Mona Announces Temporary Closure To Help Stem COVID-19

Tasmania’s Museum Of Old and New Art (Mona) has today confirmed a temporary closure of its venues amid the spread of COVID-19.

In a statement released this morning, Mona co-CEO Mark Wilsdon announced the decision as an effort to contain the virus as much as possible.

“Mona will temporarily close from Wednesday 18 March, for the foreseeable future,” Wilsdon said. 

“We have made this decision because we believe it is the best way we can fulfil our responsibility to ensure the health and safety of our staff, our visitors, contractors and suppliers and our community as the COVID-19 situation unfolds. In these exceptional and unprecedented circumstances, our priority is to do what we can as early as possible in the interests of public health, and that means closing Mona at this stage. We will continue to review our options, with more information to come. In the meantime, we encourage everyone to take care of themselves and each other.”

The statement also comes with an open letter from Mona owner and founder David Walsh, who echoed the focus on public safety. “Mona, most likely, would play no part in the spread of this insidious coronavirus, and so closing would, probably, play no part in protecting against it. But there’s a chance that Mona could become a major centre for contagion. Preventing people interacting prevents many unlikely infections, but unlikely infections add up. They might add up to mayhem… I hope people care enough to visit when we reopen. I hope that people care enough to understand why we’ve closed.”

Walsh’s full statement can be read here. For more information about how COVID-19 is impacting the music industry, follow the link here.