Major exhibitions on hold as museums, galleries await reopening

While the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., prepares to lift the veil ona majorexhibition of ancient Egyptian artifacts next week, it will be at least two monthsbefore art lovers can take in a hotly anticipated show of portraits by 17th-century Dutch master Rembrandt at the National Gallery of Canada, directly across the Ottawa River.

Rembrandt in Amsterdam: Creativity and Competition was originally slated to open this week, but Ontario's pandemic reopening plan got in the way.

"Best case scenario we can open in July," said Rosemary Thompson, vice-president of marketing at the gallery. "But of course everything depends on the rate that people in Ontario get vaccinated."

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Under Ontario'sthree-step reopening plan,indoor museums and galleries must wait until Step 3, which will kick in when 70 to 80 per cent of adults have had their first vaccine doseand 25 per cent have had their second, and public health indicators remain trending in the right direction. The earliest that can happen is July 26, and even then venues must enforce strict capacity limits.

Thompson said the gallery was disappointed to learn the Rembrandt exhibition, five years in the planning and costing around $2 million to mount, would be postponed again.

"Public healthof courseis the most important thing, so we're going to follow the guidelines," said Thompson. "But I think that if the vaccinations roll out faster, we hope that the exhibition can open more quickly."

The gallery, which gota $6.2-million commitment in April's federal budget, in part to offset the loss of ticket sales,said 1,200 people have already registered for the Rembrandt exhibition'svirtual opening on Thursday.

It's a similar story at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, which had already decided to postpone its kid-friendly exhibition Bug Labuntil 2024, and now must wait another two months just to open its doors.

"With a show of this scale, the museum knew that COVID restrictions on capacity would limit both the numbers of visitors that could see it, as well as revenue from museum admissions, which covers the cost of bringing such a major show to Canada [from New Zealand]," said John Swettenham, the museum's vice-president of public affairs.

Unlike its Ontario counterparts, the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau can reopen June 2, thanks tothe faster pace of Quebec's pandemic recovery plan.

When it does, visitors will finally be able to see Queens of Egypt, an exhibition of more than 300 pricelessartifacts includingstatues, jewellery and funereal objects dating back 3,500 years.

The $2-million show is already a year behind schedule, postponed last summer when the spread of COVID-19 closed down the museum's main collaborator, the Museo Egizio in Turin, Italy.

In any other year, such high-profile exhibitions would qualify as summer blockbusters,attracting throngs of ticket buying tourists. But the travel restrictions, safety protocols and multiple delays that came with the pandemic have diminished expectationsin terms of both attendance and revenue.

"We're not going to make money on this," said Chantal Amyot, acting director general and vice-president of the at the Canadian Museum of History."But we don't do things just for money."

The museum, together with its sister institutionthe Canadian War Museum,received $4.9 millioninrelief funding from the federal government.

Amyot said after the last 15 months, Canadians are hungry for culture, and Queens of Egypt is expected to become a major draw.

"It would be a unique offering for people in the region,because seriously,there's been sort of a famine of events," she said.