Reposted from ArtSentry

Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, cultural properties are dealing with an unprecedented number of security, safety and financial issues.  Government-mandated closures have created severe security challenges for all nationwide institutions.  In response, many are attempting to develop strategies to safely reopen and enhance ongoing operational safety.  Art Sentry is pleased to announce it has developed technological solutions to assist with these challenges.

Art Sentry has developed the Elevated Temperature Monitoring system (ETM) to assist in safely reopening, and as a tool for ongoing operational safety.  The Art Sentry elevated temperature monitoring (ETM) system will utilize FDA-approved thermal imaging technology, combined with the Art Sentry system, to scan and record thermal statistics of individuals entering your facility.   Each employee, vendor, and patron entering the facility will pass through an area where the ETM system will collect facial temperature data and compare it to a predefined threshold.  When an out of conformance temperature is detected, personnel will be immediately notified, and the actual temperature of the party can be taken with a medical grade thermometer.  All monitoring is automatically recorded to provide an audit trail of each and every activity.  Employees/patrons/vendors with an elevated temperature over a pre-defined threshold can then be prohibited from entering the facility in accordance with the institution’s policy.

The ETM system consists of two monitors, an FDA-approved thermal imaging camera kit, and an Art Sentry monitoring system with temperature detection software.  A second camera captures and records the temperature scanning process and an image of the individual being screened.  The system interfaces with the Art Sentry system to record the screening result, oversee the process, and provide an audit trail.

A people counting option is also available to ensure COVID-19 government-mandated capacity thresholds are not exceeded.  This will provide the space required to maintain social-distancing guidelines.  To accomplish this, optional camera(s) can be mounted above the scanning areas and exits, enabling the system to provide people counting functionality and thus monitoring the number of people in the facility.

As America reopens, many cultural properties are planning to promote the ETM as a safety measure and they believe it will ease the concerns employees and visitors may have with entering the facility.  The improvements in visitor safety may lead to additional visitors, positively impacting the financial outlook of cultural properties moving forward as well as have a positive impact on public relations.

The Art Sentry system can also help maintain or enhance the security of your entire facility.  Currently, stay-at-home orders, social-distancing mandates, and financial constraints have greatly impacted the ability to deploy the optimal number of security personnel within the cultural property facility. The Art Sentry product utilizes surveillance cameras and advanced software to work together with your human guard force.  The software watches the entire collection simultaneously and immediately notifies the security officers when a breach of any collection piece occurs.  The officers can then utilize their training and instantly react to the threat.  Visit our website for more information, including case-studies and articles that describe actual results and experiences of our customers.

The future remains uncertain and it has been reported that the COVID-19 virus will likely reoccur in the Fall of 2020.  It is possible that another mandatory shutdown of cultural properties will occur, and it is likely that a virus threat will be with us for years to come.  Now is the time to plan for these scenarios.  The Art Sentry Artwork Protection and ETM systems are designed to help cultural properties meet these challenges now and in the future.

Art Sentry, America’s leading artwork protection system, has been providing products to assist with the protection of cultural properties for over 15 years.   Visit our website at artsentry.com for more information. 

Reposted from Artnet News

As Italy and Belgium ease their lockdown restrictions, many of the nations’ museums will reopen in May.

Italy, the hardest-hit country in Europe, enacted a complete nationwide shutdown on March 10. Now, it is reintroducing normal activities in stages, starting with low-traffic business such as bookstores and dry cleaners, which were allowed to reopen on April 14.

The next phase is set to start on May 4, with museums slated to welcome visitors again on May 18. They must follow safety guidelines drawn up by the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, which requires that all tickets be purchased online and visitors must practice social distancing in the galleries.

In Belgium, a national commission formed to develop a reopening plan earlier this month announced that there would be three phases for reducing restrictions on businesses and public gatherings there. Museums are included in phase two, which is scheduled to begin May 18, so long that social-distancing measures are followed, reports the Brussels Times.

As countries around the world look to the end of lockdown, world leaders must strike a careful balance, making sure to maintain some safety measures while easing into normal activity. If mass gatherings resume too quickly, countries run the risk of triggering a new wave of infections and once again overwhelming hospitals and medical resources.

“If we do not respect the precautions the curve will go up, the deaths will increase, and we will have irreversible damage to our economy,” warned Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte in a press conference on Sunday. “If you love Italy, keep your distance.”

