Reopening in a COVID-19 and Broken World
The Neill-Cochran House Museum will reopen on Wednesday, June 3rd for self-guided tours. It’s hard to believe we have been closed to the public for almost 3 months now. We have implemented new safety precautions: requiring masks for staff, volunteers, and visitors; suspension of in-person programming and guided tours; timed ticket entry; protocols for sanitizing surfaces. This new “normal” isn’t what any of us really want, but we are happy to do it in order to provide a safe space for family outings at a time when such safe spaces can be hard to find.
These months have challenged all of us in the museum sector existentially. For many, the loss of revenue (admissions, gift shop, rentals, programming) has been devastating. One statistic has suggested that 1 in 7 museums will never reopen after COVID-19 due to the financial impact of the crisis. For all, we have struggled to find new ways to connect with our communities while our doors have been shut.
In the case of a historic house museum, like the NCHM, part of our mission lies in the preservation of the structures on our site, and that work is ongoing whether or not we are open to the public. However, what is the point of preservation? In my mind, it is to preserve the power of place, to make it possible for current and future generations to ground themselves, planting their feet and their consciousness within the long arc of history, and not just in the ephemeral present.
Connecting to that long arc of history, and to others within our own community, is always important, but even more so in times of crisis. And we certainly are living through crisis. Our country is hurting. Our citizens are hurting. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the death of over 100,000 Americans – family members, friends, colleagues, mentors, cultural icons. The crisis has created financial stress and worse for an untold number, and we find ourselves suspicious of one another – who is safe? Who is a carrier? Add to that the events last week in Minneapolis, but also in Georgia earlier this spring, in Louisville, and elsewhere, and we can see that if we the people are to be one people, we need to find places where we can do the difficult work of coming together as a community.
The exhibits we have on view right now get to the heart of Austin’s difficult history with race. Reckoning with the Past: Slavery, Segregation, and Gentrification in Austin details the history of enslavement and African-American/White relations in Texas and particularly in Austin from its beginnings in the 16th century up through today. Our larger show, If These Walls Could Talk, brings together a collaboration between the museum, visual artist Ginger Geyer, and actor and storyteller Jennifer Cumberbatch. Together, we have presented a project far greater than the sum of its parts. Ginger’s trompe l’oeil sculpture both blends in with and disrupts our historically installed spaces, noting not only what is present in the rooms but what is most clearly absent – visual reminders of the enslaved artisans who built the site, and the enslaved people and later servants who enabled the house’s functions. Jennifer’s performances, and the orientation video for the exhibition, face history head on and rebalance the narrative in a way that honors the contributions of all who passed through our site over time.
And so we reopen. Maybe we are just one small blip on the screen. But our doors are open. And if you’re an Austinite sticking around town for the summer, I invite you come see what’s been in your backyard this whole time. Let’s continue the hard work of building community together.
— Rowena Dasch, Executive Director, Neill-Cochran House Museum