WEST HAVEN, Conn. — Museums were one of the many places hit hard by the pandemic. While some eventually opened back up, the recovery process has been slow.
The Children's Museum in West Hartford reopened last summer but with changes.
"Our museum is actually only on one floor now. We had three floors prior. We can't have our animal demonstrations that people love just because we don't know the effect of the virus on animals," said Joe Defeo of The Children's Museum.
Signs were posted throughout to remind everyone to wear their face masks, social distance, sanitize and follow the one-way flow of traffic.
Even with the fast distribution of vaccines, Defeo said they are not quick to open at 100-percent capacity especially when most of their visitors are children.
"Children are not yet vaccinated, and they won't be vaccinated for a while, so we have to maintain that and that plays into our decision a lot," added Defeo.
Also on the same page was the Lutz Children's Museum in Manchester. They closed for up to seven months.
"We had no incoming income, no visitors, no nothing," said Kate Morrissey of the Lutz Children's Museum
Morrisey said she relied on PPP loans to keep her doors open.
"We relied on PPP loans to get through and had to take out other loans and not having the usual donations even that we would normally be receiving," added Morrissey.
Operating at only 50-percent capacity, she said she is going to keep it this way for now.
"The governor did open us up to 100-percent capacity but to be able to maintain six-foot distancing, we can't do 100-percent capacity," added Morrissey.
If you decide to visit a museum, make sure to give them a call for reservations or to purchase tickets since there have been changes in capacity and hours of operation.
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