After months of lockdown, digital experiences have only curbed the craving of art aficionados while many masterpieces are stuck behind closed doors. A picture and video can capture the beauty of painting or the emotions of photography, but there is still a need for the sanctity of an in person viewing experience.

The University of Kentucky Art Museum is once again welcoming guests to view professional art featuring pieces from around the world. Though reservations must be made online and the gallery capacity is limited at 30 visitors an hour, down from 200, the museum is happy to see masked face experiencing the beauty of their unique featured pieces.

“Through COVID people have been starving for the arts, and we give them a safe place to experience them,” said Michaela Miles, a visitor services manager for UK’s Art Museum. The museum began allowing visitors in the fall, seeing mostly UK students during the week as part of classes or for their own enjoyment.

The gallery is frequented by locals, families and visitors who travel to see the art during the weekends. They’ve been averaging between 20 and 70 visitors a day depending on the different exhibits and day of the week.

“Everybody has been really nice and compliant making reservations ahead and being understanding about sanitizing, keeping their masks on at all times. A lot of people have been traveling for Spring Break and families haven been coming through,” Miles said.

In a space that might feel small to some, the museum is able to feature over 5,000 pieces – some part of the UK collection, and others part of temporary exhibits. A wide range of painting, photographs, sculptures and historical relics can be found displayed on the walls, floor and hanging in the different rooms.

“Right now, I think our main attraction is ‘Sew What.’ It’s an exhibition by three artists that are working in textiles and fibers,” Mile said. “A lot of textile and fiber artists have been coming to see it from all around Kentucky. It’s not very often that you see an exhibition done completely by textile and fiber art, so it’s been really a highlight.”

‘Sew What’ was created by artists Jessie Dunahoo, Elana Herzog and Ben Venom and is displayed in the front room of the gallery. Its main focal point is large, blanket-style pieces of recycled materials including Kroger bags, Bounty paper towel packing and Charmin toilet paper packaging. This exhibit makes the viewer question what art materials can be and how creativity can make beauty out of materials many view as trash.

UK Art Museum prioritizes showing all types of artists, both near and far. The museum makes sure to include art from local Kentucky artists, including Dunahoo, who recently passed away.

“We typically always have at least one local Kentucky artist on view, if not in their own featured exhibition. That’s something we really pride ourselves on is recognizing those local artists and giving them a platform to accelerate their work,” Miles said.

The museum continues to rotate out their private collection of pieces along with having new exhibits transition in out to always have something new on display. Due to limited staff the pieces are not being changed as often as pre-COVID times.

“We want to make sure we are giving enough space and time to do things properly and safely,” Miles said. “Works on paper have a shorter lifespan that they can be exposed to light, whereas sometimes when we have oil paintings or sculptures that can be out a little bit longer.”

The ground floor area features three main exhibitions a year while the upstairs area features the permit collection along with photography and featured exhibitions that rotate out every six or twelve weeks. Before the pandemic, the museum brought the displayed artists to give lectures at Gatton Student Center and meet guests. Many of the artists were locals, but some were flown in and provided art lovers with a one-on-one experience with fans and art lovers alike.

“We have been still making sure to do those over Zoom, so those have actually been pretty well attended. It’s actually changed to where it is more of a global attendance now. Some of our lectures have received a few hundred folks from UK and Lexington community are now getting a couple thousands since it’s globally accessible,” Miles said. Information about these Zoom lectures can be found on the UK Art website, their social medias and the museum’s email subscription list.

Art lovers like Joan and David Kelly are happy to once again experience art in person. The Kellys often visited the museum before COVID, but Saturday was their first trip back since the pandemic.

“It’s really interesting, there are a lot of these things that fascinate me when I see what they were able to do with the space,” Joan said. Her favorite exhibit currently on display is a collection of paintings and drawings made on books from different artists. ‘The Beet’ by Mary Rezny was the piece that caught her eye the most with the pink colors used in the hand-colored picture of beets on the page of a book.

Blake and Annika Beshear visited the museum for the first time Saturday and enjoyed the different photography featured. The Beshears looked at a collection of black and white photography that included a wall dedicated to photos of bridges. This wall included photographs from David Plowden, Michael Burns and others.

“I’m relatively impressed for such a small art gallery,” Blake said. “I really enjoyed the bridges, they were pretty cool, just the composition and design.”

The UK Art Museum may not be the same as guests are used to, but still features the unique pieces visitors know them for. Museum administrators are excited for restrictions to end while the works themselves continue to communicate with those willing to stop and take a look.