The Field Museum is set to reopen to the public on July 24th, the museum said Thursday. Museum Members will be allowed as early as July 17th.
The Field joins the Shedd, which reopened on July 3rd on the lakefront Museum Campus. The Adler Planetarium still remains closed.
Under the Phase 4 guidelines in Illinois, visitors will be limited to 25% capacity, or up to an estimated 6,000 visitors at a time based off the museum’s square footage and City of Chicago fire codes.
The museum will also only operated five days a week. Masks will be required for anyone age 2 and up with social distancing and signs directing visitors through one-way paths. Hand sanitizer will also be available throughout the building.
Areas with touch screens will remain closed, but most exhibits, including the Griffin Halls of Evolving Planet, Inside Ancient Egypt, and the Grainger Hall of Gems will be open.
Research on the campus has been closed for the past four months due the ongoing pandemic. The Field Museum has been one of many organizations to feel the effects of the pandemic here in Illinois.
On June 7th, Lynika Strozier, a researcher in the Field Museum’s DNA Lab, died from complications of COVID-19. A scholarship fund was born out of a GoFundMe page set to raise $11,000 for Strozier’s funeral costs. Since then, the GoFundMe raised over $84,000 to set up a scholarship in her honor.
