Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The doors are open again at the LaGrange Art Museum after an eight-week closure.

The museum is encouraging residents and visitors view the third annual LaGrange Southeast Regional exhibition, which was closed only three weeks after it opened on Feb. 21. It will remain at the museum until July 28.

Regular hours have resumed and are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and Saturdays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

“What is an art museum without people?” said Laura Jennings, LaGrange Art Museum Executive Director in a press release. “We have missed everyone and are ready to welcome them back.”

The museum will continue to feature exhibitions for the remainder of 2020 but will be rescheduling fundraisers, special events and certain classes until 2021.

“Making the decision to reschedule so much of what we are about until 2021 was as difficult as any the executive board and I have made,” Jennings said. “I hope we look back on 2020 and say – ‘We made the right decision.’”

Art ‘N Bloom, a fundraiser honoring art collectors Wes and Missy Cochran, and the Affairs with Flair events will be rescheduled for Spring 2021.

“The museum’s board and staff are focused on finding new, clever ways to show that the arts are vital to humanity’s well-being, especially during these unusual times. Optimism is our best ally as we steam ahead,” said board chairman Al Brannon.   

A new fundraiser, Festival of Wreaths, will debut in November 2021.

“An empty museum is like a school without students,” Jennings said. “It is abnormal. The staff, board members and I are thrilled to be welcoming visitors. Spring is typically an extremely busy time for us so the quiet of this shelter-in-place stretch was surreal.

The Visual Artists Alliance of LaGrange (VAAL) exhibition, featuring the work of local artists, will open Aug. 28 with a modified opening reception featuring staggered time slots to attend. The blown glass of internationally-renowned Frabel Studios will be featured beginning in mid-November.

A modified summer camp, sponsored by the Junior Service League, will be offered with no more than 10 students per session and only one session per day.

According to LAM, there will not be classes for children younger than second grade. Summer camp details will be available on the museum’s website beginning May 20.    

“The museum is the ideal outing as we all dip our toes back into a slowly reopening community,” Jennings said. “We are crowd free and admission is free. Last week we had two different couples who were having dates here.”

The museum is limiting the number of guests to a max capacity of 20, and no groups larger than five.

Additionally, the Woven Past Interactive Gallery is closed, and all guests are asked to wash their hands upon entering the building.

To keep up with the latest news involving the LaGrange Art Museum, go to www.lagrangeartmuseum.org.