What Your Next Museum Visit Will Be Like

After months of closed doors, American cultural institutions are gradually reopening. Italy, which started opening museums in late May, can provide a glimpse of the future. We talked to Karole Vail, director of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, who gave us the good news about what to expect.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to this episode of Here's Something Good, a production
of the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio.
Each day we aspire to bring you the good news,
the silver lining, the glass half full, because there is
good happening in the world everywhere, every day, we just
need to look for and share it. Here's something Good

(00:27):
for Today. Summer is usually prime time for visiting museums, galleries,
and art spaces, but as we all know, during the
last few months, the coronavirus brought most cultural outings to
a sudden halt. Finally, though, arts institutions are starting to
reopen across the US. But what will our favorite museums

(00:48):
and sites look like with the new restrictions in place. Well,
Italy can give us a clue. Home to some of
the most extraordinary art in the world, Italy was also
ground zero for one of the worst COVID outbreaks of
the pandemic. Now it's cultural scene is re emerging after
more than two months of strict lockdown, and because Italy

(01:09):
has been two or three weeks ahead of the U
S and its pandemic timetable, it also can provide us
a glimpse into our own future. Today, we'll talked to
Carol Vale, director of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice.
Carol tells us what museums in Italy have been up
to and what we might expect. Italy pointed the way
for the rest of the world in so many aspects

(01:30):
of the pandemic. It had hundreds of thousands of COVID cases,
but it also inspired us, who can forget the videos
of Italians singing from their windows and applauding frontline workers.
Towards the end of May, though, stay at home restrictions
eased and Italian museums and cultural institutions began to reopen.
Of course, strict precautionary measures were put in place. Crowd

(01:53):
sizes are now severely limited, and Italy has mandated the
use of face masks and temperature checks at all reopened sites.
For example, at the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore
in Florence, visitors will be given free devices that flash
and vibrate when they're not socially distancing. Experts predict that
Italy will host twenty five million fewer foreign tourists than

(02:15):
usual this summer, and for many Romans that's been a plus.
They have tourist free access to museums like the one
at the Vatican, which last year drew nearly seven million visitors.
In Florence, at the UFIZI, normally you'd find a hundred
people are more crammed into a room containing three of
Leonardo da Vinci's best known works. This summer, there might

(02:36):
just be two or three people in the room. For
an inside look at what Italy is going through, we
talked to Carol Vale. Carol leads one of the most
beautiful and extraordinary museums in Italy, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.
Here's what she had to say. Oh, I think people
are could light that museums are opening, and not just
some museum. I think people have had a real, real

(02:58):
third form sens and culture, and besides they want to
get out after the lockdown, So most museums are. Certainly
the Peggy Sukenheim Collection was very active during the lockdown
with its program of digital activities. I mean we were
offering something virtually every day. Not everyone can come and
see us right now, I mean with so many boarders

(03:19):
still closed, but within Europe and certainly within Italy, it's
so it's so much easier now probable cautions are absolutely mandatory.
We can't have more than about seventy people at the
same time in the museum every every hour, every hour
the courses, so we have to really manage the influx
of tourists very very carefully. We had one way itinerary

(03:41):
that visitors have to follow UM and everyone just makes
sure that there are no more than a certain amounts
of people per gallery. And we're really putting all these
measures into places, and people are very accommodating, I would say,
I mean, they know that that is the new normal.
It's best, uh and preferable to book online, even though

(04:02):
you can still come to the museum, as that will
guarantee UM to place so much so much more easily.
So the visitors have the fact that there are fewerban
before and we used to have such high numbers for them.
It's so it's probably a more preasurable visit, which I understand.
I mean, I understand that the visit has to be
about quality rather than about quantity. That we could certainly

(04:26):
afford to have more visitors in the galleries, children kids
as well. We've noticed young children looking at paint things
very intently and even reading the extended ball labels, so
we're we're thrilled about that as well. So slowly we
hope to open a little wall, very very slowly and
just see how things go, and hopefully things will just
improve overall, and not early. Here, of course, what a

(04:50):
fascinating glimpse into our future. I love talking to Carol,
and I've been to the Goggenheim in Venice, and I
promise you it is worth the visit, and if you
can't make it there physically, definitely check it out online.
Here at home, we have expanding opportunities to visit museums.
For example, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston has

(05:10):
recently opened with new safety precautions. It's requiring visitors to
wear masks, limiting the number of guests in any gallery,
and taking temperatures of visitors upon arrival. The National Gallery
Sculpture Garden in Washington, d C. Has been reopened since June,
and the Metropolitan Museum of Art has tentative plans to
reopen in mid August or early September. So here's something

(05:33):
good for today. Museums and cultural institutions are starting to
open up again, and despite restrictions, there are many upsides
to the new normal, such as having the time and
space to really appreciate famous works of art. If you
don't want to travel, consider visiting our National Treasures online.
Most museums in the US, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art,

(05:54):
Smithsonian and the Getty Museum of Art in l A,
have excellent online exhibitions and a reminder from these months
of lockdown, sometimes we forget to cherish the things that
are right in front of us. Now is the perfect
moment to slow down and take a look at the
beauty that's available to us no matter where we live,
and don't forget to check out the Pegga Googenheim collection

(06:14):
at Guggenheim Dash Venice dot I T have a great day.
Thank you for listening, and please share Today's Something Good
with others in your life. This is Kim Azzarelli, co

(06:37):
author of Fast Forward and co founder of Seneca Women.
To learn more about Seneca Women, go to Seneca Women
dot com or download the Seneca Women app free in
the app store. Here's Something Good is a production of
the Seneca Women podcast network and I Heart Radio. Have
a Great Day. For more pod cast from I Heart Radio,

(07:01):
check out the I Heart radio, app, Apple podcast, or
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