MoMA debuts new exhibit amid virus concerns in NYC

Even as COVID-19 infection rate continue to rise, a museum in New York City is preparing to roll out a new exhibit this weekend. The Museum of Modern Art has spent the last six months putting health and safety precaution in place to welcome visitors to its first-ever 'Fall reveal' exhibition.

"This is the first time that we have absolutely taken a broom to a third of the collection galleries on three floors," Ann Temkin, Chief curator of painting and sculpture at the museum.'Fall Reveal' is a new concept according to Temkin. The big reveal is that the museum's collection galleries will be changed out regularly. The schedule or rotation is still being worked on but Temkin pointed out that prior to this exhibit, special exhibition galleries were the only exhibits to rotate.

New themes, new artists, new works along with the old standards are being displayed in 18 galleries."Curators were making these gallery plans in a state of high anxiety, right? And so even if it's not explicitly in the subject matter (the COVID-19 pandemic), it's how we did it," Temkin said.

The museum has put in place health and safety protocols and the state has mandated restriction's on the number of visitors that can be present at tone time.

"I don't think people are probably going to be inclined to crowd on benches or crowd in front of a painting because we all have the same hesitations," Temkin said.Despite the growing number of COVID-19 cases and the restriction's put in place by New York state, Temkin feels the museum is trying to be part of the solution. She believes "there has never been a better time to come to the Museum of Modern Art."

"One of the things that people disliked in the old days was how crowded we were," Temkin said."Now you come to see these new galleries or galleries that haven't yet changed... you're in there with two or three other people, whereas one year ago this time it might have been 20 or 30 other people."

Newly confirmed infections per day in the U.S. are shattering records at nearly every turn, hitting more than 153,000 on Thursday and pushing the running total in the U.S. to about 10.5 million, with about a quarter-million deaths, by Johns Hopkins University's count. The number of people now in the hospital reached an all-time high of over 67,000 on Thursday, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

(Image Credit: AP) 

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