CHICAGO — On a recent afternoon outside the Art Institute of Chicago, there was no trace of the line that typically snakes down the museum’s granite steps and along Michigan Avenue as visitors wait to enter the grand home of Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” and Grant Wood’s “American Gothic.” Every so often a passer-by paused on the desolate sidewalk to take a selfie with one of the bronze lions guarding the museum, but there was no reason to go further: The doors were locked.

In New York, a strikingly different tableau was playing out on Fifth Avenue outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art. One of the front doors was propped open to welcome a steady stream of visitors; teenagers sat in chatty clusters on the front steps; couples and families paused for temperature checks before entering the bustling lobby.

The contrasting scenes illustrate the diverging approaches that cities, states and individual institutions have taken toward museumgoing at this stage of the pandemic. Museums in New York City, which is now reporting a higher positivity rate than Chicago, have been allowed to operate without interruption at reduced capacities since they reopened in August — while Chicago’s museums were forced into hibernation for two months starting in mid-November, only recently getting the green light to reopen.
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Museums are open in Phoenix, where, per capita, the average number of new cases in the surrounding county over the last week has been more than twice as high as in Washington, where the museums of the Smithsonian Institution remain closed.

In Paris, the Louvre is closed, while in Madrid, the Prado is open.
​The trend in the United States in recent weeks has tilted toward reopening. State and local officials have allowed museums in Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Seattle and other cities to reopen again in some capacity, citing falling cases in their areas. The Art Institute of Chicago plans to reopen Feb. 11: officials are getting ready to remove the protective paper covering some of their Monets, calling furloughed employees back to work, and turning back on the lights that were extinguished to preserve the artwork.

As much as the new year is a time for new hopes and new resolutions, it also invites us to reflect. With the Smithsonian planning for the busy year ahead, I find myself looking back over my years at this institution, at the moments that have shaped my professional and personal life. Two decades have passed since my team raced to finish the exhibition “The American Presidency,” opening just ahead of the inauguration of President George W. Bush. This February marks the fourth Black History Month since the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, for which I proudly served as founding director. And the year I’ve spent as Smithsonian Secretary has been one of striving and sprinting to respond to seismic shifts that have shaken the foundations of this country. Each of these experiences, fraught with challenges, has shown me how much we can accomplish when we come together for a common purpose.

The past 12 months, especially, have been a lesson in how the Smithsonian can serve our public. We can grow our digital capabilities to reach new audiences. We can work closely with teachers, students and families to provide invaluable educational support. We can marshal our expertise and our collections to facilitate productive conversations around the most divisive issues.

In moments of crisis, people turn to institutions they trust. This past year demonstrated how important it is to protect our institutions, and in turn, how those institutions must work to help their communities. The challenges of a pandemic spurred the Smithsonian to collaborate more closely than ever with museum colleagues across the globe, with school districts across the country, and with leaders in local communities. Time and time again, I have been humbled by the faith they put in us.

Among all the resources that we have at our disposal-—historic collections, groundbreaking research, deep scholarly expertise—perhaps our most precious is public trust. For many years, museums have ranked among the nation’s most trusted institutions. As confidence in other public-facing institutions falters, museums remain safe havens. The public counts on us to safeguard culture, heritage and knowledge.

I am inspired by staff members across the Institution who are helping our audiences endure hardship and pursue hope. Together with you, our readers, and the entire Smithsonian community, I look forward to a creative and fulfilling new year.

For the music venue owners, theater producers and cultural institutions that have suffered through the pandemic with no business, the coronavirus relief package that congressional leaders agreed to this week offers the prospect of aid at last: it
includes $15 billion to help them weather a crisis that has closed theaters and
silenced halls.


​The money, part of a $900 billion coronavirus relief package, is designed to help the
culture sector — from dive-bar rock clubs to Broadway theaters and museums
— survive. Many small proprietors described it as their last hope for being able to
remain in business after a nearly yearlong revenue drought.

“This is what our industry needs to make it through,” said Dayna Frank, the owner
of First Avenue, a storied music club in Minneapolis. She is also the board president
of the National Independent Venue Association, which was formed in April and has
lobbied Congress aggressively for relief for its more than 3,000 members.

As the news of the deal began to trickle out on Sunday night, a collective sigh of
relief ricocheted through group text messages and social media posts. “Last night
was the first time I have smiled in probably nine months,” Ms. Frank said. Broadway theaters, which have been closed since March, applauded the relief
package. 

“We are grateful for this bipartisan agreement which will provide immediate relief
across our industry and a lifeline to the future,” Charlotte St. Martin, the president of
the Broadway League, the trade organization for producers and theater owners,
said in a statement. 

In a year filled with layoffs and budget cuts, New York City’s cultural institutions
got some good news on Tuesday: The Department of Cultural Affairs announced
that it would award $47.1 million in its newest round of grants, which this year will go to more than 1,000 of the city’s nonprofit organizations.

The grants include $12.6 million in new investments, nearly $10 million of which is
designated for coronavirus pandemic relief and arts education initiatives. Funding
will increase over the prior year for grantees, including larger increases for smaller
organizations, the department said.

The allotment includes a $3 million increase for 621 organizations in low-income
neighborhoods and those most affected by the pandemic, and $2 million for five
local arts councils that will distribute the funds to individual artists and smaller
nonprofits. Twenty-five organizations providing arts education programming will
receive a share of $750,000 allotted for that purpose.

