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San Antonio Musem Of Art Will Reopen Next Week

courtesy San Antonio Museum of Art
San Antonio Museum of Art

One of San Antonio's largest museums has scheduled its reopening. Emily Sano, interim co-director of the San Antonio Museum of Art, said their 87,000-square-foot size makes reopening a little more practical than some other museums.

“Because we're large, we have broad galleries. It's easy to safely social distance," she said.

SAMA staff has devised protocols derived from best practices and from local, state and national authorities. Though the state government just recommends that individuals wear a mask, SAMA will require its visitors to wear one.

"Instead of saying 'masks are required,' the governor is saying they're recommended. However, we did not wish to start out that way,” Sano said. “In order to give our visitors and our staff confidence we wanted to start out with the more stringent measure of requiring masks."

Sano noted if you arrive without a face mask, they have a large number for sale, and for cheap. Visiting the museum, for the time being, will change dramatically with this reopening. You have to schedule it.

"Yes, that's correct. We have time slots on our website,” she said. “Potential visitors should sign up for a time slot. They will get a reservation with an email. That will ensure that we are staying within our 25% of capacity. Once they get to the museum, they're welcome to stay all day, if they wish."

Instead of opening all at once, they're staggering the opening.

“We are reserving the first two days for members only, and then general visitors will be welcomed on May 28,” Sano said.

SAMA Members will be welcomed on Tuesday, May 26, and Wednesday, May 27, then the general public is welcome that Thursday.

"We want to do this in the safest possible manner," she said.

Their website is already set up to take reservations.

Jack Morgan can be reached at Jack@TPR.org and on Twitter at @JackMorganii.

Jack Morgan can be reached at jack@tpr.org and on Twitter at @JackMorganii