Local art, history needs local help

COVID-19 has kept away volunteers, the backbone of local art galleries and museums

Story by Lauren Hines, Taylor Schmitt, Beibei Lu, Emma Keady | Feb. 4, 2022 | Vox Magazine

At the beginning of the pandemic, the first thing Mary Ellen Lohmann did was turn back to history. As the director of administration and communications at the Boone County History and Culture Center, she used history as her crutch. “While it was kind of scary to think about lockdowns, it was a tiny bit easier knowing that they got through it 100 years ago,” Lohmann says.

Others relied on movies, social media and stories to get them through lockdown. “Don't tell me that a career in the arts isn't viable when all you're doing during this pandemic is consuming art,” says Kelsey Hammond, executive director at the Columbia Art League.

Nearly two years after the start of the pandemic, local museums and art galleries are still experiencing the impact of COVID-19. Many have seen a steady rise in attendance and art sales, but all are struggling to have their volunteers safely return.

Local galleries and museums like the Museum of Missouri Military History, the Columbia Art League and the Boone County History and Culture Center have a paid staff, but most of the projects and customer-service roles are supported by volunteers.

“We don't have money to pay more staff,” Hammond says. “It's only ever been two people, which is really hard, but we've always relied on lots of volunteers to help us get through.”

For these museums and galleries, most of their volunteers are people who are retired or young professionals starting their careers. These young professionals are finding it hard to donate their time because reduced gallery hours make it difficult to fit volunteer time within their already busy schedules. As for retirees who are older, they’re at high-risk for COVID-19, and volunteering in public places can increase the risk of infection.

Having volunteers who can greet at the front desk or digitize historical documents allows the staff at these artistic and historical centers to take care of administrative tasks such as finances.

Funding is a big difference between public and private galleries or museums. The State Historical Society of Missouri receives some funding from private sources, but it is also state funded with a mission to freely provide Missourians with access to its collections and information. Because of pandemic-driven budget cuts, SHSMO is facing its own staff shortage. “With our staffing issues, things will be slowed down a little bit, but we are coming back, and we're excited about that,” says Joan Stack, curator of art collections at SHSMO.

During the pandemic, these centers had to adapt by shutting down for a few months. When they reopened they reduced hours and encouraged masks and social distancing. Many of those policies are still in place, but some have remote online options.

The Columbia Art League hosts its art classes in person and occasionally online. SHSMO hosts virtual zoom events and regularly updates its podcast. “It really widens our horizons, so I don't think we're going to stop," Stack says. "We probably won't do as many (Zoom events) because we want to welcome people to our gallery.”

With these centers back open, Hammond thinks people are itching to get out of the house. Venturing to local art galleries and museums offers a change of pace from the art on the walls they’ve been staring at for the past year and ten months.

Hammond thinks that’s why the Columbia Art League’s sales and attendance are steadily increasing to pre-pandemic levels. SHSMO, the Museum of Missouri Military History and the Boone County History and Culture Center are all seeing an increase in attendance.

But that creates a new problem. “In the summer, we had the highest numbers we'd had since … I started in February 2019,” Lohmann says. “But that led to new challenges of making sure we could meet that response.”

The directors of these centers said the vaccine was vital to get older people and volunteers to feel safe enough to come back. The faithful volunteers who have felt safe enough to return to the Boone County History and Culture Center have done more shifts and adjusted to take on new and different tasks.

Although attendance, donations and sales are slowly returning to pre-pandemic levels, these centers need local help. “Remind them that they have to support you in some way whether volunteering or donating or something,” Hammond says. “Get involved in some way, and the reward from being involved is gonna make you feel so much better and feel like you are part of this community.”

Originally published by Vox Magazine