Ahead of Italy and Belgium, Berlin is reopening its museums on May 4, with precautions including plexiglass dividers at ticket booths, self-scanning tickets, reduced visitor capacity, and more frequent cleanings. Should early attempts to reopen museums be successful, other countries around the world will likely follow suit as soon as it is deemed safe to do so.

“Museums are like parks; spaces in which the individual experience can intertwine with the public space of being together. In the coming months, as a society, we face the challenge to find a new, positive balance between personal freedom and care for our relationship with others,” Bart De Baere, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, told the Art Newspaper, adding that the institution was “ready to serve as a test room for that post-lock down experience.”

The Antwerp museum will open on May 19, as will the Old Masters Museum, one of six institutions that make up the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels. Belgian guidelines mandate that face masks must be worn in public for all people over the age of 12; the government is providing one free mask per citizen.

Museums also face a delicate juggling act when it comes to temporary exhibitions, often dependent on short-term loans of valuable artwork. The Galleria Borghese in Rome has delayed its planned April 29 opening of “Caravaggio: The Lute Player,” pairing six of its Caravaggio works with loans of two of his The Lute Player compositions, including one from the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, where the show is set to travel. The two museums are working to adjust the dates of the tour, according to a representative of the Borghese.

It remains to be seen whether Rome’s Scuderie del Quirinale will extend its highly anticipated blockbuster “Raphael: 1520–1483,” for which it pre-sold 60,000 tickets. The show was only open for three days before the country went into lockdown and it is scheduled to close June 2. The museum did not respond to inquiries regarding the possibility of extending the exhibition’s run to meet visitor demand.

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Reposted from Time

All it took was a few sturdy swings with a sledgehammer and a prized painting by Vincent van Gogh was gone.

A Dutch crime-busting television show has aired security camera footage showing how an art thief smashed his way through reinforced glass doors at a museum in the early hours of March 30. He later hurried out through the museum gift shop with a Vincent van Gogh painting tucked under his right arm and the sledgehammer in his left hand.

Police hope that publicizing the images will help them track down the thief who stole Van Gogh’s “The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring 1884” from the Singer Laren Museum while it was shut down due to coronavirus containment measures.

Nobody has been arrested in the theft and the painting, which was on loan from another Dutch museum, the Groninger Museum, when it was stolen, is still missing.

Police withheld other footage from inside the museum in Laren, a town east of Amsterdam, to protect their investigation. They also did not air video from outside the museum of the thief leaving.

Singer Laren managing director Evert van Os stressed in a statement that the footage didn’t show all of the burglary and defended security, which he said had been approved by the museum’s insurance company.

“The burglar broke through a number of doors and several layers of security that had been approved by security experts,” Van Os said. “The footage released does not therefore allow any conclusions to be drawn as to the quality of security at Singer Laren.”

Police said Wednesday that 56 new tips streamed in from the public as a result of the show. They also said that it’s not clear if the thief acted alone. Police are also seeking information about a white van shown on footage driving past the museum.

The 25-by-57-centimeter (10-by-22-inch) oil-on-paper painting shows a person standing in a garden surrounded by trees with a church tower in the background.

“It looks like they very deliberately targeted this one Van Gogh painting,” police spokeswoman, Maren Wonder, told the Opsporing Verzocht show in the Tuesday night broadcast.

The artwork dates to a time when the artist had moved back to his family in a rural area of the Netherlands and painted the life he saw there, including his famous work “The Potato Eaters,” in mostly somber tones.

Wonder said investigators want to hear from any potential witnesses who saw the thief arrive outside the museum on a motorcycle. She also wants museum visitors to share with police any photos or video they took in the museum in the days before it closed down, to see if anyone was casing the museum before the theft.

“People can help if they now realize that another visitor was behaving suspiciously,” she said. “It would be very helpful if visitors to the museum have photos or video recordings with other people in them.”

Van Os said the museum would draw lessons from the theft, but added: “At the moment, however, the only thing that matters is that the footage should yield useful tips and that the painting should be returned undamaged to the Groninger Museum as soon as possible.”

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Reposted from Interpol

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 health crisis, 95% of the world’s museums have been forced to temporarily close their doors to protect their visitors. Self-isolation measures represent a huge challenge for museum professionals who must continue to ensure the security of their collections.

The reality for each museum is different, and solutions will be specific to each institution in terms of: rotating teams, security services, confinement on site, etc. ICOM deplores recent thefts from museums in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Despite confinement measures, it is crucial to continue the improvement and upgrade of museum security.

