Festival COVID-19 Policies

In light of COVID-19 and in an effort to keep our small town safe, for this year’s 5th annual Marfa Open Art Festival, we have suspended our Artist in Residence program and are not inviting artists who live outside of our community to participate in person. We have shifted our focus towards participation by local artists, long-distance digital/virtual participation by non-Marfa artists, and events that can be experienced safely outdoors and adhere to social distancing policies. We fully support the City of Marfa’s latest ordinance as detailed HERE and we applaud the implementation of the same.

What We’re Doing to Keep Everyone Safe

Local Artists
We’ve paused our Artist in Residence program indefinitely. We’ve eliminated inviting artists who live elsewhere to participate in person during our annual festival. We’re only showing physical works from artists who live in Marfa or from artists who are able to submit work digitally or send it via postal delivery.

Outdoor Events
We’re focusing most of our schedule to include things we can show outside around our property grounds. We’ve created an outdoor performance stage and have some local Marfa folks set to play music, perform readings and do some other open mic stuff. We’ve prepared this area to allow for ample social distancing and we’re limiting the number of people that can attend at any one time.

Virtual Attendance
We’ve added virtual gallery tours that we’re live-streaming throughout the festival and you’re encouraged to check those out HERE and follow us on Instagram @marfaopen to be notified when we start another broadcast.

Masks Are Mandatory
We have a strict mandatory mask policy for everyone visiting our space. Mask/face covering is absolutely mandatory inside the gallery and to attend all events. We fully support the city ordinance that requires masks.

Limited Gallery Visitors
We’re limiting the number of guests we’re allowing inside the gallery space at any given time. No more than 6 visitors will be allowed and we’ve adopted a one-out/one-in policy and that’s been working out fine.

Different Visitor Entrance and Exit
We have two sets of double doors that enter into our main gallery. We have designated one set as the entrance and the other as the exit. Both doors will remain open during any visitor hours to ensure a hands-free way to come and go to minimize contact between visitors when entering and exiting our gallery. These open doors also ensure proper ventilation inside of the gallery space.

Social Distancing
We ask visitors and staff to maintain a minimum of 6ft distance between anyone not in their household.

Keep It Clean
We have provided hand sanitizer dispensers at the entryway and exit of our gallery and encourage visitors to practice positive public hygiene. Our staff and team are all diligent about ensuring a strict level of cleanliness and any shared surfaces are regularly disinfected.

Staff Testing
Everyone associated with the space is regularly tested and understand that should they ever develop symptoms they should not come to the space.

We’re Serious About Your Safety
Visitors acting in any way that disrupts the health and safety of other visitors, staff, or volunteers, or puts the artwork or facilities at risk, will be asked to leave immediately.

If ever you have questions, comments or concerns regarding what we’re doing to keep everyone safe please be sure to CONTACT US.