ICOM NATHIST: Museums and COVID-19 Measures

While the ongoing repetitive waves of pandemic has brought troubles to the museums and tourism industry, many of us in the museums are striving for building a safe environment for both the staff and the visitors. ICOM NATHIST has collected the prevention measures from several museums in the first half of this year. If you wish to contribute the logistics of your museum’s prevention measures, you are welcome to share them with ICOM NATHIST by sending an email to the secretary: Ms. Phaedra Fang,  taichungroc@gmail.com 

(Photo by Phaedra Fang at National Taiwan Museum)

ICOM COVID-19 Reopening Suggestions

https://icom.museum/en/covid-19/resources/museums-and-end-of-lockdown-ensuring-the-safety-of-the-public-and-staff-2/


ICOM NATHIST COVID-19 Measures Infographic: View Here

 

Denver Museum of Nature and Science (U.S.)

  • Guests + Staff
    • Entrance control
      • Temperature and health screening (ideal is 98.6°F/37°C; staff will be sent home if 100.4°F/38°C or above)
    • Preventing transmission
      • Plexiglass shielding and physically distanced lines at high-interaction locations
      • More hand sanitizer stations
      • Increased custodial cleaning
      • Signage promoting hand washing
  • Guests only
    • Entrance control
      • Reduced capacity – timed tickets + for particular halls
      • Reopening some exhibits in stages
    • Preventing transmission
      • Contactless payment methods
  • Staff only
    • Entrance control
      • Reduced capacity (by 50%)
      • Encouraging virtual meetings and telecommunicating
    • Preventing transmission
      • Required to wear face coverings
      • Providing gloves for particular staff
      • Providing cleaning supplies where custodial cleaning is not responsible
      • Cannot share dishes or utensils, must clean own

 

National Taiwan Museum (Taiwan)

  • Guests
    • Entrance control
      • Measure temperatures
      • Limited capacity – onsite ticket registration
    • Preventing transmission
      • Put on masks when entering
      • Contactless payment available
      • Cancelling interactive devices
      • Physical distancing – reminder signs (1.5 m), empty middle seats
      • Hand sanitizer stations
      • Cancellation of physical events (February 18)
  • Staff
    • Preventing transmission
      • Wearing masks

 

National Museum of Nature and Science – Ueno District (Japan)

  • Guests + Staff
    • Preventing transmission
      • Barriers at information desks
      • Wearing masks (staff will have face shields or masks)
      • Closure of some bathrooms and smoking areas for better cleaning 
  • Guests
    • Entrance control
      • Temperature and physical condition check (entry denied if 99.5°F/37.5°C or higher and/or shows cold-like symptoms of coughing, sneezing, runny nose, sore throat)
      • Reduced capacity – no groups allowed + online ticket booking
      • Reduced hours – not open from 5 to 8 pm on Fridays and Saturdays
    • Preventing transmission
      • Cancelling interactive devices, exhibits, and activities
      • Contactless payment is preferred
      • Reduced seating capacity in restaurant, cafeteria, and lounge
      • Restaurant and cafeteria still closed
      • Physical distancing (2 m)
      • Reduced capacity for the gift shop, along with fewer items available for sale
      • Some cancelled events (check website for when they are scheduled to resume)

 

Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh (U.S.)

  • Guests + Staff
    • Transmission prevention
      • Physical distancing of 6 feet between individuals and in general, try to increase the space between whenever possible
      • Avoid areas where there may be “bottlenecks”
  • Staff
    • Entrance control
      • Temperature and symptom screenings (sent home if 100.4°F/38°C or higher)
    • Transmission prevention
      • Required to wear face masks or coverings
      • Avoid shared spaces and use of shared/other’s office items
      • Routinely wash hands and clean + disinfect objects + surfaces in work area
      • Encouraged to avoid meeting face-to-face (use telecommunications) and get information + materials via technology (email, phone, or online)
      • Discontinue non-essential work-related travel

 

Museum of Natural Sciences of Barcelona (Spain)

