Mondays: Seniors 60 years and older, 10 am to noon: All, noon to 5 pm
Tuesdays-Saturdays: 10 am to 5 pm
Sundays: 11 am to 5 pm

New Protocols include

• Masks required
• Social distancing required
• Limited numbers and timed tickets

The Springfield Museums are set to reopen to visitors Monday, July 13, with the first two hours, 10 am to noon, set aside for Seniors only (60 and older) and general public from noon to 5 pm.

“We are overjoyed to welcome visitors back to the Museums,” said Kay Simpson, President and CEO of the Springfield Museums. “We have carefully prepared our Museums for reopening with visitor and staff health and well-being as our priority. We want to provide an experience that is both reassuringly safe and wonderfully inspiring.”

The Museums will open at 25% of their full capacity and will issue timed-tickets to spread people out over the course of the day. “We urge our visitors to purchase their tickets online ahead of their visit,” said Sharon Ferrara, Welcome Center Manager. Limited numbers will be allowed into the admissions area at a time, to help all keep socially distanced.

For additional well-being, the Museums have added Plexiglas shields and no-touch credit card machines at the Welcome Center desk, Museum Store, and Blake House Café. They have also stepped up cleaning protocols, especially on high-touch surfaces. Most importantly, visitors are required to do their part in communal health and safety by wearing masks that cover their nose and mouth. Additionally they are required to keep at social distance from people not in their party. Staff also are required to wear masks.

“Each of us plays a role in a safe reopening, with social distancing, face masks, and additional health and safety precautions in place,” Simpson said. “We are truly all in the same boat and pulling for each other.”

The Museums have a fabulous line-up of exhibitions ready to share:

Voices of Resilience: The Intersection of Women on the Move
Extended to January 3, 2021
The D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts

Voices of Resilience celebrates the intersecting lives of women in Massachusetts and beyond who have changed the course of history. Through highlights of diverse “hidden figures” and narratives, this exhibition explores the collaborative and interconnected stories of social, educational, and cultural change as defined by women, women of color, and others on the move to a more inclusive and just world.

LUSTER: Realism and Hyperrealism in Contemporary Automobile and Motorcycle Painting
Through August 23, 2020
The D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts

For over a century, automobiles and motorcycles have captured America’s popular imagination, making their way into movies, television, music, and fine art. This exhibition includes over 50 photorealist and hyperrealist paintings inspired by cars and bikes. Depictions of shimmering engines and glistening tanks will be featured alongside paintings of vintage automobiles, each rendered with exacting virtuosity.

The Lion Guard: The Exhibit
Through September 6, 2020
Springfield Science Museum

Experience an adventure through the Pride Lands where kids and families will be inspired to protect the Circle of Life. Children will have the opportunity to train in the Lion Guard’s secret lair, explore the power of teamwork by utilizing each of the Lion Guard’s unique traits to go on special missions, and discover and learn about the African savanna and the animals that live there.

Hall of Heroes
July 19, 2020–September 13, 2020
Wood Museum of Springfield History

Hall of Heroes brings visitors into the world of their favorite superheroes, crime-stoppers, gadgets and more through immersive experiences! As soon as you enter, you immediately find yourself in the thick of the action in an ambitious, custom-built space. Your journey takes you through several themed environments with surprises around each corner. An adventure fit for all ages.

Heroes in Healthcare: Celebrating Springfield’s Medical Community
August 1, 2020–January 24, 2021
Wood Museum of Springfield History

This exhibit traces the history of healthcare in Springfield and highlights some of its many heroes. From the Civil War through present day, doctors and nurses, public health employees, social workers and philanthropists have contributed significantly to improving the health of this community with their skills, compassion and vision. With the WHO’s declaration of the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife, we dedicate a part of this exhibit to celebrating the city’s nurses, and with our Wall of Healthcare Heroes, we honor the courageous and dedicated work of our hospitals’ front line responders.

Chance Encounters: Mixed Media Constructions by Shawn Farley
August 15, 2020–March 7, 2021
D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts

Massachusetts artist Shawn Farley creates sculptural assemblages that give new life to obsolete foundry molds and other found objects. By embracing chance and trusting her keen artistic instincts, Farley constructs clever compositions that take on human qualities and adopt their own personalities. As the artist says, her works, “assume new identities and an evocation of something soulful.”

