It’s been an interesting week for the Vancouver Maritime Museum team. On Monday we showed up for work with a lot of questions but started the week like any other. Today we know it was a week like no other any of us has ever seen.
If you receive our newsletter or follow us on social media you’ll know that on Tuesday, we made the difficult decision to close the museum to the public as of Wednesday, March 18 to help slow the spread of coronavirus COVID-19. We felt it was the responsible thing to do. We must come together as a community to protect the vulnerable among us. And right now that means not congregating in groups. We plan to open again on April 6, and we’ll be closely following the situation so we can adjust our plans if necessary.
While the museum is not physically open, we are still here for you. The team is answering emails and working hard to bring you online content. We’re calling this effort #VirtualVMM.
We’ve already started posting content on our social channels, and we invite you to climb aboard the historic St. Roch via the online virtual tour. You can also browse our collections online and peruse our new library database. Over the coming days and weeks, you’ll see programming and activities on the blog and our social channel. There will be activities for the kids and lots of great information about our exhibitions and collections.
We’re all working from our homes and meeting via teleconference. It’s been amazing to see how everyone has risen to the challenge of delivering the museum online. Please visit the website regularly and follow our social channels for updates. On Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, follow @vanmaritime.
We welcome questions and ideas from you, our patrons and friends. Please leave them in the comments below.