California Museums Launch #MuseumsforMasks Initiative

Gallery talks on Zoom, educational happenings for younger students, do-at-home art projects, virtual look-aheads to future exhibitions?

Even during their pandemic closures, local museums have remained at the robust forefront of our cultural conversations.

For while we aren't visiting in person, we can still can enjoy a museum's excellent programming from afar, all while looking ahead to a future stroll by sculptures, paintings, and excellent artworks aplenty.

And to help those future strolls come into clearer focus, while also shining an urgent light on our current safety measures?

SoCal Museums and the California Association of Museums, two museum-supporting associations, launched the #MuseumsforMasks initiative on Thursday, Jan. 28.

True, these organizations, and all of their museum members, aren't asking you to wear a mask, right now, for a museum visit, as most museums remain temporarily shuttered (exceptions include some institutions with open outdoor spaces, such as The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens).

But these members are looking down the road, with hope and anticipation, to when their doors can open again, and art fans can return to lingering in galleries, pausing before paintings, and discussing a terrific photo display with a friend, over lunch, at a museum's café.

Over 45 museums across the Golden State, including several around Los Angeles, have signed on to the initiative's message, all to broadcast it wider.

Local gems that have joined the effort to give the #MuseumsforMasks mission a megaphone include The Getty, the Japanese American National Museum, and the Hammer Museum.

"During this time, museums and cultural institutions have temporarily closed their indoor areas and forged new ways to serve audiences with virtual exhibitions and programming," says Lucy Spriggs, SoCal Museums President and Marketing Manager, The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

"While we look forward to being able to reopen our indoor spaces to the public, we believe that we best serve our communities by encouraging them to be safe during this current surge of COVID-19."

"#MuseumsforMasks was conceived of in that spirit; the sooner we can make our communities safer, the sooner we can gather again to enjoy in-person offerings from our region's tremendous arts and cultural organizations."

One more thing to note? The SoCal Museums Free-for-All, a much-loved, hugely attended event that typically happens around the close of January or beginning of February, has been cancelled for 2021.

Here's looking to that same event returning in 2022, and uplifting days spent around the artworks we've long adored, or that we're just discovering for the first time.