Fort Worth museums are ready to reopen. Here are the details

With state and local guidelines limiting capacity to 50% to allow for social distancing, the big three have all announced their plans to reopen soon.

Following the lead from Fort Worth ISD three months ago, all three museums have been closed since March 14 because of COVID-19.

Amon Carter Museum of American Art will reopen to the public first on Friday, June 19, with member-only days from June 16 through June 18. Kimbell Art Museum will reopen on Saturday, June 20, with member-only previews beginning June 18. The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth reopens on Wednesday, July 1.

And there is more good news. Some particularly great exhibits have been extended.

Originally scheduled to run through June 14 at the Kimbell, “Flesh and Blood: Italian Masterpieces” from the Capodimonte Museum has been extended through July. Opened for just two weeks before the shutdown, this essential show includes Italian Renaissance and Baroque paintings from Caravaggio, Titian, Raphael, El Greco, Annibale Carracci, Artemisia Gentileschi, Jusepe de Ribera, and Luca Giordano.

Originally scheduled to run through August 9 at the Modern, “Mark Bradford: End Papers” has been extended through January 10. A spectacular twenty-year survey of abstract works that are as gorgeous as they are idiosyncratic, this exhibit had only been open a week before the shutdown.

At the Carter, which was temporarily closed last summer for renovations, “The Perilous Texas Adventures of Mark Dion” has been extended from May 17 through July 5. Same goes for “Looking In: Photography from the Outside” and “Eliot Porter’s Birds.”

The Carter’s next exhibit, “Acting Out: Cabinet Cards and the Making of Modern Photography”, will open on August 15.

All three museums will require guests and staff to wear facemasks. If a museum is at half capacity, expect a wait to get in. To make social distancing feasible, guests may also be asked to wait before entering individual galleries when they are crowded.

Carter executive director Andrew Walker says all of his employees are being asked to check their temperatures before they come into work.

Additionally, any touchable experiences—like study rooms, libraries, museum shops, and bag check—will remain closed when the museums reopen at reduced capacity.