The National Museum Cardiff re-opened it’s doors this morning after a few long months of being forced to close during the Coronavirus lockdown.
I was at the museum when it opened it’s doors at 10am. Queues stretched around the block and there was genuine excitement from the people waiting.
One man had travelled from London with his girlfriend to ‘get a taste of Wales’. Another visitor was a mother who’d brought her young child so they could socialise with fellow kids and be ‘reintroduced to culture.’
The centrepiece of Cardiff’s re-opening is the critically acclaimed Artes Mundi exhibition, although the museum has enough art, artefacts and woolly mammoths to entertain the whole family.
There have been some changes to deal with the pandemic. Tickets are free, but you must register in advance. There is also a one way system, social distancing and plenty of hand sanitiser.
It’s been a long, difficult year for the museum. But after a lot of work, staff were happy to welcome visitors back.
Nia Williams, Director of Learning and Public Programmes, National Museum Cardiff said:
“It’s fantastic, it was great to see people queuing on the steps to come back. It’s really good to hear visitors back in the space.
“We’re opening all our museums across Wales this week and we’re really excited to see people enjoying these spaces again.”
David Anderson, Director General of Amgueddfa Cymru, commented: “We are delighted to be able to welcome visitors back to our national museums.
“We are re-opening once more with our full range of safety measures in place to ensure everyone can have a safe and enjoyable visit.
“We’ve all faced unprecedented challenges over the past few months and although we’ve been closed we have continued to support many thousands of people in communities across Wales to engage with our national museums and collections.
“Our museums and collections will be an important resource for the nations healing and recovery in 2021 and beyond and I hope everyone will come back out to visit us and support us.”
St Fagans National Museum of History and the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea also opened today. The Big Pit National Coal Museum, National Slate Museum, Llanberis, and Caerleon’s National Wool Museum and National Roman Legion Museum open tomorrow.