Behringer-Crawford Museum to Reopen July 11

COVINGTON, KY – Behringer-Crawford Museum (BCM) plans to reopen to the public on Saturday, July 11, after a four-month hiatus due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Temporary hours for the museum will be 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday. The museum is closed on Mondays. Curator’ Corner, the museum store will be open during regular museum hours, and NaturePlay@BCM, the museum’s outdoor playspace, will be accessible to visitors as well.

“We can’t wait to welcome our members and guests back,“ Laurie Risch, BCM executive director said. “Without them, we are just a big building filled with artifacts. With them here, BCM becomes a living entity which celebrates the people and events which formed Northern Kentucky’s vibrant history.”

BCM located in Devou Park, closed March 14.  In the interim, the building has undergone a deep-cleaning and sanitization, and multiple steps in coordination with CDC guidelines have been taken to ensure the well-being of the museum’s guests, employees and volunteers, according to Risch. These include the installation of hand-sanitizing stations throughout the museum and floor stickers to guide social distancing.

When the museum reopens, all staff and volunteers, as well as guests, will be required to wear face coverings, and complementary masks will be provided to guests who need them. Child-size “grocery carts” will be available for families to carry toys through the museum and return after their visits for recleaning.

The museum’s popular exhibit, “From Rituals to Runways: The Art of the Bead,” featuring costumes worn by the pop icon Cher, which was cut short by the epidemic, has been held over until the end of the summer.

Two of BCM’s annual signature events will continue, although in slightly different formats. The Music@BCM weekly summer concert series comes back later this month with three online concerts featuring Pat Kelly on July 9, Nicole Zuraitis on July 16, and Jake Speed on July 23. Three live concerts will take place at the museum: Magnolia Vale on July 30, Dark Moll on August 6 and Ben Levin & The Heaters on August 13. Complete details on the concert series will be posted on the  museum’s website, www.bcmuseum.org.

freshART, the museum’s annual auction of freshly-created works by local artists, will take place on Saturday, September 12, in hybrid form. Guests will have a choice of enjoying the event at the museum or at home, with a light box supper and the theme “a French picnic in the park.” All guests, regardless of location, will bid electronically. The silentART auction will begin, also online, on Saturday, August 13, and will culminate on September 12.

“While our doors were closed, we continued to provide programming for our communities in virtual form – tours of the museum and the bead exhibit, video chats with our curator, weekly online NKY History Hours, Tot Tuesdays! and Chippie’s science labs for kids, even virtual summer camps, “ Risch said.  “These have been great learning experiences for our guests and our staff. We will continue to offer them on our website and YouTube after we reopen, and explore new ways to integrate virtual experiences into our programming mix.”

Behringer-Crawford Museum is located in Devou Park, 1600 Montague Rd., Covington, KY 41011. For more information about BCM, call (859) 491-4003, email info@bcmuseum.org or visit www.bcmuseum.org.  BCM is supported in part by our members; the City of Covington, Kenton County Fiscal Court, ArtsWave, Kentucky Arts Council, Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame and The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr. US Bank Foundation.