Facilitated Spaces
Educators in each of the Museums’ facilitated spaces—the Cat’s Corner, the Smithsonian Spark!Lab, and the Art Discovery Center—are ready to greet visitors with new protocols as well. They have created single-use packets and set up activities that can be done at social distance, in addition to increased cleaning.

“Having families back at the Museums, ready to celebrate this summer will be such a great treat! And we are ready to make sure they have a great time,” said Larissa Murray, Director of Education at the Springfield Museums.

For those comfortable with hands-on experiences, the Museums have all interactive exhibits in place and have added more hand sanitizing stations and more frequent cleaning by the staff. “We are encouraging visitors to sanitize their hands before and after they use an interactive,” Murray said.

For those who look forward to a low- or no-touch experience still informed by educators and curators, the Museums have introduced a mobile guide available through visitors’ cell phones. “The guide includes virtual gallery tours and maps,” Murray said. “And it features interactive scavenger hunts that integrate learning with fun facts and beautiful images,” Murray said. The Museums have also enhanced their cell phone audio tours, adding more stations to the Science Museum, D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, and Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum. The Seuss Museum audio tour is available in English, Spanish, and Chinese.

“For centuries, museums have offered a place of solace,” said Heather Haskell, Vice-President of the Springfield Museums and Director of the Art Museums. “We are a place where people can be together with plenty of room for social distance while still enjoying an experience in community.”

BELOW, PLEASE FIND A LIST OF THE SPRINGFIELD MUSEUMS NEW PROTOCOLS

REQUIRED

• FACE MASKS MUST BE WORN by all visitors older than 2, and by all staff members.
• SOCIAL DISTANCING IS REQUIRED and will be enforced; parties of ten or less may remain together; children must stay with adults at all times.
• Guests showing signs of illness at any time during their visit will be asked to return at a later date.
• Because of limited capacities in each building, visitors might be required to wait outside in socially distanced lines.

RECOMMENDED

• Advance, online, timed-entry tickets are strongly encouraged. Please visit our Tickets
• Visitor numbers are reduced and controlled at all locations. Visitors might have to either wait or come back to some exhibits and/or galleries over the course of their visit.
• Credit or debit cards are encouraged. If you pay in cash, please consider donating any change owed to the Museums.

NEW NORMS

• The Museums are featuring a new mobile website with interactive scavenger hunts and tours, maps, and the Blake House Café menu.
• All interactives include sanitizing stations so visitors can clean their hands before and after using the interactives.
• Senior Monday, 10 am to noon, is reserved for visitors 60 years and older.
• All facilitated spaces (The Cat’s Corner, Spark!Lab, and The Art Discovery Center) feature individualized kits and social-distanced activities. All materials will be sanitized between uses. All surfaces will be cleaned between uses.
• All museums are set up for one-way traffic. Please abide by the guidance in each museum.
• Social-distancing markers are placed throughout the museums and on the grounds to help remind all to keep safe.
• Only one person or related people on elevators at a time.
• Enhanced cleaning of high-touch surfaces will happen throughout the day; an exhibit might be closed for a short time for deep cleaning.
• Hand-sanitizer stations are placed throughout the buildings; please use them to help protect yourself and others.
• Drinking fountains are not available.
• If you bring a picnic lunch, you can eat at social distance on the Quadrangle Green. Eating is not permitted in the Museums or Welcome Center.
• The Museum Store will allow 8 visitors at a time. Visitors can also reserve time to shop. Please call ahead for reservations 1-413-263-6800, ext 362.
• The Blake House Café will have outside service only, with separate order and pick up windows.

About The Springfield Museums

THE SPRINGFIELD MUSEUMS are located on the Quadrangle at 21 Edwards Street in the heart of downtown Springfield, Massachusetts. The nationally accredited and Smithsonian-affiliated consortium of museums includes the Springfield Science Museum, the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, the Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History, the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden, and the Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum, the first and only museum dedicated to the beloved children’s book author and Springfield native.

The Museums will reopen Monday, July 13
Mondays: Seniors 60 years and older, 10 am to noon: All, noon to 5 pm
Tuesdays-Saturdays: 10 am to 5 pm
Sundays: 11 am to 5 pm

Blake House Café
Monday-Saturday, 9 am-4 pm
Sunday, 11 am-4 pm

The Museum Store
Museum Store will allow 8 visitors at a time. Visitors can also reserve time to shop. Please call ahead for reservations 1-413-263-6800, ext 362.