For decades, ICOM and its International Committee for Museum Security (ICMS) have supported the museum community in securing their collections by offering advice and tools that are simple to implement in relation to security staff, intruder detection systems, CCTV, internal communication and reporting.

INTERPOL, through its Works of Art unit, continues to support the protection of cultural heritage across its 194 member countries.

In addition to existing support, ICOM and INTERPOL are now recommending the implementation or reinforcement of the following measures:

Check security and alarm systems

If it is not already done, museums must analyse the security situation and activate protection plans. In particular:

• Maintaining 24/7 security services (number of trained staff available who can move easily, replacement list);
• All the intruder detection systems, in particular CCTV and alarms, must be fully operational (inside and outside, 24/7) and regularly checked by security staff;
• Set up a procedure to ensure regular contact and a clear chain of information between the security agents and the person(s) in charge of the institution (who to call, in which order, up-to-date contact numbers, etc.) as well as with external service providers (if using outsourced storage).

Adapt procedures

The majority of museums already have security protection plans. Nevertheless, a recent ICOM survey related to the COVID-19 crisis shows that around 10% of museums consider that additional security measures are insufficient. ICOM strongly recommends ensuring that procedures are adapted to confinement and availability of staff. For instance:

• Museum management and security staff must establish a strict and clear list of staff authorized to access the building;
• Security guards must check the perimeter of the building/site (in particular when there is no CCTV available outside);
• The approach of vehicles in the surrounding area of the building should be prevented or restricted, if possible (with the help of the police);
• All artwork displacement must be avoided;
• The frequency of the security reporting to museum management should be once a week.

Communicate with police services on a regular basis

Police services are among the front-line professions in this crisis as respecting the quarantine measures is considered an absolute necessity to fight the pandemic. ICOM and INTERPOL encourage each museum manager to maintain close communication with their contact within the police force and to exchange information regularly with their reference/supervisory ministry, if relevant.

Regular communication and rapid exchange of information between nominated contact persons are the keystones of a system already adopted by ICOM, INTERPOL and their international partners such as the World Customs Organization (WCO), UNESCO and UNIDROIT. It is for this reason that ICOM urges museums that are victims of theft to immediately contact the appropriate police service so that the latter can make contact with their INTERPOL National Central Bureau (NCB) and INTERPOL’s Works of Art Unit, which is responsible for registering stolen works of art in its international database.

“Our history and culture are preserved in museums. Now, more than ever, we need to step up and reinforce security measures to protect our heritage from attacks and criminals greed. INTERPOL is strongly committed to fighting the illicit trafficking of cultural property, which has been closely linked to organized crime and terrorism financing.” Stephen Kavanagh, Executive Director Police Services, INTERPOL

Collaborate with other cultural institutions that face the same difficulties

Museums are impacted by this crisis, but so are monuments, sites, libraries and religious buildings. Security issues are currently of great concern to all of these institutions. As a result, the solutions described above should be shared. In particular, communication with the police, which may, in consultation with the heads of these institutions, provide for enhanced surveillance around areas particularly rich in cultural heritage.

Involve neighbours and the local community

Museums are vital social platforms within their communities. When a museum is located in a residential area, the residents, themselves confined to their homes, could be made aware of the need to inform the police in the event of suspicious traffic or noise in or around the museum. Ensuring they know who to call and acting quickly in case of suspicious activity are two significant preventive measures.

Start thinking about tomorrow

“My advice is to start thinking about the way you will be reopening when the right time is there. You should start thinking about the way this will be implemented in your museum. Swift return to the normal situation is the best security measure one can have!” Anette Hansen, ICMS Chair

ICOM and INTERPOL are regularly informed of specific - even unprecedented - security initiatives which cannot, for obvious reasons, be made public. However, in this time of crisis, we must thank all those individuals who work inside and outside museums to ensure that the collections are kept safe so that the public can continue to have access to them in optimal conditions once lockdown is lifted. Thank you for your dedication.

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Reposted from HeadTopics

As lockdown silences Britain’s art galleries, the staff who look after them explain how life is more serene – and eerier

It’s actually the street lights outside flickering on and off, casting strange, inconsistent shadows across the sculpture galleries. But even if you know that, says Alex Butler, assistant manager for the gallery’s “visitor services” team, these are eerie places in which to be alone.

In London, meanwhile, at the Royal Academy of Arts, ghosts dressed in habits have been spotted hurrying along the Nun’s Walk, between Burlington House and Burlington Gardens, and on the Keeper’s House staircase. Stopping for a quick chat with her favourite sculpture every day, security officer Nicky Elworthy has recently had the disquieting feeling that it’s about to answer back.

