WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Museum-goers are used to signs reminding them not to touch the exhibits.

 

This summer, they may see reminders not to touch their own faces.

 

 If the commonwealth progress through the phased reopening announced by Gov. Charlie Baker last month, museums could be allowed to open as early as July. Recently, the director of Stockbridge's Norman Rockwell Museum and the Southern Berkshire director for the Trustees of Reservations participated in a virtual town hall hosted by 1Berkshire to talk about what summer in the region will look like.

 

A big part of the summer scene will focus on the region's natural splendor and outdoor recreational opportunities.

 

But at some point, those indoor displays at the Rockwell Museum or the Trustees' Gilded Age cottage at Naumkeag will be open to the public once again.

 

When that day comes, the public will have to remember that the social distancing they practice in the rest of their daily lives applies to life inside the museum.

 

"There are different levels of precautions that originate from different places," said Brian Cruey of the Trustees. "But I feel like at the end of the day and definitely at Naumkeag yesterday when we had our first day welcoming the public back, you really saw what was working. There may be a couple of points where we needed to do this or shift something differently.

 

"I've been really pleasantly surprised how respectful people in the Berkshires have been helping us to move along the agenda of a safe and secure reopening. People have been really great about wearing masks and maintaining that social distancing."

 

Cruey said institutions need that level of cooperation.

 

"That is a really important part to this: as we welcome the public back just how much of a partner they are with us as we attempt to do this," he said. "Because if they're not going to help us by showing up and voluntarily meeting these guidelines … that might force our hand in reconsidering how we open or being open at all.

 

"I think the messaging around the public when we welcome them back and making sure they know what the expectations are when they're coming to us is one of the most important parts of a reopening process."

 

Rockwell CEO Laurie Norton Moffat said that although the earliest the commonwealth's Phase 3 could occur is early July, her museum is being a little more cautious and targeting the middle of July.

 

"It's possible that these phases, as was announced in New York [Friday], they were about to cycle into Phase 2 but they're waiting on data experts to analyze the healthcare results after Phase 1, so there's a slight delay," Moffat said. "So we're building that buffer in and spending that time on all of the program plans. Our heart quickens to think about getting back into the galleries and bringing art to the world. We have some humorous exhibitions that I think will be really great for healing and uplifting the community.

 

"But of course, with all the safety precautions we're all being asked to create -- from timed ticketing to the cleansing methodology of our sites to one-way navigation to having policies in place. So we're taking the time to put all those policies in place and put our programming in place for a mid-July opening."

 

"Social distancing" could have a silver-lining for visitors to those galleries.

 

"Museum programming will shift this summer because we know there will be limitations on gathering," Moffat said. "The notion of docent-led guided tours with people packed shoulder-to-shoulder in a gallery will not be happening in that way this summer.

 

"We will be deciding how many people can physically be in a space. It will be very thin. It will be a luxurious experience in many ways to have the privacy to look at art with only a handful of people in each space."

 

Moffat and Cruey were joined in Friday's video conference by Mindi Moran, the managing director of Canyon Ranch. All agreed that there will be additional challenges for businesses that welcome the public.

 

"We have some time, because we're going to be allowed to fully open at the third phase, to work on those standard operating procedures," Morin said. "To work on what it's going to look like with this new normal.

 

"Guidelines [from the commonwealth] would be helpful in terms of what is the amount of people, what is that percentage? Guidelines in terms of, if it's a fitness class or it's a hike outside or it's a program that we do -- because we're very program heavy here at Canyon Ranch."

 

Cruey raised another practical concern.

 

"All of us are struggling, one, to identify what [personal protective equipment] and cleaning materials are the best to use, and, two, sourcing them is very, very challenging," Cruey said. "I think it would be great if there was some sort of consensus in supply, which I know is one everyone's wish list. That's really the thing we're struggling the most.

 

"What I've been really struggling with is sourcing the amount of PPE we need to really open, clean regularly, supply people with masks if they come on the property without them. That's a big question. What do you do? I can barely find enough for my staff right now, how do I supply them for people coming in as well. That's a huge expense. It would be kind of nice if there was some sort of support for us to deal with this because adding that kind of maintenance on top of an already labor-intensive industry, which the tourism industry is, with reduced capacity on top of it, is really hard."

 

On the procurement front, Morin recommended that people in the hospitality industry rely on local companies like Lenox's Zogics.

 

"That has really been great as a community that we're all helping each other out," she said. "It's frustrating when things are on back order and things are unknown and there are shipping costs and dealing with Amazon and all of that.

 

"If we could really rely on our local partners as much as we can, because I know they've already stepped up, which has been amazing."

 

Despite the challenges of educating visitors, creating new procedures and supplying their operations, the participants on Friday's call were optimistic about the opportunities for the summer of 2020.

 

"I'm confident that people will return to the museum in safe ways and appreciate that we're all working so hard to be able to be able to both provide a season as well as keep our visitors, our employees and everyone who comes on the campus safe and able to enjoy an uplifting experience," Moffat said.