The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis has announced it will reopen on Thursday, July 9, with significant precautionary safety measures in place in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have been actively planning and training to make the museum a safe space for visitors and staff to return. Health and safety are our first priorities, and I am confident that when we reopen our doors on July 9, visitors will enter a museum that remains free, safe, and open to all,” said museum executive director Lisa Melandri. “This will be a new and different CAM experience, but one that will be guided by our core values, which include being an institution that is welcoming, inclusive, and accessible. We continue to be a community space for contemporary art and ideas, which we greatly need right now.”
On view through Sunday, Aug. 23, are CAM exhibitions Derek Fordjour: SHELTER, Liz Johnson Artur: Dusha, the Street Views video installation, Marina Zurkow: The Thirsty Bird, and in the Education Galleries, ArtReach: Vashon High School.
For his first major solo museum exhibition, Derek Fordjour constructs an environment that places viewers in the heart of a storm. SHELTER, a seemingly makeshift, ramshackle structure of corrugated metal walls and a dirt floor, is populated by the artist’s signature paintings and sculptures. The work is constructed to heighten visitors’ awareness of their temporal nature, the tenuous circumstances in which art is sometimes made, and the vulnerability of millions caught up in human migrations across the earth, seeking shelter from a multiplicity of storms. A New York-based artist of Ghanaian heritage, Fordjour works primarily in the realm of portrait painting to create vibrant, multi-textured images.
For more than 30 years, the London-based Russian Ghanaian artist Liz Johnson Artur has been creating photographic representations of people of African descent around the world. Having grown up in Bulgaria, Germany and Russia, where she had little contact with black communities, the artist was inspired by the experience to use photography as a way to connect with other people across the African diaspora. “Dusha” is the Russian word for soul, and Johnson Artur’s intimate pictures capture the everyday beauty and distinctiveness of individuals that she has encountered on streets, in restaurants and clubs, or at public gatherings during her travels to Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and North America.
The Street Views video installation, Marina Zurkow: The Thirsty Bird, which can be viewed on the museum’s front façade, has been on display since January and will continue through Aug. 23.
Following guidelines set forth from the St. Louis Mayor’s Office and Department of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the museum plans to maintain safe social-distancing standards, including:
- Visitors will be strongly encouraged to reserve free, timed tickets in advance of their visit. Tickets will be made available online beginning Thursday, July 2.
- Visitors (age 9 and older) and staff are required to wear masks while in the museum.
- Cleaning and sanitation measures have been enhanced throughout the museum based on CDC guidelines.
- The CAM café and bar will be closed, but non-alcoholic beverages will be available for purchase.
- Tours and in-person programming are suspended until fall.
The museum will be open Thursday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with evening hours Friday, from 5 to 8 p.m. Special access will be given to visitors with higher health risks on Wednesdays, from 10 a.m. to noon.
For more information, visit camstl.org.
