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Utah Museum of Fine Arts sets a reopening date of Aug. 26

(Trent Nelson | Tribune file photo) Georgia O'Keeffe's "Manhattan (1932)" is one of three iconic landscape paintings on loan from the Smithsonian American Art Museum at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City on Friday Oct. 25, 2019. The painting and three others on loan to the museum will be on display when UMFA reopens on Aug. 26, 2020.

  | Aug. 14, 2020, 7:20 p.m.
| Updated: 7:41 p.m.

The Utah Museum of Fine Arts is getting ready to reopen, five months after the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to close its doors.

The museum, on the University of Utah campus, has set its reopening for Wednesday, Aug. 26, museum officials said.

Operating hours will be curtailed to Wednesday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m. Special hours for seniors and visitors at high risk of being ill from COVID-19 will be held from 11 a.m. to noon on those days.

UMFA members, docents and volunteers, and essential health care workers, can attend an early opening of the museum, Wednesday through Friday, Aug. 19-21. Admission is free on those days.

Capacity will be limited to 100 visitors at a time, and no groups may be larger than 10 people. Visitors are strongly encouraged to reserve tickets in advance at the museum’s website, umfa.utah.edu/visit.

All visitors and staff must wear face masks, and maintain 6 feet of distance between themselves and other visitors. And if you’re sick, stay home. (That goes for staff and visitors.)

Museum staff have minimized touchpoints and enhanced cleaning. The museum’s HVAC system has been checked by university facilities experts, and exceeds the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Group tours and classroom visits are on hold for the foreseeable future. Instead, UMFA is offering digital tours and resources, as well as distance-learning opportunities. All museum events and programs are online-only until further notice.

The Museum Store will be open during the new museum hours. The Museum Café will be open Monday through Friday for beverage service only.

UMFA is extending the run of two shows that were going when the museum closed in March: “Beyond the Divide: Merchant, Artist, Samurai in Edo Japan,” an exhibition from the museum’s collection of Japanese art; and “Utah Women Working for Better Days!,” a celebration of voting rights timed to the centennial of the 19th Amendment, which had only been open for a week before the shutdown.

Works by Georgia O’Keeffe, Thomas Moran, Alma Thomas and Diego Rivera, which have been on loan to UMFA, remain on view.

UMFA’s announcement follows the reopening of another University of Utah staple: the Natural History Museum of Utah, which scheduled to open its doors again on Saturday, Aug. 15.