Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (best known as MONA) has announced it will be shutting its doors temporarily due to COVID-19. MONA co-CEO Mark Wilsdon announced that the famously avant-garde gallery would shut to the public “for the foreseeable future” from Wednesday, March 18.
Wilsdon released a statement on March 17 saying, “we have made this decision because we believe it is the best way we can fulfil our responsibility to ensure the health and safety of our staff, our visitors, contractors and suppliers and our community as the COVID-19 situation unfolds.”
“In these exceptional and unprecedented circumstances, our priority is to do what we can as early as possible in the interests of public health, and that means closing Mona at this stage.”
The closure of MONA follows the cancellation of Hobart winter festival Dark Mofo on March 12.