Covid-19 puts Kansas museum reopenings on hold. Online tours, virtual workshops continue

If you were planning to do an in-person tour of two new exhibits that were recently installed at Mark Arts in Wichita, you’re going to have to wait a bit longer.

Mark Arts was one of at least four area attractions that had planned to reopen over the next several days under the original Phase II of Kansas’ reopening plan that was set to begin no sooner than May 18.

But on Thursday afternoon, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said the state would be taking a smaller step forward in the plan, calling it Phase 1.5. Museums and other indoor leisure activities are among those activities that will remain closed during Phase 1.5. In the updated directive, Phase II now will begin no sooner than June 1.

So that means Mark Arts in east Wichita, the Museum of World Treasures in downtown Wichita, the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson and the Great Plains Nature Center in northeast Wichita will remain closed instead of reopening between May 18 and May 26. Before Kelly’s announcement, officials had said their reopening plans were contingent on Kansas’ reopening directives.

In the meantime, the attractions will continue their virtual programming and other activities they started during the COVID-19 shutdown to keep their fans — and staff — engaged.

The naturalists and education staff at Great Plains Nature Center have created a series of talks and virtual hikes to discover water snakes, spring flowers and more as part of its “Learn from Home, the self-isolation station” programming available on its website (gpnc.org), Facebook page and on YouTube.

Mark Arts has been having free, weekly at-home creative isolation challenges on its Facebook page (facebook.com/MarkArtsKS) and has videoconferenced its arts and culinary workshops through Zoom. Those will continue in the next few weeks, said Laura Roddy, the center’s director of development and marketing. The arts center tagline during the shutdown has been “creativity isn’t canceled.”

Mark Arts installed its Abstract National Exhibition earlier this month, using a Facebook Live event to showcase the exhibit’s opening. More than 200 people tuned in for that virtual event, Roddy said.

A second exhibition, the Study Collection: Women in the Arts, which features work from Mark Arts’ holdings that were either created or collected by women, is new, too. A virtual tour will likely be offered of that exhibit, Roddy said.

The Cosmosphere has two virtual events scheduled this week related to the 30th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope. At 3 p.m. Wednesday, May 20, it’s hosting an hour-long Zoom interview between former astronaut Steven Hawley and the science center’s president Jim Remar. Hawley was a member of the deployment and servicing mission teams. It will be available at cosmomeeting.org and on the Cosmosphere Facebook page (facebook.com/kscosmosphere). At 9 a.m. Thursday, May 21, the center has scheduled a Facebook virtual presentation about the science behind the Hubble telescope and the impact it’s made.

The Museum of World Treasures is doing virtual programming through its Facebook page (facebook.com/MuseumofWorldTreasures).

This story was originally published May 17, 2020 at 8:00 AM.