Amid the COVID-19 crisis we see what it looks like when the world moves to the internet. Triumphantly, many museums have found a way to stick around through the virtual world, including in Tallahassee.
“Like many museums right now, we have shifted our focus to serve the community as best we can using online tools,” wrote a spokesperson at the Florida Historic Capitol Museum.
The Challenger Learning Center of Tallahassee, the Museum of Florida History, the Tallahassee Museum, and the Grove Museum are also offering online tours and lessons.
These tours and lessons are being touted as a way for cultural institutions to market their attractions to people so they imagine being in the museum while they sit at home during social distancing.
The Historic Florida Capitol Museum wrote, “Going completely digital is a shift from our normal business, but the importance of serving the community is still at the core of what we are doing.”
It seems that the success for industries in the immediate future will be determined by how effectively they can wed the web.
Honesty Hollowell, a political science student at Florida A&M University, said, “Not all industries are built to function well online and I think we’ll get a better perspective of who is able to remain stable in this new normal the further along we get.”
The Capitol Museum has always offered virtual tours in some capacity to allow people to see inside the Historic Capitol without having to go physically. Now, it must expand its online capabilities to meet the core mission of providing programs of civic education, historic interpretation, and preservation.
For teachers who had to cancel field trips, the Capitol Museum is mailing thumb drives of the interactive House voting program that students would normally be presented with in the historic House chambers.
“We also usually offer adult programs, and since we can’t do that in person, our normal trivia night program was modified to be delivered online and will debut this Thursday at 6 p.m.” wrote the Capitol Museum.
In addition, the museum will be offering online story times focusing on historic preservation, video components for viewing exhibits and collections, and, more familiarly, Facebook content.
In moving to the internet, Tallahassee’s museums share a lobby with the most famous museums including the British Museum, London, Guggenheim Museum, New York, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Musée d’Orsay, Paris and many more.
You can register for the Historic Florida Capitol’s trivia night program at https://trivianightathome.eventbrite.com