RMSC

The Strong museum is announcing a tourism campaign that will include other museums and cultural institutions in the Rochester area.

It’s called Play Rochester, and involves The Strong, the George Eastman Museum, Genesee Country Village & Museum, Rochester Museum & Science Center and the Seneca Park Zoo.

The Strong’s vice president of marketing and communications, Sara Poe, said the idea is to provide a variety of options to people who may be traveling to the Rochester area this summer.

Jenni Werner moved to Rochester 10 years ago. She certainly knew the stories of Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass. Everyone who has sat through a junior history class has encountered those two.

Yet there is so much more to be found here, in widely diverse ways that often depart from standard definitions of history making. 

“The stories are incredible,” Werner says. “Some of the most progressive movements in the country have come from this part of New York state. Both historically, and now.”

“Hundreds and hundreds of plays can be written about this area.”

Three of Rochester’s largest cultural attractions: the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester Museum and Science Center, and The Strong National Museum of Play, will open Saturday, June 27, as part of New York Forward’s Phase 4 for reopening. Governor Andrew Cuomo said this week the Finger Lakes and four other regions are on track to begin Phase 4 on Friday.

The George Eastman Museum will remain closed until mid-July due to construction on the Thomas Tischer Visitor Center. The Strong and MAG will be open to members only to start, and RMSC will be open to the general public.

The Rochester Museum and Science Center is thinking ahead to the time when it can reopen.

On Tuesday, it said it plans to open a new exhibit this fall that's inspired by the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, and celebrates the stories of regional innovators.

The exhibit, scheduled to open in October, is called,  The Changemakers: Rochester Women Who Changed the World.

Kathryn Murano Santos is senior director of collections & exhibitions at RMSC.

Four of Rochester’s biggest museums -- the Memorial Art Gallery, The Strong the Rochester Museum & Science Center and George Eastman Museum-- announced Friday afternoon that they will join the exploding number of closings driven by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Strong announced that it will be closed as of 8 p.m. Friday, with plans to re-open on April 13. RMSC closed its doors to the public at 5 p.m. Friday, with plans to stay closed through March 27.

Zoo closed, too

A $1.2 million renovation project at the Strasenburgh Planetarium at the Rochester Museum & Science Center is now complete, and grand reopening celebrations begin Saturday.

The planetarium had been closed since November to make the upgrades. Planetarium director Steve Fentress said the upgrades were overdue.

“For 20 years, our customers have been saying that, ‘I loved coming to this place as a kid, but boy, it really needs an upgrade,’ and at last it’s been done.”