Fort Worth museums find creative ways to showcase art during coronavirus outbreak

Closing was unimaginable just a few weeks ago.

But now all of the big three—the Kimbell Art Museum, Amon Carter Museum of American Art and Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth—have shut their doors and canceled their programming until at least April 30.

Following the lead from Fort Worth ISD, the museums have been closed indefinitely since March 14.

It is too soon to know what the long-term economic and cultural impacts of the coronavirus will be. This pandemic is a major financial disaster for the cultural sector, including museums, who are worried about donations dwindling . But as the survival of these institutions becomes a nationwide concern, these Fort Worth museums are here to stay.

“I think the only people in American who are happy about this situation are the four-legged Americans,” said Marla Price, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth director, referring to pets getting more time at home with their owners.

Some staff members are keeping the art safe while hundreds of other employees work from home under quarantine and scramble to communicate with each other, their members, boards, and the public as they work out scenarios for getting restarted in what is suddenly a different world.

“Once you lay people off and stop operations at a big museum it is very hard to get started again,” Price said.

With viewers locked out of the museum, the three museums are also busy developing new kinds of content.

“We suddenly have to innovate in our digital communications,” said Amon Carter Museum of American Art Director Andrew Walker. “But that will benefit us for a long time going forward.”

Spring is, of course, one of the busiest times of the year for a museum with several weeks of programming that suddenly had to be canceled. The Modern’s newest exhibit from Mark Bradford, a stunning retrospective, had only been open a week before the shutdown. Kimbell’s incredible collection of Italian paintings, “Flesh and Blood,” had jaws hitting the floor when it opened just a week earlier.

Eric Lee, director of the Kimbell Art Museum, remembers it all happening gradually, from canceling programs to closing.

“Every day brought something new and then here we are,” he said. “It makes me sick, or it’s a shame, I should say, that some of the greatest Renaissance and Baroque masterpieces ever seen in Texas, some of the most important pieces in the entire history of art—that is no exaggeration—are in dark galleries and no one can see them. I just hope we are able to reopen it.”

With Fort Worth’s emergency declaration due to COVID-19 currently in place and Fort Worth schools now closed indefinitely, the museum directors are uncertain about their operational models, including how schedules of exhibitions will be altered.

It also remains to be seen if museums will reopen at full capacity or if people will be reluctant to gather in public again.

“Flesh and Blood,” for example, is scheduled to close on June 14. Lee is not yet sure if it is feasible to extend it, but admitted he had no idea if the museums would be reopened by then. He even wondered if there could be restrictions on travel and shipping between countries by the time the exhibit is scheduled to close. Price also couldn’t speculate on the chances of extending the Mark Bradford retrospective without having a general idea of when the museum will reopen.

With the advocacy and support to weather a crisis, there is currently no concern about the future of the big three in Fort Worth. But the issue of cultural institutions surviving is a national priority.

“That has been the biggest concern in the industry’s conversation,” Walker said. “There is a unified front amongst the museums I’ve been in contact with. Not everyone is going to survive.”

“At the national level, I am very concerned about a number of arts institutions,” Lee said. “I don’t know if we’ll ever recover from this.”

All three of the museums have plenty of online content on their websites offering videos, podcasts, and virtual tours.

The Kimbell from Home, for example, is a great way to explore the collection from home. But the Carter has already started adapting to the crisis with some new content. Just launched on the museum’s YouTube channel, “Cooped Up with the Carter” provides demonstrations and activities from curators and staff. The Carter is also releasing newly found videos of its late founder, Ruth Carter Stevenson, discussing masterpieces in the collection under the name “Masterpiece Memories.”

“I’ve learned a lot from these videos,” Walker admits.

None of these museums have transformed into food banks or blood banks during the pandemic, but they have taken on at least one new role.

Walker said the museums have donated masks and gloves from their conservation labs to hospitals.

“Museums across the country are taking their surplus and maybe even digging into their main resources to address the shortage in the medical profession right now. That has been a specific call for need through the Association of Art Museum Directors.”

This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 5:45 AM with the headline "Fort Worth museums find creative ways to showcase art during coronavirus outbreak."