Palm Beach County’s cultural institutions continue to cautiously reopen this week—some only partially, with reduced hours, and under strict CDC guidelines.
The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, which hit a snag in its originally scheduled reopening date of June 2, will open to the music tomorrow (June 16), providing verdant serenity in a time of fear and unrest. The mile-long Roji-en Japanese Garden, with its rock gardens, koi ponds, bridges and bonsai collection, will be stroll-able once again. Visitors also will be able to order from the Cornell Café and shop the Museum Store. The exhibition galleries, however, remain closed. Social distancing is required everywhere, and facial coverings are required indoors. Public visiting hours remain 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Meanwhile, West Palm Beach’s Mounts Botanical Garden, which opened to members last week, reopens to the general public on Tuesday (June 16) as well. To comply with Phase 1 restrictions of 50-percent capacity, the gardens are limiting entrants to 100 at a time. Certain public gathering spaces within the garden will be roped off, face masks are strongly encouraged, and visitors are urged to social distance by following the now-ubiquitous unidirectional traffic pattern (the Morikami uses one too). The Mounts’ gift shop remains closed, so visitors are encouraged to bring their own water and light snacks.
Designed as a 14-acre “living plant museum,” Mounts features 25 garden areas, all with unique and curated foliage; particularly picturesque spots include the O’Keeffe Rain Garden, Herb Garden of Well-Being and Windows on the Floating World. It’s June, which means the royal Poinciana, pink cassias and monkeypod trees will be in bloom. For now, Mounts will only be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday to Friday.
The Cornell Art Museum, the contemporary-art fixture of Delray’s Old School Square campus, opened this past weekend with a raft of safety precautions: cashless transactions, increased sanitization protocols, no parties larger than 10 people, reconfigured entry and exit points, etc. The Cornell’s current hours are the most limited of any of the reopened venues: The only options are 4 to 8 p.m. Fridays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays.
The Cornell’s main exhibition, “Art Couture: The Intersection of Art and Fashion” features the work of at least a dozen artists and/or designers working in the nexus of contemporary art and fashion—from Andy Warhol to Delray Beach’s own Amanda Perna.
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