Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum To Reopen With New Pandemic Protocols

MASS PLACES MRS GARDNER'S TABEL — The courtyard at Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, is shown Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2004. Isabella Gardner's "Holiday Table," which is set with Gardner's original dinnerware, stemware and silverware, is displayed at the museum through Jan 9, 2005. Gardner was born in 1840 and became one of the foremost female patrons of the arts and also a supporter and friend of leading artists and writers of her time, including John Singer Sargent, James McNeill Whistler and Henry James.

Hannah Uebele is a producer for Under the Radar with Callie Crossley and previously worked as associate producer for Boston Public Radio. She graduated from Tufts University with a B.S. in English and Environmental Studies. She's a proud Delawarean but has found herself saying "wicked" more and more often, so the Bostonian metamorphosis is well underway.Contact: hannah_uebele@wgbh.org

July 08, 2020

Updated August 07, 2023

Peggy Fogelman, the Norma Jean Calderwood Director of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, spoke with Boston Public Radio on Wednesday about the museum's reopening next Wednesday.

"Our priority is that our visitors feel safe and comfortable, as well as inspired and uplifted through their experience with art," Fogelman said. "So we will have somewhat limited capacity, people will plan their visit through time ticketing so that we can maintain social distancing, everyone will be required to wear face coverings and we have new cleaning protocols."

The new museum experience will still be able to provide visitors with the intimacy to art that they search for, Fogelman said.

"For people who see and encounter art as a means of solace and allievating anxiety, that will certainly be there for them," she said. "At the same time, there are many issues in our society in terms of structural racism and tragic losses that our community has experienced both through COVID and through violence, and we're very pleased that we've been able to extend our Boston Apollo exhibition through Oct. 12, which explores the life of Thomas McKeller."