If you are hoping to get some field trips in with your kids at some local museums amid the coronavirus pandemic, you will have a minimal selection from which to choose.
Museums and galleries are allowed to reopen under the District’s second recovery phase with limited capacity and strong safeguards for physical distancing. Under D.C. Health guidelines, museums are allowed to organize small events of up to 50 people but guided tours are still barred.
Maryland and Virginia have seen similar measures for their museums during phase two of reopening.
Most museums appear to be taking a cautious approach like the Smithsonian and have not announced plans for reopening.
However, even if museums reopen, the visitors may not come.
Recent data released by the consulting firm, Colleen Dilenschneider shows plans to visit a museum by adults in the D.C. region within the next month are significantly lower than last year, but plans to visit within three months is much more comparable to 2019.
If you still want to head out to some of the area museums, here are a few that are open as of June 24:
DC
- The International Spy Museum
- The Museum of the Bible
- The Hillwood Museum (currently open to members only)
- National Gallery of Art’s Sculpture Garden
Maryland
- The Glenstone Museum (only outdoor sections are currently open)
- The National Museum of Civil War Medicine
Virginia
- The Carlyle House
- The Lee-Fendall House Museum and Garden
- George Washington’s Mount Vernon
- The Cold War Museum
- The Fauquier History Museum at the Old Jail