And down the road at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Vernon Rapley, the director of cultural-heritage protection and security, listens for the traffic noise on the Cromwell Road. It usually carries on throughout the night. But that hum, and the regular hustle-and-bustle on Exhibition Road, have vanished, leaving a peculiar silence in their wake.

No, this isn’t how you announce a fourth instalment for the Night at the Museum films – this is reality for the British art galleries closed to the public under the coronavirus lockdown, and for the staff who are still at work in them.Few major galleries, in fact, are truly empty. Security staff, managers and curators are all on site, carrying out essential tasks to preserve and protect the exhibits. But the visitors who usually provide the footfall and the noise are gone, and without them, says Rapley, these museums “appear to be in an induced coma”.

Which is not to say the emptiness is unpleasant. Delroy Grey, security shift leader at the National Portrait Gallery, might on a typical day be cautioning visitors for touching the artworks; occasionally, he might foil a shoplifter. But since the lockdown began, he says, it feels like your own daily private view.

The closed cafés and absence of school groups have lent his job a certain serenity, and given him a newfound appreciation for the picturesque setting in which he works. “You notice the little things, like when the sun hits certain galleries in the morning and seems to bring them alive.”

Over at the Royal Academy, Elworthy is getting to know some of the artworks better. “The Farenese Hercules statue and I are building quite a rapport. I’m just worried that he may start answering me back if I’m with him much longer…”Butler, for his part, has found that he’s paying more attention to some of the smaller paintings he wouldn’t notice on a normal day, nestled away from the Walker’s main attractions. He’s becoming especially fond of John Lavery’s 1918 painting Hazel in Rose and Gold. “It’s essentially just a very simple figure of a woman, and it’s one of those paintings I walk past a lot, but I’m just beginning to appreciate the colours.”

There’s also John Williamson’s 1791 portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft, hung high on a gallery wall. “It’s a very austere portrait, but there’s a life to it that you notice more when you’re walking around the empty galleries.”Of course, those empty galleries bring new challenges as well. At the V&A, Rapley’s biggest security challenge is the mere lack of eyes. “Of course we have security officers on site 24/7, and have nearly 1,000 CCTV cameras watching our collections, but our visitors, volunteers and staff are our eyes and ears.

“They are so often the ones who tell us when something is wrong or when someone is doing something that they shouldn’t. Without them it’s a big task for our security team to do everything that thousands of people do for us on a normal day.”And there’s the dust: the absence of visitors tramping around and dislodging it means that after just one week of closure, the exhibits were noticeably tattier than usual.

The lack of day-to-day human contact for the on-site staff can be lonely too. “It’s a bit bittersweet to have the exhibitions to ourselves,” says Butler. Rapley agrees: “The collections have lost a bit of their sparkle – they come to life when our galleries are busy.”

“The galleries are very much their audiences as much as the artworks within them,” Butler explains. “When they’re empty, they yearn for an audience. It’s the discussion our visitors have about the work that brings life to them.”He quotes the late critic John Berger: “What any true painting touches is an absence – an absence of which without the painting, we might be unaware. And that would be our loss.”

Like Rapley at the V&A, Butler talks of looking forward to the Walker’s reopening – whenever that might be. Reimagined tour routes and fresh exhibitions are already in the works, or at least the imaginations of curators across the country who suddenly have time on their hands.

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Reposted from ArtSentry

Cost-effective museum protection is one of the top concerns for the operations staff. That includes guarding against theft and damage by ensuring an effective security plan is in place to protect the collection. Without an effective plan, you could be jeopardizing the artwork and historical pieces in your gallery or museum.

Challenges In Museum Protection

In cultural properties, the current museum protection model consists of two main components: the guards in the galleries and other security technologies which includes a video surveillance system. In most cases, the video security system records footage,  which can later be accessed if an issue occurs. In some cases, the camera images are monitored in real-time by an officer in a command center to heighten museum protection.

This protection model is widespread, but offers many challenges to today’s museums - specifically around its overall cost and effectiveness.

Guard Cost

Guard cost containment is a critical issue in today's environment, and the full cost of your security team goes far beyond the cost of their compensation.  First, the recruiting and training costs of new guards are significant.  

Next are the obvious costs associated with compensation as well as benefits, such as workers compensation, vacation, sick pay, and other benefits provided by the institution.  

