Cooper lets playgrounds and museums open, but they aren't laying out welcome mats just yet

Local museum leaders and parks departments said they plan to make announcements in the next few days about their reopening plans.

Posted 2:02 p.m. Sep 2, 2020 — Updated 3:22 p.m. Sep 2, 2020

Sarah Lindenfeld Hall

, Go Ask Mom editor

Gov. Roy Cooper announced Tuesday that playgrounds and museums can reopen, but that doesn't mean that most will be laying out the welcome mats immediately.

Playgrounds owned by Wake County and operated by its parks department, which include Crowder County Park, Blue Jay Point County Park, Lake Crabtree County Park, Green Hills County Park and Harris Lake County Park, will reopen on Saturday morning, said Alice Avery, a communications specialist for Wake County. Park centers and buildings will remain closed for now. They are currently scheduled to be closed until Sept. 15.

Indoor spaces at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham also will open starting Saturday. The museum opened many of its outdoor spaces to visitors in July with new safety measures.

And the N.C. Museum of Art will reopen on Sept. 9 and require timed tickets to encourage social distancing, cloth masks and one-way paths through the museum, among other health and safety procedures. For now, the museum's interactive experiences in the family lounge, African Textiles Lab and Anciet Art Lounge will remain closed. Seating also has been removed from galleries and common areas. And indoor events and tours are still suspended.

And officials at other local museums and parks departments across the region said they plan to make announcements in the next few days about their reopening plans.

"We are in the process of reviewing the Governor’s announcement today and will make a decision as of Friday," Doug McRainey, Cary's parks director, wrote in an email Tuesday evening.

In Durham, Cynthia Booth with Durham's parks departments, said she hopes to have an update in the next day or so about plans for its playgrounds.

"Staff is working on how we need to make the adjustments," she wrote in an email.

Raleigh officials hope to make an announcement about its playgrounds later this week.

And at Marbles Kids Museum, Sarah Brown, the director of marketing, wrote in an email that they are working on a reopening plan right now. So did officials at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences and the N.C. Museum of History.

Kidzu Children's Museum in Chapel Hill announced on Sunday that it was planning for a tentative October reopening, but it's not clear if those plans might be updated because of Cooper's announcement.

Cooper announced a shift to Phase 2.5 in the state's reopening plan after coronavirus infections and hospitalizations stabilized in recent weeks. The new rules say that:

Outdoor playgrounds can reopen. Indoor playgrounds can operate at 30 percent capacity, or up to seven people per 1,000 square feet.
Museums and aquariums can operate at 50 percent capacity, or up to 12 people per 1,000 square feet.
Gyms, bowling alleys, skating rinks and other indoor exercise facilities can operate at 30 percent capacity, or up to seven people per 1,000 square feet.

Masks also are required in public for everybody age 5 and up, instead of 11 and older.

Though they may be able to open, many of those businesses and play spaces, particularly those outdoor playgrounds, have been left idle since mid-March. Officials need to ensure they remain safe for kids. For museums and indoor playgrounds, leaders must nail down new safety protocols to limit capacity and ensure visitors and staff are safe.

In May, museum leaders said they were looking at a number of measures as they contemplated reopening. They included timed entries, keeping some exhibits closed and requiring masks.

With sprawling outdoor spaces, both the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro and the Museum of Life and Science in Durham have reopened with many of those measures. They've kept indoor exhibits closed and limited the number of visitors who are on site each day. The Museum of Life and Science also updated its spaces to limit the spread of the coronavirus, including redesigning the admissions desk to ensure visitors aren't standing right next to each other to get in and adding touchless water faucets in the bathrooms.

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