Update Tuesday, June 9th:
We are pleased to announce that Medalta in the Historic Clay District will open for prebooked tours at a limited capacity starting June 16th, 2020. Prebooking will be available shortly here.
FULL COVID-19 GUIDELINES
What we’re doing to keep you safe:
- Limiting visitor numbers – maximum occupancy of 50 guests at a time in the museum and 4 guests at a time in the gift shop
- Timed prebooked admission – must be booked 24 hours in advance online to allow for capacity control, no-contact purchasing and symptom screening.
- Timed entry of 5 visitors every 15 minutes – this number may be increased if all guests live within the same household.
- Encouraging physical distancing with signage, spacing ‘dots,’ and route markers.
- Limiting seating in museum spaces.
- Providing physical barriers in customer service areas.
- Closing all hands-on, interactive elements to limit visitor contact in our museum spaces.
- Providing substantial access to hand sanitizer and hand washing facilities.
- Increasing cleaning and disinfecting throughout our facility.
- In order to reduce congregating in our museum gift shop, we no longer have available space for the consumption of food.
What we’re asking of our visitors:
- Stay home if you are not feeling well.
- Please visit myhealth.alberta.ca for more information on conducting a self-assessment.
- Purchase your timed-admission online before you head to the museum.
- Wear a mask, if available. Please note that we will not be providing masks to visitors.
- Practice good hygiene. This includes washing your hands, for at least 20 seconds, regularly during your visit, avoiding touching your face, and coughing or sneezing into your elbow.
- Keep your family unit together when walking through the museum, and keep children within reach at all times.
- Please be patient – don’t crowd around exhibits.
- Practice physical distancing guidelines, keeping 2 metres away from others and please wait your turn.
- Download and utilize the ABTraceTogether app.
- Explore the museum by following the marked one-way route.
- Please bring your own strollers and wheelchairs as these will not be available onsite.
- Enter and exit the building through the main entrance doors.
What’s open
- The number of visitors allowed in at any one time is limited.
- The gift shop is open, with restrictions to visitors at any one time to support physical distancing.
- We are offering our scheduled Summer children’s Programs in a dedicated space to comply with public health guidelines.
- Kiln Rentals: Electric and Blaauw Kiln Rentals will be available to artists who reside in Medicine Hat
- We are hosting pre-booked private events which are able to comply with the most current public health restrictions on gatherings.
- Curbside pickup is available to those who prefer it, at pre-booked pickup times.
What’s closed:
- The second-floor mezzanine in the Turning Room
- Hands-on displays and interactive features
- School trips
- High-touch amenities including the ATM and water fountains
- Coffee and tea are no longer available in our gift shop
- The Medalta International Artists in Residence Program
- BMO Artist lodge
- Pre-booked kiln rentals for the wood, salt and soda kilns
Update Tuesday, March 17th, 5pm:
Effective Wednesday, March 18th, Medalta in the Historic Clay District is closed to the public and many upcoming classes, workshops and programs have been cancelled due to COVID-19. Please continue to check here for status updates.
Cancelled, postponed or closed:
- Museum – Closed until further notice
- Gift Shop – Closed until further notice
- Ceramic Classes and Workshops – Cancelled for the months of March, April, May and June. If you are registered for current or upcoming classes, please email julia@medalta.org to process tax receipts, credits, or refunds. As Medalta is a not for profit organization run by a small group of dedicated individuals, we ask that you please consider donating the remainder of your course fee to Medalta for a tax receipt. This is a difficult time not just for the global community, but especially for not for profit organizations like Medalta. Your help is greatly appreciated.
- Education and Youth Programming – suspended until further notice with plans to proceed with summer programs dependent on the unfolding health situation.
- The Great Clay Race scheduled for April 4th – postponed until further notice
- Market at Medalta – May and June Markets are cancelled. Markets in July and August are dependent on the unfolding health situation.
Status of Booked Events
- If you have an event booked at our facilities, please contact events@medalta.org to re-examine your event.
Update Friday, March 13th:
By now, you may have heard the news or had a conversation about the recent coronavirus (COVID-19) situation across the globe.
The health and safety of our patrons, volunteers, artists, and staff is a top priority. While the Public Health Agency of Canada and Alberta Health has assessed the current public health risk associated with coronavirus as low, we continue to monitor for developments very closely and we will adapt event and facility rentals accordingly. Medalta in the Historic Clay District is currently open to the public during regular winter hours – Monday to Saturday, 10am-4pm. In the meantime, we are taking precautionary measures to reduce risk and ensure the museum continues to be a safe space for families and patrons to experience. These include:
Enhancing our cleaning processes for all workstations and high contact surfaces.
This will include regular cleaning of all high traffic surfaces and providing public hand sanitation stations wherever possible.
Increasing communications and reminders to our guests, partners, and staff on important health and safety measures, creating a culture of best practices.
Informative material will be displayed to remind our team, volunteers, and patrons all can play their part by utilizing proper hygiene and handwashing techniques. Staff will seek alternate arrangements (ie. working from home) if they are feeling ill.
Ensuring our team is well versed and equipped to adhere to the recommendations of Alberta Health to further reduce the risk of exposure.
We will keep you informed of any updates as they develop.
We greatly appreciate your continued support of our community programs and initiatives, but we ask that if you are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms to follow all Alberta Health recommendations and consider enjoying our programming at a later date.
We continue to be committed to providing our community with rich programming and support our loyal patrons, volunteers, and staff during these times of uncertainty.
We will provide additional information in the event of any subsequent changes to our scheduled programs or processes.
Sincerely,
The Historic Clay District and Friends of Medalta Society