Additionally, there are some “hidden” costs that many people do not think about. For example, there is insurance, uniforms, and other general overhead expenses. These are required to support a successful guard team and can end up costing much more than you may even realize.   

Finally, there are costs that go above the “base” cost for security guards.  Many times, overtime is required to cover vacations or sick time. In some cases, overtime may be required to support  increased hours because of special exhibits or functions. 

Security guards are costly, and in the current market environment effectively managing this expense is a top priority for museums.

Guard Effectiveness

When we talk about the effectiveness of guards protecting the museum collection pieces, we must start with the density of the guards in the galleries. Most museums do not have unlimited budgets and cannot afford the one or two guards per gallery that would be required to give optimal protection. 

Another issue which limits the effectiveness of guards is a human limitation.  Guards cannot watch all objects or multiple monitors simultaneously. As is only human, they are prone to distractions. This creates an opportunity for damage or theft of the collection.

Technology Solution

Many forward-looking museums utilize the Art Sentry system to supplement their guard force while increasing their effectiveness and managing costs. The security system from Art Sentry provides camera-based object protection. It works by drawing an invisible protection zone around valuable paintings and artifacts. When that zone is broken by a visitor both the visitor and guards are alerted.

Effectiveness of Art Sentry

In terms of effectiveness, our implementations have shown that there are 75X more touches of your collection pieces than what guards are reporting alone. The Art Sentry system can eliminate 92% of those object touches and customers have experienced a 60% reduction in serious damage incidents due to our museum protection solution.

The system does not get distracted, take coffee breaks, or call in sick. It does not have trouble getting to work due to a snowstorm or during other challenging times. It protects every collection piece 24-hours a day, 7-days a week.  During the off-hours with minimal or no guards in the galleries, your collection is most at-risk but you can rest-assured that protection is in place during even these vulnerable times.

Cost of the System

Depending on the situation, the paybacks on the investment can  be as short as 1.3 years. The cost of the system is driven by the number of galleries and the camera coverage needed.  

In many cases, existing cameras and wiring infrastructure can be utilized to minimize cost.  Art Sentry has two pricing models. One is an upfront cost with a low annual support and maintenance cost. The other is a subscription model which reduces the upfront cost to allow the expense of the system to be matched with the benefits and cost savings over time. 

Beyond Protection

Technology can be used strategically by forward-thinking museums to supplement your guard force. Additionally, these motion detection security systems can offer better museum protection of the collection and flexibility to handle unforeseen situations that impact guard availability.  

Beyond the benefits of protecting the museum collection, the Art Sentry system has been proven to provide other important benefits. It has shown to increase visitor experience scores and provide objective data and analytics, which drive improvement in museums operations.

Art Sentry’s camera-based motion detection alarm system provides the reliability and peace of mind that your collection is being protected around the clock.

Schedule a Demo now to learn more about what our museum protection technology can offer your institution.

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Reposted from Public Radio International (PRI)

Kevin Reid typically spends eight hours per day in uniform, five days per week, standing in the galleries at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, keeping watch over the art.

Sometimes people ask him where to find the bathroom. But more often, they barely acknowledge him. It’s part of being a security guard, he said. 

“Most people just come in here, ask us a question and just go,” he said. “You feel invisible.”

Visitors may not consider how those guards are often incredibly knowledgable about the art — and may even be artists themselves. In a new audio guide series for the museum called “Beyond the Uniform,” artist Chemi Rosado-Seijo turns the spotlight on Reid and nine other MoMA security guards. In a series of 20 audio essays, the guards each choose a piece of art and speak about it. 

You can listen online even though the museum is closed as part of countrywide stay-at-home orders to stop the spread of the coronavirus. 

Rosado-Seijo works in a field known as social practice, which is equal parts art and community activism. His projects usually feature marginalized communities.  

When the museum’s education department asked him to come up with a project for MoMA, he said that he knew he wanted to work with security guards. 

“Most of the guards are black or brown, as they call us. Puerto Ricans or Colombians or Dominicans,” he said. “They are the people who maintain or keep the structure of the museum together, but you’re not supposed to see them, in a way.” 

And they don’t usually get asked about the art, even though they’re the ones who are living with it. 

“A lot of the guards are artists themselves, too, and that’s a big reason why they work here,” he said.

Reid is a recording artist. He goes by the name LuxuReid and estimates he’s written more than 100 songs. He said the job at the MoMA was “an opportunity to be around art. And expand my horizons.”

