Page 34 - BusinessWest July 6, 2020

reopen, phase 3 looks most likely, which means very soon. But the state’s guidance is only one consideration. The other is keeping visitors safe and helping prevent a viral flareup in a region that has effectively depressed infection rates, as opposed to states like Florida and Texas that were more lax about regulating crowds — and have seen cases spike in recent weeks.
“My brother and are watching how things are going,” Fiore said. “We’re certainly watching other businesses open back up, but we’re also hear-
ing about the resurgence in certain places, about
“When we closed our doors,
we still needed to have staff
here, because we have to take
care of whatever is happening. Butterflies are laying eggs every day. Caterpillars are hatching out every day. We need to feed and care for the lizards, tortoises, birds, fish ... all sorts of animals have to be taken care of.”
people getting together and going right back to a situation we don’t want to be in.”
Historic Deerfield, which shuttered its build-
ings to the public a few weeks before the start of its 2020 season, doesn’t expect to reopen most of them until September.
“We had a lot of different chal- lenges and things to figure out,” said Laurie Nivison, director of Market- ing, explaining why the organiza- tion’s leadership isn’t rushing back before they feel it’s safe. “Just think- ing ahead to when it might be pos- sible to open again, we decided to move some bigger things to the fall. The fall season is always a big time for us. That’s when people start thinking they want to come to Deer- field, so we said, ‘let’s look at opening around Labor Day weekend.’”
Losing an entire spring and most of summer is a considerable finan- cial hit, of course, and the center was forced to lay off dozens of staff. But at the same time, it has looked to stay relevant and connected to the community in several ways, including putting a series of ‘Maker Monday’ workshops online, taking a virtual approach to teaching peo- ple how to stencil, make their own paper, or building a decoupage box, to name a few recent examples.
Meanwhile, museum curators
have been sharing plenty of inter-
esting artifacts from the collection
online, while the director of historic preservation recently took people on a virtual tour of the attic of one of the historic houses.
Because it’s an indoor attraction, Kathy Fiore says Magic Wings won’t reopen until she’s confident visitors will be safe.
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