FEATURE
Science Museums To survive the shutdown, many institutions reimagined themselves By Emily Anthes
O
n January 30, 2020, Science Gallery Dublin assembled a small group of experts to discuss a strange new disease that had recently emerged in China. Four panelists talked about the origins of the new coronavirus, whether it might be airborne and the prospects for a vaccine. While they agreed that it was important to take the virus seriously,
the speakers urged the audience not to panic. There had been no known cases in Ireland. The prospect of a local outbreak seemed remote. “And that was the last live event we held in the gallery,” says Aisling Murray, the gallery’s head of programming. That very day, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern.” Six weeks later, with cases on the rise all over the globe, Science Gallery Dublin shut its doors. It was a moment of reckoning. “What does Science Gallery mean when we don’t have a space?” Murray recalls wondering. “How do we
SCIENCE GALLERY DUBLIN
in a Pandemic
16 SCIENCE NEWS | June 5, 2021
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