Reid even composed a rap for the audio guide. “Mr. Invisible doesn’t make sense to you, he raps. "People look through you but don’t see what’s in you.”

He was inspired by a 2015 painting called “Untitled (policeman)” by the African American artist Kerry James Marshall, which he also discusses in the guide. It’s a monumental portrait of a black police officer in uniform, sitting on the hood of his cruiser, staring off to the side. 

“It’s a very provocative piece,” Reid says of the artwork. “It connects so much. Black Lives Matter. The senseless police shootings, injustice, prejudice. African Americans in the police force as well. It’s a lot to take in.” 

Security guards' contributions to the audio guide run the gamut. Joseph Tramantano, an actor, drummer and horror fan, discusses film stills from the 1931 version of “Frankenstein.” Eva Luisa Rodríguez does a spoken word performance in front of Frida Kahlo’s “Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair.” José Colon draws parallels between graffiti art and early 20th-century Italian sculpture.

Rabbila Konock explains that Vincent van Gogh’s "Starry Night,” which the artist painted during a stay in an asylum in the French countryside, reminds her of home. The night sky is roiling with swirling patterns. The stars, moon and planets glow in circles of yellow and white light. A sleepy little village lies beneath a turbulent sky.

“I am originally from Bangladesh. My village is similar to this painting,” she chuckles as she explains on the guide. “The night is more alive than the day. I believe he created [this painting] in early morning, before [sunrise]. So sometimes when I have to decide something, I wake up that time, I look outside from the window and [think].” 

Chemi Rosado-Seijo hopes this audio project will be empowering to anyone who listens — especially if they aren't art experts. 

“I expect people will say, ‘Oh, the guards are talking about the artworks. I can talk about the artworks',” he said.

He says all too often, people will start talking about art and then censor themselves. They’ll say stuff like, “'I don’t know art! I shouldn’t be talking about it!”’ Rosado-Seijo said.  

But he insists that art doesn’t have to be so intellectual and rarefied: “Your perspective is valid.” 

Beyond the Uniform was conceived before the coronavirus outbreak and museum closure. Ideally, the listener would hear the audio while visiting the museum and standing in front of the works. 

But Rosado-Seijo sees a silver lining. 

“I actually don’t think [the coronavirus] changes the project at all,” he said. “If anything, it makes the message more urgent.”

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Reposted from The Northern State Conservation Center

by Joan Baldwin

Nothing changed this week, and yet everything did. Pandemic numbers continued to climb, all while public health officials predict the worst is still to come. Lines for food banks grew as the number of unemployed multiplied. Museums and heritage organizations made headlines with massive layoffs of front line staff. Midst it all, those of us lucky enough to work from home, found our worlds simultaneously shrink to the size of our houses or apartments and expand to the farthest reaches of the world as we spend more and more time online.

This week I've been thinking about separation. As museum folk, our livelihood depends on our interaction with things - paintings, documents, buildings, living things or objects. Suddenly, we're apart. Apart from the stuff we care for, caring that comes in many forms, through leadership, advancement, scholarship, education, conservation or transportation. Whatever our role, we're separated. And in this case we're separated not just from the heartbeat of our museums or heritage sites, we're separated from colleagues, our human communities, volunteers, tiny children, bigger children, budding artists and scientists, families, and elders.

Is there such thing as a good separation? How do you manage disconnection yet stay attached? How many novels, plays and movies take shape when one character announces they must leave, but they'll be back? How do relationships deepen between absent friends? Does absence make the heart grow fonder?

And what sustains us through a separation? It used to be letter writing. Now, not so much. Are separations also defined by how we choose to fill the absence?

This week I read a wonderful piece by John Stromberg, director of Dartmouth's Hood Museum to his community. Stromberg talks about the Hood's commitment to art "by all, for all." But more exciting to me is his open acknowledgement that however empathetic and caring the Hood's exhibitions were, now the museum is closed, he acknowledges his staff must pivot. He writes:

As the Hood Museum staff continues to transition to our new digital work format, we are challenged to revitalize and update a key tenet of what we do: putting individuals in direct contact with original works of art and each other. How do we move forward without the physical proximity that has been critical to our practice? Can digital means replicate the intimacy of face-to-face dialogue about today's most pressing issues?

So must separation incorporate a willingness to change and grow?

