NQD: Brooklyn Museum Reopening
The Brooklyn Museum celebrated fully reopening to the public this past Friday, September 10th with a “Community Appreciation Weekend.” From Friday until Sunday, the museum held several free events like “Drink and Draw” and “Meet the Curators,” in addition to offering all guests free general admission. The museum had previously only been partially open due to Covid restrictions.
One of the four events that took place on Sunday was an outdoor Pop-Up Market. From 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., there were 20–30 small business owners set up under tents on the sidewalk outside of the museum selling things like recycled clothing, flower arrangements, and artisan soaps. Outside one of the tents a sign with “As seen in The New Yorker!” written in colorful marker advertised custom bouquets from a flower shop called Fleur Elise. A few feet away, the owner could be heard excitedly telling customers “I’m famous now!” as she showed them a photocopied page of the article where her shop had been featured in the magazine’s August 9th publication.
While people shopped at the outdoor market and bought food from the several food trucks parked on the street, a small line formed to get inside the museum. Everyone was required to wear masks inside and a man stood at the door requesting vaccination cards and matching photo-IDs. Once inside, a person at the front desk handed me my free ticket and pointed me to the American Art and Ancient Egyptian Art galleries where free exhibit tours were to be held every 15 minutes. These tours were included in the list of events for the weekend and were scheduled to take place from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Sunday, but there were very few people in these areas of the museum and I was ultimately unable to find where the groups met up.
Outside of the quiet American and Ancient Egyptian galleries, the museum held several other fascinating exhibits. On the main floor, an exhibit titled “The Slipstream: Reflection, Resilience, and Resistance in the Art of Our Time” featured art that told the stories of police brutality, climate change, a divisive political climate, and the challenges of an ongoing pandemic. On the floors above there was a Dior fashion exhibit and another that featured former President Barack Obama’s official portrait — though access to these was not included with the general admission ticket.
After about an hour and a half of looking at all of the art, I made my way back outside where a significantly longer line had formed to enter the museum and the outdoor market was still going strong. Overall, the event had a surprisingly very local feel, and it seems that the Brooklyn Museum certainly succeeded in curating an event that shows appreciation and support to the communities and businesses that struggled along side them over the course of the pandemic.
