Rock Hall To ReOpen Monday With New Artifacts
Jun 13, 2020 10:41:18 GMT -5
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Post by Forum Lord on Jun 13, 2020 10:41:18 GMT -5
www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2020/06/rock-hall-to-reopen-monday-with-new-artifacts-from-billy-idol-lynyrd-skynyrd.html
Rock Hall to reopen Monday with new artifacts from Billy Idol, Lynyrd Skynyrd
Updated Jun 11, 2020; Posted Jun 11, 2020
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in downtown Cleveland will reopen on Monday, June 15.Joshua Gunter,cleveland.com
By Troy L. Smith, Cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland’s biggest tourist attraction will reopen its doors on Monday. And those doors will be sliding.
Closed since March 14, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will reopen on June 15 under the state’s Responsible RestartOhio plan. The museum is also offering a special free admission day exclusively for healthcare workers and their families on Sunday, June 14.
The reopening comes with several safety measures, including three sliding glass doors that have been installed at the museum’s entrance so visitors can avoid touching entryways. Other safety and social distancing measures include:
CLEan Committed including daily continuous cleaning
Hand sanitizing stations throughout the museum
Fans to stay at least two Stratocasters (six-plus feet) apart
Temperature checks before entry
Limited capacity with timed ticketing
Staff and guests required to wear masks indoors
Credit card and mobile payment only with plexiglass shields at checkout
Advance online ticketing purchase at rockhall.com
The new digital ticketing system will allow visitors to scan pre-purchased tickets at stations set up inside the museum’s main atrium. Tickets must be reserved online. Attendees will be given timeslots to visit in half-hour increments to avoid lines.
The Rock Hall will also have new operating hours. The museum will be open daily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Early access will be available at 10 a.m. for teachers on Mondays, vulnerable fans on Tuesdays, Rock Hall members on Saturdays, and healthcare workers on Sundays. Ticket prices before the museum closed remain intact.
Rock Hall president and CEO Greg Harris says attendance numbers are based on the Association of Art Museum Directors’ recommendation of 113 square feet per person. That will allow the Rock Hall to function at up to roughly half its usual capacity, Harris says.
“This is new for all of us, I believe,” says Harris, who has worked on the upper levels of the museum industry for more than 25 years. “At museums, people respect each other. But we do need to make sure we maintain proper social distancing. We can still provide an impactful experience and do it in a safe way.”
The Rock Hall’s reopening comes with some new additions. Two new motorcycles – Artimus Pyle of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s 1979 Harley-Davidson Sportster and Billy Idol’s 1985 Harley-Davidson Wide Glide – have been installed on the museum’s main floor near the SiriusXM studio.
“Just the fact we can still continue our collecting efforts while all of this is going on is amazing,” says Nwaka Onwusa, the Rock Hall’s director of curatorial affairs. "I’m happy we’re able to have new things for people to be able to see.”
The Rock Hall’s Interactive Garage exhibit and its theaters will temporarily be closed. But the outdoor plaza will be open Monday with food trucks. Harris says live music will return to the plaza on Thursday and Saturday evenings in July.
As part of the reopening, the core group of staffers that were furloughed at the Rock Hall are back at work. Harris says they will call back a limited number of public-facing staff to help with the reopening, while other employees will return as demand dictates.
“Our focus is entirely on providing the right number of staff for the right number of visitors,” says Harris. “If things go well in the first couple of weeks, we can increase the number of tickets available.”
Also, the Rock Hall has taken over the museum’s store, which was previously run by FYE, which functioned as a tenant. Sunrise Records acquired FYE earlier this year for $10 million. The Rock Hall decided to purchase the store’s inventory and will run all operations moving forward.
If all goes well, this could still be a huge year for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The museum has extended the run of “Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll," the biggest exhibit in the Rock Hall’s history, through the end of the year.
The 2020 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony is still scheduled to take place Nov. 7 at Public Auditorium. The ceremony will honor the Class of 2020, which includes The Doobie Brothers, Depeche Mode, Whitney Houston, Nine Inch Nails, The Notorious B.I.G., Whitney Houston, as well as longtime music managers Irving Azoff and Jon Landau.
However, Harris says the current focus is on the museum reopening its doors.
“Right now, we’re not putting a lot into the induction until the end of this month,” Harris admits. “Our goal is to open and do it safely and cleanly to still give people a great rock and roll experience.”