Update: A Letter From Our Director Kevin Grogan
Dear Friends,
Owing to significantly changed circumstance, we have made the difficult decision to close the Morris Museum of Art. We have felt the need to establish new protocols and to take some necessary precautionary steps in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in order to assure the health and well-being of the museum’s visitors and staff.
As I mentioned in my previous (and overly optimistic) letter, the Morris Museum of Art is a secure facility. Steps are being taken to ensure and maintain a clean, safe, sterile environment. But the only way that we can absolutely assure the safety of the public is, I regret to say, by denying everyone the opportunity to congregate here.
The museum will remain closed to the public through April 5, 2020. We are evaluating the situation daily and plan to keep everyone on this distribution list informed of any changes.
Some members of the museum’s staff will be working remotely. However, the office will be operational. All members of the staff will be receiving and sending emails and checking telephone messages on a regular basis. The mail will be received daily. Do not hesitate to get in touch.
While the Morris is closed, there is still quite a lot of activity. The museum’s education department has developed a series of projects and activities—coloring sheets and crafting ideas—for children of all ages that we’ll be posting on the museum’s website and social media channels daily. Information on and a virtual tour of our current exhibition LUSTER; Realism and Hyperrealism in Contemporary Automobile and Motorcycle Painting will also be made available online, as will highlights from the museum’s permanent collection. Check the museum’s website and social media platforms. And message us photos of your children’s creations based on works of art from the Morris Museum’s collection. They could be featured in our Instagram and Facebook stories!
Depend on the Morris. We’ll do everything we can to assure that the time we spend sequestered is informative, enriching, and entertaining.
Among our peer institutions . . . the Arts & Heritage Center of North Augusta is closed, its fundraiser, “Paint Your Palette” postponed; the Augusta Museum of History is closed until the city reopens its facilities; the Augusta Symphony has rescheduled its March 28 concert to September 17; Jessye Norman School of the Arts is closed until the 20th when they will reevaluate; the Mary S. Byrd Gallery at Augusta University will remain closed until the university reopens; the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art is closed and classes cancelled through the end of the month; Historic Augusta, Inc. has cancelled all programs and is closed until the end of the month; Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History is closed until further notice; Westobou Gallery is closed until further notice. More can be learned at their individual websites.
Remember: we’re all in this together. Let us hear your ideas during this enforced interruption in our normal lives. If it’s something that we can reasonably expect to accomplish online and share with others through the museum’s social media platforms or website, we’ll do that. If you have questions about exhibitions, present and future, or suggestions about things you might like to see here, let us know that, too. Ideas are what we deal in daily. The more the better. And if you just want to get in touch with me, please feel free to drop me a line. You can reach me at kgrogan@themorris.org.
Stay well.
As ever,
Kevin Grogan