The National Gallery of Art will partially reopen next week, the museum has announced. The ground floor of the West Building will open starting July 20 with reduced hours and limited capacity. Masks will be required.
This week, visitors can reserve free timed-entry passes online to see the exhibits, which include “Degas at the Opéra” and “True to Nature: Open-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870.” The museum will release passes every Monday at 10 AM to reserve for the following week and there will be some walk-ins available (first come, first served). Passes are only needed indoors: The Sculpture Garden, which reopened on June 20, doesn’t require them.
To keep up with Covid-19 safety guidelines, the NGA will require face masks for everyone aged 2 and up and asks for visitors to stay home if they are unwell. The museum also announced it would be doing enhanced cleaning of high-touch surfaces and dining furniture, as well as providing hand sanitizer. Cash won’t be accepted for any food or retail purchases. The National Gallery of Art will join a handful of area museums that have recently reopened their doors during the pandemic, including the International Spy Museum and the Bible Museum.
Rosa joined Washingtonian in 2016 after graduating from Mount Holyoke College. She covers arts and culture for the magazine. She’s written about anti-racism efforts at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, dinosaurs in the revamped fossil hall at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum, and the horrors of taking a digital detox. When she can, she performs with her family’s Puerto Rican folkloric music ensemble based in Jersey City. She lives in Adams Morgan.
