East Hawaii museums, some more reliant on tourist visits than others, are among those businesses working to reopen as restrictions in place to combat COVID-19 are loosened.
Nonessential businesses, including museums, were shuttered months ago in response to the pandemic and have recently been cleared to open.
But mandatory 14-day quarantines for out-of-state and interisland travelers have significantly reduced the number of visitors to Hawaii and the Big Island.
While the interisland quarantine requirement was lifted last Tuesday, Gov. David Ige recently announced he will extend until July 31 the mandatory two-week quarantines for passengers arriving from out of state.
Executive Director Carol Walker said at the East Hawaii Cultural Center, just 28% of visitors to its gallery come from outside of Hawaii, while a majority are Big Island residents.
The lifting of quarantine for interisland travelers likely won’t have much impact on the center, she said, adding that only 9% to 10% of visitors come from other islands.
The EHCC has started its staggered, gradual reopening.
The center’s gallery is open now, Walker said, provided there aren’t more than six people at a time and those who enter wear a mask and socially distance.
“The gallery is probably the easiest thing to reopen because it lends itself very naturally to social distancing,” she said.
An exhibit opened earlier this month featuring two artists from West Hawaii, and while the center didn’t host a typical opening, Walker said “people were coming.”
More challenging, though, are the art workshops offered for children and gamelan classes, she said.
Reopening the EHCC’s theater is “potentially very challenging,” but Walker said the center will look at state guidelines when doing so.
EHCC closed for two months because of COVID-19.
Walker said there are two characteristics that sets the center apart from other nonprofits that may help or hinder their efforts to stay afloat, including the fact EHCC is not heavily reliant on paid staff. There are just three part-time employees — a fourth position, vacated before the start of the pandemic, remains unfilled.
While it can be a struggle to have enough money for their salaries without revenue coming in, Walker said EHCC likely compares favorably to other museums with more staffing costs.
But at least a third of revenues come from EHCC’s facility use and program fees, funding sources that dried up as soon as the virus hit, she said.
Walker said the museum did receive emergency funds from the U.S. Small Business Administration, which has helped, and has relied on generous community donors.
But if there are no changes whatsoever to its financial circumstances, the museum will go into the red at some point in September, she said.
However, EHCC is looking at other ways to bring in more money, said Walker, “so we can hang on by our fingernails until things to back to a more normal revenue stream.”
At the Lyman Museum and Mission House, about half of visitors on a weekly basis are from Hawaii Island, while others come from out of state and international locations, President and Executive Director Barbara Moir said.
In the past, the museum has gotten a fair amount of traffic from visiting cruise ships, and Moir said she’s now working with different cruise lines to determine how those visits will be handled if crowd and distancing restrictions are still in place once port calls resume later this year.
Moir expects the museum to open this month, but said a pilot program in place for the remainder of the summer will test new procedures for reopening.
Although specifics are still being determined, those new procedures include timed museum admissions and more frequent but shorter Mission House tours that limit the number of people in the house to about five.
The museum will be open Monday-Fridays during this pilot.
Moir said a Paycheck Protection Program loan has helped the Lyman Museum, which employs 11 people, cover its biggest expenses: salaries, wages and utilities.
“We also had to dip into our own funds, because (other) bills still had to be paid.”
Additionally, Moir said the museum received a grant from the Hawaii Council for the Humanities to help cover the cost of supplies needed to reopen.
There have been no furloughs or layoffs because of COVID-19, and employees have continued working during the shutdown.
However, Moir said having the museum closed also provided museum staff a chance to tackle deep cleaning and organizational projects they otherwise couldn’t, and to retrain Mission House docents.
The Pacific Tsunami Museum is waiting to hear Gov. David Ige’s plans for mainland and international visitors before making any decisions about reopening, President and CEO Marlene Murray said.
“I don’t know when we’ll reopen, but we are using this time to move forward with renovation projects, including our exhibits, gift shop and reception desk,” Murray said in an email to the Tribune-Herald recently. “It is the perfect time for it because there will be no disruption to our visitors. And when we renovate, we will be mindful of federal and state safety guidelines, especially for social distancing, and design accordingly.”
The museum also is using the time to build its stock of cleaning and sanitation supplies and personal protection equipment, as well as develop new guidelines and procedures for reopening.
“We will do everything possible to ensure that our visitors, as well as our employees, return to a safe environment,” Murray wrote. “When we do reopen, we will be ready, and the museum will be better than ever.”