Then there is the Philbrook Museum of Art whose relationship with its community, both virtual and actual is a marvel, thanks in part to the leadership of Scott Stulen, a multi-talented artist who admits his directorship is about putting community building into "overdrive."[1] Who doesn't want to know a place that in a matter of days changed its tagline to "Chillbrook Museum of Staying Home, Stay Home, Stay Social" as if this were just another day in the life. The Philbrook's  website makes you believe all your emotional and intellectual needs are in hand. Whether it's listening to podcasts, hearing a tiny concert or participating in a children's art class, it's clear that separated or not, the museum percolates along, even for those of us who've never been to Tulsa, OK. This week the Philbrook put its money where its mouth is, announcing it is expanding its edible garden in order to support the food bank. How could anyone forget a place that offers so much for so many, and who manages to be winsome, and serious, musical and witty, all at the same time? 

Maybe a good separation is about enhancing what's already there, making it richer in the absence of human contact?

Although Old Salem Museum and Gardens closed ahead of some North Carolina museums and heritage sites, the door was barely shut before it launched #wegotthis, a series of online events that included the History Nerd Alert and the Old Salem Exploratorium. About a week ago, it began transforming its historic gardens into Victory gardens to support the city's Second Harvest Food Bank. That prompted another online series called Two Guys and a Garden. In addition Old Salem has put its head pastry chef back to work producing 50 loaves of bread a day for the food bank, while its head gardener offers videos on seed starting. 

Does giving back make an organization more memorable? Is it easier to ask, once you've given?  

Last, but not least, Raynham Hall Museum, The Frick (What's not to like about Friday cocktails with a curator?) and the Tang Teaching Museum: All used Instagram before the pandemic, but since COVID-19, they've ratcheted things up, speaking directly to their audience, making connections between collections and past epidemics, illness, inspiration, art and spring. And there are many more museums and historic sites you know who, despite separation, are enriching connections, building bridges, and creating new audiences.

So what makes a difficult thing like separation doable? Ah...wait for it....because maybe it's similar to museum life back when things were normal: How about honest, authentic communication that builds outward from mission and collections to connect with community? Opportunities abound for learning the "how-to's" of social media, but knowing your own site, and your own community, and translating your organizational DNA to images, video, tweets and Instagram, that's on you. Because when the separation is over-and it will be-how will your organization be remembered? As the site that closed its doors and then 10 weeks later woke up like Rip Van Winkle? Or as the online friend who made people laugh, taught them some stuff, and helped out the community?

Stay safe. 

Reposted from Artnet News

A little over three weeks ago, museums’ relied-upon income from tickets, event rentals, and retail essentially fell to zero overnight. Now, museums large and small across the United States are steadily laying off and furloughing staff as they grapple with their new financial reality. Many are hoping to find some relief through the new payroll loan program offered by the federal government—but that process is already proving to be far from simple.

The latest major institution to make cutbacks is the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which announced it would remain closed through June 30 and will furlough around 300 staff members—more than 40 percent of its 750-strong workforce—as a result.

The museum estimates that it will experience a loss of between $12 million to $14 million due to the three-and-a-half month closure, according to WBUR. In a statement, an MFA Boston spokesperson said it would “implement cost containment measures, utilize endowment funds to the extent possible, and furlough staff eligible for unemployment insurance and new government programs.” 

The spokesperson added that all eligible employees would receive full health care benefits and the museum planned no layoffs at this time. The MFA Boston’s director Matthew Teitelbaum will also reduce his compensation by 30 percent during this period. (His 2018 salary was $841,921, according to tax records.)

Elsewhere in the city, the ICA Boston is paying all full-time, part-time, and scheduled hourly employees through June 30 and is submitting to the US small business payroll program, a representative confirmed.

No word yet on when museums can expect to hear back on eligibility, but according a Chronicle of Philanthropy report, executives at nonprofits across the country reported confusion “akin to a bank run” when it came to the Paycheck Protection Program, a loan from the government designed to incentivize small businesses to keep their workers on payroll. Complaints included overwhelmed bank websites, confusing information about eligibility criteria, and “a persistent fear the program will leave small nonprofits high and dry in the rush for funds.”

Some institutions are not even in a position to wait to see if they qualify for government aid. The South Street Seaport Museum in downtown New York City said projected revenue losses have already forced it to reduce staff to a skeleton crew. In a statement, the museum’s president, Captain Jonathan Boulware, called the effects of COVID-19 “devastating” and “immediate.” The museum expects operating revenues to be roughly half of what they anticipated.

