The Laguna Art Museum reopened Thursday after the Orange County Health Agency permitted museums, places of worship, and a slate of businesses to reopen with certain limitations.
The California Department of Public Health moved Orange County on Sept. 8 from the Purple Tier to Red Tier as part of the state’s color-coded system for controlling the coronavirus’ spread and allowing elements of the economy to reopen.
For museums, indoor activities must be limited to 25 percent of capacity, according to a county press release. Tickets must be purchased in advance for entry at a designated time, according to a museum press release.
Laguna Art Museum visitors will be screened for COVID-19 symptoms, including a contactless temperature check. Visitors, staff, and volunteers are also required to social distance and keep their noses and mouths covered.
“It’s a huge relief for us to re-open after these two months or so of being closed, especially since we installed a beautiful, once-in-a-lifetime exhibition of paintings by Granville Redmond and hardly anyone has had the chance to see it,” Malcolm Warner, executive director of Laguna Art Museum wrote in an email.
Laguna Art Museum has extended the showing of Granville Redmond: The Eloquent Palette to Nov. 15. Encompassing 85 signature paintings, its largest ever assembled and the first exhibition in more than 30 years dedicated to a leading figure in California Impressionism.
“In these anxious times I think people will find solace and hope in Redmond’s airy, idyllic vision of the California landscape,” Warner wrote.
After the state’s initial stay at home order, the museum was closed from March 14 to June 11. It briefly reopened from June 12 to June 30 but a previous spike in Orange County’s COVID-19 cases has kept the museum closed since July 1.
The Laguna Art Museum’s hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m, on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday thru Sunday. The Museum is closed on Wednesdays.
General admission is $7, tickets for students (18+) and seniors (60+) are $5, and visitors aged 17 and under enter for free.