The Apollo Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Chinese in America
will be among the 93 organizations to receive some of the largest grants, in excess of
$100,000 each. Both the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic, which
recently made headlines for negotiations with their unions, will receive grants over
$100,000. The funding will go to 1,032 nonprofits in total. 

​The department also made changes to its process that will make it easier for
organizations to receive multiyear grants, which had previously only been available
to groups with annual budgets of more than $250,000. Nearly all of the groups that
received funding for the fiscal year ending in June 2021 will receive support at a
comparable level for the year ending in 2022, pending the adoption of the city’s
budget, the department said.

​NEW YORK, NY, December 10, 2020 – With the financial state of US museums in peril amid the ever-changing global pandemic, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation today announced the second round of the Art Museum Futures Fund, distributing additional emergency COVID-19 grants totaling $3 million to provide much-needed support to small arts and cultural institutions across the US. 

As COVID-19 continues to surge across the US, art museums are losing millions of dollars in revenue, leaving about one-third of all institutions at risk of permanent closures, according to a recent survey by the American Alliance of Museums. Smaller institutions are far less able to rely on endowments to survive the financial burden of the COVID-19 crisis. The Art Museum Futures Fund’s second round of grants will be distributed to 14 small-sized arts museums with strong and long-standing commitments to the local community and social justice. Grants will be used to support general operations. 

“America’s small-sized arts and culture institutions sustain their communities by providing access to transformative and wide-ranging artistic contributions while also preserving many different histories and cultural legacies,” said Elizabeth Alexander, President of the Mellon Foundation. “As the pandemic continues to threaten the future viability of museums that have long been underresourced, we must do our part to strengthen support for these organizations and the trenchant work they tirelessly undertake to enrich and expand our American story.”

The Mellon Foundation launched the Art Museum Futures Fund in September 2020 with the distribution of nearly $24 million to 12 midsized arts museums and cultural organizations across the country facing unprecedented financial obstacles as a result of the pandemic. With today’s announced grants supporting smaller museums, Mellon’s contribution to the Art Museum Futures Fund totals $27 million, furthering the Foundation’s commitment to funding the recovery of art institutions as they adapt to the ongoing financial obstacles posed by the pandemic. 

The group of galleries will be named for the collector, whose 91-object gift is the
museum’s most significant since 1942.

​For more than 40 years, Ronald S. Lauder collected knights in shining armor. Now he has decided to be one.

At a time when cultural institutions all over the world are struggling in the
pandemic, the cosmetics magnate and philanthropist is giving 91 pieces of arms and
armor to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which the New York institution is calling
the most important donation of its kind in 80 years.

The Arms and Armor galleries have long been one of the museum’s main
attractions, a gateway to culture for children captivated by the majestic warriors on
horseback and an internationally renowned collection of chain mail, helmets and
breastplates from Europe, Asia, America and the Middle East.

Those galleries will be named after Mr. Lauder. “When I was collecting, I was collecting with the Met in mind,” he said in an interview. “Many of the things I bought were things the Met did not have.”

Mr. Lauder, who declined to disclose the donation’s value, said he decided to give at
a time when so many museums were worried about the future. “It’s important to
say, ‘We still care about institutions,’” he said. “It’s an important symbol.”

​NEW YORK, NY, December 3, 2020 – The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and William Penn Foundation today announced $8 million in emergency funding to 37 Philadelphia cultural organizations reeling from COVID-19.  

As the pandemic continues to wreak havoc across the country, arts institutions are particularly vulnerable to extraordinary financial fallout and face potentially permanent closures as a result. The emergency grants from Mellon and William Penn in combination, ranging from $50,000 to $400,000, will support organizations at the heart of the Philadelphia arts ecosystem with 12 months of immediate funding as they adapt to unprecedented obstacles posed by this worldwide health crisis.  

Philadelphia, the sixth-largest city in the United States, has an internationally admired heritage of arts and culture. Both Mellon and William Penn have long supported arts and culture organizations in the city. The William Penn Foundation is the largest funder of the sector and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the second-largest funder of Philadelphia arts, and both organizations’ support for the arts is often closely aligned.
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As a companion to grants recently made by the William Penn Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has committed $4 million in matching funds. This joint funding infusion marks the first time the two foundations have collaborated and comes at a moment when new COVID-19 restrictions have been placed on Philadelphia museums, requiring them to close until January 1, 2021.   

At a time when cultural institutions around the country are wrestling with the challenges of the pandemic, including limited attendance, as well as issues of racial equity, the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Tuesday for the first time elected two trustees to jointly lead the board, one of whom will be its first woman chair.

Hamilton (Tony) E. James, the executive vice chairman of the investment firm Blackstone, and Candace K. Beinecke, the senior partner at the law firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed, will succeed Daniel Brodsky starting Jan. 12. Mr. Brodsky’s third three-year term was set to expire in September but was extended because of the pandemic.

“These are exceptionally challenging times,” Mr. Brodsky said, “and the opportunity to have two leaders with strong yet different experiences is a win-win for the museum.”
The pair will be taking over stewardship of the museum at a time when the Met has projected a $150 million revenue loss through June resulting from the virus outbreak. To address this deficit, the museum has reduced programming, made executive pay cuts, downsized staff and raised about $25 million from trustees for an emergency fund.

Ms. Beinecke, a trustee since 2010, has served as chairman of the museum’s legal committee since 2011, and was co-chair of the search committee that recommended the Met’s current director, Max Hollein. Mr. James, who also joined the board in 2010, has been chair of the museum’s finance committee since 2014.