close to 600 members of the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries community to answer questions around being open, winding down for closure, and being closed. These academic museums folks all around the country in spaces big and small are amazing, and most are trying to figure out how to still deliver collections and exhibitions content remotely to their communities on- and off-campus during their closures. 

More soon on what we will be doing here at the Neuberger.

Tracy Fitzpatrick
Director
Neuberger Museum of Art