It may be the first museum in our area to re-open. The 1000 Islands Museum in Gananoque is welcoming visitors — with COVID-19 restrictions, of course.
The Water Street facility has been back in business since last Friday, when Premier Doug Ford gave the green light..
“I think the biggest challenge for us is being relevant in our community when we’ve had to be closed,” said Joanne van Dreumel, the museum’s executive director. “So as of mid-March we had to close our doors to the public.
“We are a year-round museum, so not being opened to the public has been a challenge to us.”
Now that the doors are open, van Dreumel says the pandemic means a whole different set of rules.
“The health and safety of our staff and our visitors are priority one for us,” she said.
“We know that this is a very serious disease and we are absolutely doing our best, following all protocols to ensure people that come here are going to be safe and healthy.”
And that means precautions have been put in place, including directional arrows, hand sanitizing stations, a limit on the number of visitors and the use of mandatory face coverings.
Van Dreumel says they’re offering the community a place to spend some time with their family.
“We take groups of up to five people; we’re limiting our access to 10 people,” she said. “We’ll see how things go through the initial stages — perhaps we can open up to more people later on, but that’s where we’re at right now.
The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 until 4.
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