The Art of the Community

Masur Museum of Art Adapts to Unforeseen Circumstances

Article By Starla Gatson

When COVID-19 struck in March, Monroe’s Masur Museum of Art joined thousands of establishments across the nation in temporarily closing their doors in an effort to mitigate the spread of the disease. Then, on April 12 — Easter Sunday — the museum was hit with another curveball: an EF3 tornado with peak winds of 140 miles per hour.
What, then, do you do when life gives you lemons? Why, you make lemonade, of course! The coronavirus pandemic and a natural disaster could certainly be classified as sour fruit; however, the north Louisiana museum is determined to make the best of what they have and serve the Ouachita Parish community something refreshing and sweet.
Luckily, none of the art inside the museum was harmed by the tornado, says Curator of Collections and Exhibitions, Lindsay Kearney, but the building itself was not left unscathed; the high-speed winds left the Masur with roof damage, shattered windows, and cut electricity and internet lines, as well as damaging the bases of the museum’s two lawn sculptures. The most pressing issues, including restoring power, internet, and HVAC systems, have been remedied, but the museum remains closed to the public, as the road to full recovery is still long. “We have had to extend our closure period,” Kearney says. “We’re here working, but we are closed to the public and probably will be for most of the summer.”
The Masur Museum, located at 1400 South Grand Street, was built as a private residence in 1929, and has operated as a museum for fine art since 1963, when the Masur siblings donated the home to the city of Monroe. Since its foundation, the establishment has been the host to a multitude of exhibitions and educational programs for both children and adults including artist talks, workshops and academic lectures. According to its website, the institution is “dedicated to providing the community with a dynamic visual arts experience through exhibitions, public programming and collections management,” and despite the attack of both the storm and the virus, it appears that the museum has managed to continue achieving that goal and maintaining a presence in the community.
Kearney says the next exhibitions are scheduled to open September 3, but it remains unknown if the museum will be able to open its doors before then. Thanks to modern technology, though, patrons do not have to wait until September to experience all the Masur has to offer. “We have increased our social media presence,” explains Kearney. “We’ve been doing more features, including more looks at artwork from our Permanent Collection. We’ve been sharing more videos about art and art processes, about art history, and things that we find online.” In addition to remaining active on both Facebook and Instagram, a virtual version of the museum’s most recent exhibition, the 57th Annual Juried Competition, was created and remains available for viewing online.
In the midst of the chaos, the Masur has even considered the needs of its younger patrons, and the curator of education is working on plans to create virtual summer art camps — complete with project instructions and art supplies — for local children to participate in from home.
The unexpected closure may also leave another question in the minds of patrons, artist donors, and museum sponsors: what about Off the Wall? The Off the Wall fundraiser provides the Masur with most of its operating money for exhibitions and educational programs, says Kearney, and for the past decade, the annual event has included food and drink, live music, a silent auction and the Bon Voyage raffle in which one lucky winner receives three thousand dollars to put toward a vacation of his choice. A live painting of the evening’s festivities is also raffled off. Community members can rest assured the well-established tradition will continue, albeit a bit differently than normal.
“Obviously, we can’t have a big party right now,” Kearney explains. “So, we’re doing an online auction, which is something that lots of nonprofits do all over the country in good times, so we know that it works. And who doesn’t like to shop online, anyway?” The auction will be live from July 22-26, and the Bon Voyage trip raffle will be conducted online, with all museum sponsors and artist donors receiving twice as many entries as a thank you for their support amid these less-than-ideal circumstances.
Just as in years past, this year’s auction will feature works from both local artists and out-of-state creators, and each artist can choose to donate either 50 or 100 percent of their proceeds to the museum.
As the Masur Museum staff, under the leadership of executive director Evelyn Stewart, carefully tread these uncharted waters, the community stands behind them and eagerly anticipates the museum’s reopening. “We’ve had so many offers for volunteers, and we don’t even have any work that volunteers could do right now, which is sad because we’ve had so many people offer to help,” Kearney says. “We’ve had donations, financial support, come through. It’s been a really wonderful response. People have been very understanding as well. I think a lot of people are disappointed, and so are we, but we keep promising that we’ll be back soon, and they’ve been supportive of that, which has been wonderful.”
Though no volunteer opportunities currently exist, Kearney says there may be chances for community members to get involved with the museum in the fall, depending on coronavirus restrictions set by the city. “We do internships and we have volunteer opportunities mostly when we host events, but sometimes we have other volunteer opportunities as well. That’s the sort of thing, when we have something that we need people to do specific tasks for, we usually put out a call on our Facebook page, and we get inundated with responses of people offering to help, which is always wonderful. But we’re kind of waiting before we say anything definitively,” she explains.
The Masur Museum plans to reopen as soon as possible, but as of now, how daily operations will look still remains a mystery. One thing, however, is certain: the art museum’s staff fully intends to serve the Ouachita Parish community in whatever ways they are able given current circumstances, proving that even the sourest of lemons can be turned into lemonade.
For the time being, North Louisiana residents can stay plugged into the Masur Museum of Art online through Facebook and Instagram (@masurmuseum). For more information, visit www.masurmuseum.org or call (318) 329-2237.