“We have already taken dramatic corrective action, laying off nearly 20 program staff last week,” he said. “As of next week, every remaining staff member will be furloughed or have their compensation sharply reduced.”

Even more starkly, other institutions are shuttering for good. The Indianapolis Contemporary (I/C), formerly known as the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, has announced plans to close permanently after 19 years of operation. The board decided it was not “economically feasible” to continue amid the impact of coronavirus and other financial strain.

Those institutions that do have enough financial stability to forge ahead are doing their best to scrimp, save, and reshuffle. The Detroit Institute of Arts, which has already survived serious financial challenges and economic downturns during the city’s bankruptcy, announced today that it would postpone two exhibitions originally scheduled for June, including the highly anticipated “Van Gogh in America,” which will now open in October 2022.

A DIA representative confirmed that the museum, like a number of others we contacted, is working with their bank to apply for federal government support. But at the moment, leadership is preparing the upcoming fiscal year budget and has not made any concrete decisions regarding staff beyond a salary and hiring freeze “for the foreseeable future.” The spokesperson added: “Our priority is to keep our talent and avoid layoffs at this time. As the COVID-19 situation evolves, we will continue to monitor the museum’s financial position and make adjustments if required.”

In New York, the Brooklyn Museum—which also applied to the Paycheck Protection Program—has committed to paying and providing benefits to its full staff, including part-time employees, but only through April 17, according to a representative, “while we explore all possible ways to keep our team as whole as possible during these uncertain times.”

The Morgan Library & Museum has not furloughed or laid off any staff, but it has put in place a six-month freeze on non-essential hiring and a salary freeze for the rest of the fiscal year. “We are actively reshaping and rethinking how we present the museum online and embracing the current moment in which every cultural institution must also become a media company,” a spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, the Queens Museum furloughed 30 full-time and part-time employees on March 30, including front-of-house personnel, curators, educators, maintenance workers, and security staff. Already “in a precarious situation with regards to our cash flow,” according to a spokesperson, the museum was forced to cancel its annual gala, and now anticipates losses of more than $900,000 between now and July. “These losses will have a huge and sustained impact on our operations,” the spokesperson added.

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Reposted from Artnet News

With museums around the world still shuttering indefinitely, the financial fallout for institutions remains to be seen. But now, a new survey from the Network of European Museum Organizations offers an up-close glimpse at how museums are coping with the closures, and what the effects on their operations have been.

The survey is still open through April 17, but the first round of responses, from 650 museums in Europe—including every nation in the EU—as well as the US, the Philippines, Malaysia, French Polynesia, and Iran, has already been illuminating. Some of the biggest museums that attract the most tourists have seen 75–80 percent of their income disappear overnight.

Of those institutions that provided figures about income loss, 70 percent are losing more than €1,000 every week the closures continue. At the top end are the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna and the Stedelijk Museum and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which say they are losing hundreds of thousands of Euros every week. Private museums are also especially hard hit, with many reporting that they will lose their entire budget during closures, which may become permanent.

Almost every museum that participated in the survey was currently closed, with only a handful of exceptions in Sweden, Austria, and Albania. Many were unsure when they might reopen, with estimates ranging from mid-April to as late as September.

The biggest impact seems to be on international exhibitions, which are being canceled as international loans fall through. Thus far, 70 percent museums have avoided laying off staff, but freelance workers haven’t been so lucky; about twice as many institutions are putting their contracts on hold. And longterm infrastructure projects are being widely paused as uncertainty over budgets and financial prospects grow.

The one sector that’s growing, of course, is museums’ online presence. Sixty percent of respondents have been stepping up their digital game, and 40 percent have seen online traffic go up, some by as much as 500 percent.

The survey includes a call to action, in the hopes that lawmakers will help museums survive these troubled times. “We urge governments to invest in Europe’s cultural heritage in the future, to support what binds us together, while so many other things drive us apart,” read a statement from the Network of European Museum Organizations.

Other museum groups have been pushing for government relief as well, such as the American Alliance of Museums and New York’s Metropolitan Museum Art, which last month called for a $4 billion infusion for the cultural sector. (It got less than five percent of that.)

Now, Italian museum leaders are taking up the cause, calling for the establishment of a “national fund for culture,” the Art Newspaper reports. More than 2,000 signatories, including the heads of National Museum of 21st Century Art in Rome and Venice’s civic museums, have put their name to a Change.org petition that insists that “we have to make Italian culture live, to give it oxygen… [or] the repercussions… on the vast world of cultural enterprise are extreme and could be fatal.”

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