Galt Museum in Lethbridge gets green light to reopen June 2

The Galt Museum in Lethbridge, Alta.

Lethbridge, Alta. — The province has given the green light for museums and art galleries to reopen, but a few aren’t quite ready yet.

Museums qualify for phase one of the province's relaunch, but Galt Museum CEO and Executive Director Darrin Martens said they're waiting until June 2.

“We were looking at ways in which we can safely create spaces for activities to happen as well as for visitors to walk through and enjoy the exhibits," Martens said, in an interview with CTV News, "so we’ve taken a lot of time to enhance some of our interactives as well as decommissioning some of them.”

Once the doors open, Martens said the museums will be implementing ticketed time slots to avoid crowds of over 50 people until COVID-19 presents less of a risk.

“We’re looking at a capacity of around 50 visitors per hour, understanding that some visitors will stay longer, other visitors will stay shorter and not everyone is going to be in the same place at the same time," Martens said. "So this will ensure that we have good flow throughout the facility.”

Martens said the ticketing system will also make it easier to ensure that cleaning is done more frequently.

The museum is taking a phased approach for reopening. That’s why Martens said they’re waiting until the province starts stage 2 of the relaunch before opening Fort Whoop-up.

“Fort Whoop-up has a lot more intimate spaces, a lot more porous material and we want to make sure that we have all the right cleaning protocols in place, social distancing in place, hand washing stations to ensure that there's a safe visitation.”

In the meantime, the museum has been chronicling the pandemic throughout Lethbridge so future historians can see records of how many people in southern Alberta had it as well as how they reacted to the situation.

If June 2 seems too far away, you can explore some of the Galt's exhibits online at

https://www.galtmuseum.com/exhibits