  • Guests
    • Entrance control
      • Reduce hall capacities
      • Changed opening times – Tuesday to Sunday, 11 am to 8 pm
    • Transmission prevention
      • Hand sanitizer – hygiene points
      • Removal of exhibit sheets and info pamphlets
      • Signage to remind visitors of safety rules
      • Required to wear a mask
      • Social distancing of 2m between
      • Closed exhibits and interactive features
      • No cloakroom service
  • Staff
    • Entrance control
      • Work from home except for one day of the week when work in-person – managers responsible for coordinating work shifts
        • Exceptions
          • Facility maintenance: 2-3 days a week
          • Natural collections: up to 3 days/week
          • Public programs: as needed for reopening the centers to the public
          • Documentation Center: 2 days/week
    • Transmission prevention
      • Wear masks when working with objects of heritage (do not need to do if the surface can be disinfected)
      • Meetings preferably held via videoconference or phone call (2m if must be in-person)
      • Occupational risk service – report for people in vulnerable groups so can judge and then allow people to decide whether to work in-person
      • No in-person internal trainings

 

ICOM Report (April 2020)

  • ∼1600 responses from 107 countries between April 7 and May 7
  • 46% of respondents from Europe, 20% from North America, 15.3% from Latin America + Caribbean, 12.4% from Asia, 2.3% from Africa, 2.3% from the Pacific, 1.5% from the Arab Countries
  • Wide disparity of responses based on different world regions
  • 38.8% are museum employees, 36.4% are museum governance
  • Wide range of museum sizes: 40.9% have <15 employees, 22.4% have >100 employees
  • Findings
    • Current situations for museums and staff
      • 94.7% of all museums closed
      • 81.5% of participants stated that less than 25% of staff currently work onsite
    • Expected economic impact
      • 82.6% expect a reduction in programs
      • 29.8% expect to downsize the staff
    • Digital resources and communication
      • 47.49% increased social media activities after lockdown
      • 43.86% had online collections that remained the same as before the lockdown
      • All digital activities mentioned increased or began after the lockdowns, for at least 15% of participants
    • Museum security and conservation
      • ≥80% of respondents think that their collections are safe in terms of all the different aspects of security (maintain usual + additional)
      • ∼11% think that the measures in place were already insufficient or that insufficient additional measures were taken to deal with the current situation
      • Environmental conditions: 18.4% report that their systems are not adequate to guarantee object conservation
    • Freelance museum professionals
      • 56.4% had to suspend their own salary
      • 39.4% will need to downsize their staff
      • 54.4% state that COVID-19 is threatening the future of their firm
      • 16.1% temporarily laid off

 

ICOM Report Infographic: View Here

Common Measures

  • Entrance control
    • Reduced capacity
    • Online admission ticket booking or onsite ticket registration
    • Temperature and health check
  • Transmission prevention
    • Cancel interactive devices, exhibits, and activities
    • Use of contactless payment methods and e-tickets

 

Examples on How to Proceed with Museum Reopening

  • Tasks for specific staff members
    • Denver Museum of Nature and Science
      • Certain staff (ex: retail) must clean their own areas
      • Individual staff are responsible for cleaning their own cubicles and offices
      • Supervisors/directors are responsible for scheduling (work rotation) so that the number of staff onsite does not exceed capacity
    • National Taiwan Museum
      • Assign attendants to special registration center at museum entrance to monitor registration
      • Security personnel now responsible for taking temperatures and providing hand sanitizer at the entrance
    • Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
      • HR responsible for contacting affected employees to identify the people and places potentially impacted and notifying them to self-quarantine for two weeks
      • HR responsible for notifying facilities cleaning staff to initiate deep cleaning of areas affected by person
      • Supervisor may be in charge of contact tracing logs of employees (detailing people that the employee may have had continuous contact with during the workday)
    • Museum of Natural Sciences of Barcelona
      • HR reference person must email the city’s health surveillance service to notify them when someone starts exhibiting symptoms of fever, coughing, or having trouble breathing
      • Then must collect info of people who have been in contact for 15+ mins with less than 2m distance, notify to stay at home and work remotely, while final testing/checks down by the city’s health surveillance medical staff
      • Initiate disinfection of work area and notify people about the episode
  • Requests made of the audience
    • Denver Museum of Nature and Science
      • Use contactless payment methods
      • Wash hands to improve hygiene
      • Physically distance while waiting in line
    • National Taiwan Museum
      • Put on masks upon entering the museum
      • Keep a space of 1.5 m in between when physically distancing
      • Register onsite for admission tickets
    • National Museum of Nature and Science – Ueno District
      • Keep a space of 2 m in between when physically distancing
      • Book tickets online before coming to the museum
      • Please use contactless payment methods and tickets (credit cards, e-payment, and e-tickets)

 

Summary and infographic by Melaina LEUNG, University of Chicago (International remote docent at National Taiwan Museum)