The Pandemic Blues, Part 20: Museum show’s cancellation for second straight year shows staying power of this never-ending crisis

 

The Attleboro Arts Museum, in March of 2020, was among the first Attleboro area events to become a casualty of the-then newly-declared coronavirus pandemic, as officials there were forced to cancel their highly popular 24^th annual show just days before it was set to open on March 18. That necessitated taking down the exhibits that were already in place. The cancellation was a big deal as the museum typically raises $30,000 from the four-day and one-night show.
With the state’s lockdown-related restrictions in place for the rest of the spring last year, the non-profit museum located in downtown Attleboro, MA, eventually had to stay closed for more than three months. For the rest of the year, the museum’s exhibits were available both online and in person, with restrictions, and after a successful online auction, there was hope for 2021.
Fast forward to mid-January of 2021, when the optimism of a new year was crushed by the reality of the pandemic. With cases still surging in the state and region – and with COVID-19 restrictions not likely to allow hundreds to gather indoors by mid-March --- the museum was forced to cancel the show for a second straight year.
That unfortunate set of circumstances is a microcosm of the toll that the pandemic has taken on communities across the state, region and country, as it’s no secret that non-profits have been especially hurt by this deadly pandemic, which has turned thousands of middle-sized cities and towns across the state and country into ghost towns in comparison to how they were a year ago.
That sorry situation prompted me to write this column on what the show’s cancellation has stolen from the tight-knit community of Attleboro.

This column was published Tuesday, Jan. 26, in The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA.

“After much consideration, the lingering impact of the coronavirus has forced organizers to cancel the Attleboro Arts Museum’s 2021 Flower Show. Despite a genuine effort to reimagine the layout, attractions, programs and flow of guests, organizers believe that a truly safe flower show in March 2021 is not achievable.”
--- Attleboro Arts Museum Executive Director and Chief Curator Mim Brooks Fawcett

Let’s face it: We’ve been distracted by a lot lately. Since the year we all want to forget turned over a few weeks ago, we’ve had to deal with:
* Rising coronavirus infections that have put the Attleboro area into Massachusetts’ red zone for several weeks.
* Pandemic deaths in the United States exceeded the 400,000 mark and may reach the half-million mark by mid-February.
* The Capitol was overrun with rioters, who for several hours stopped the counting of the Electoral College votes.
* Former President Donald Trump became the only chief executive to be impeached twice.
* Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46^th president.
So, against that backdrop, the fact that the Attleboro Arts Museum was forced to cancel its flower show for the second straight year may not have resonated with you, but it should have. That’s because, in normal times, the show annually brought thousands to downtown Attleboro for one night and four days.
The show’s popularity is easy to explain: it’s all about the timing. That the show is held in mid-March, and often close to the first day of spring, made it an attractive destination for winter-weary residents.
Fawcett verbalized that feeling when she described the draw of the show before the 21^st event in 2017. “We all appreciate the start of spring. I feel like the flower show is a great marker that says warmth and color are on the way,” Fawcett told The Sun Chronicle.
That’s why hundreds of people a day --- many of whom may have been discovering one of Attleboro’s finest jewels for the first time – flocked to the museum on Park Street, across from City Hall, for more than two decades, through the 23^rd annual show in 2019.
Fawcett last year was poised for another spectacular flower show and all that it offers --- elaborate floral displays, hundreds of specially themed artwork and children’s activities. The show also let people linger over a muffin and coffee in the basement café; that was where, at the 2019 show, I last saw former city councilor and longtime city and museum volunteer Tony Viveiros. Tony left us too soon in December of 2019, and Fawcett told me that the 2020 show had been set to honor him by naming the flower show’s café after him.
That had been the plan until COVID-19 caused Fawcett last March on Friday the 13^th to make the heartbreaking decision to cancel the show, noting then that she had hopes of things returning to normal by March  2021.
She wasn’t alone in thinking that we would no longer be dealing with the pandemic a year later, but sadly this health emergency that won’t quit forced her hand a second time --- and what would have been the flower show’s silver anniversary event in March had it not been canceled last year has been scrubbed again.
Last year, the non-profit museum paid a stiff price for becoming a COVID casualty as it not only lost out on the up to $30,000 that it normally clears from the show, but it wound up being closed for more than three months. That forced Fawcett to seek grants and to turn to creative alternatives, including virtual components to exhibitions, to keep the museum going.
The good news this year, Fawcett said, is that the natured-theme art component of the show will continue. “The display of original art, this year entitled ‘Back to Nature,’ will showcase work in a range of disciplines that relate to the natural world,” she said, adding that the museum’s gift shop will expand and the show’s raffles will be offered. The art exhibit will be on display, with COVID protocols in effect, from March 6-19 in the Ottmar Gallery, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday.
While that’s certainly a smidgen of good news, the harsh reality is that what has been the surest sign of spring in the Attleboro area has once more fallen victim to this deadly pandemic.
Fawcett made the only decision she could have made, but that doesn’t mean that the flower show’s fans have to be happy about it – any more than anyone is happy about having the essence of our humanity robbed and our spirit stolen from us for nearly a year now.
I grieve the flower show’s passing – not only because of how much the show used to lift my spirits, but also because a year ago I saw firsthand the full extent of the museum staff’s dedication as a volunteer with the Greater Attleboro Relay For Life organizing committee. We collaborated with the museum on an art exhibit, “Luminaria,” which drew thousands over the February school vacation week and during Attleboro’s Winter Night Festival.
Now, that’s a very distant memory as, for the second straight year, the pandemic has played the role of weeds to the flower show’s brilliant blooms --- and the Attleboro area’s spring will be gloomier because of the show’s absence.
Larry Kessler is a retired Sun Chronicle local news editor and can be reached at larrythek65@gmail.com. He blogs at larrytheklineup.blogspot.com


LINK TO THE COLUMN AS IT APPEARED IN THE JAN. 26, 2021 Sun Chronicle: https://www.thesunchronicle.com/opinion/columns/larry-kessler-another-year-another-loss/article_f93b54cd-cf84-5aa8-8730-0ffdf95b606b.html