Per Center for Disease Control and Governor Tom Wolf’s COVID-19 regulations, both the Gallery at Penn College and Lycoming College, pushed their pandemic reopenings to late spring of 2021 for student art shows.

Though the Gallery at Penn College remains open to the public, Lycoming College’s gallery will be closed for the summer and hopes to reopen with an art show in the fall.

“No final decision has been made as of this date,” said Rose DiRocco-Hodges, Lycoming College Art Gallery director and administrative assistant to the art, film and video arts departments.

Usually the gallery would have two summer shows.

In April and early May, Lycoming’s gallery opened for the senior art show, with a private opening show for parents and friends, limiting the number of people in the gallery to 30, DiRocco-Hodges said.

She added that the capacity was “determined by the total square footage” of the gallery building. In addition to capacity, there were also masking requirements, hand sanitizer, monitoring of the doors and temperatures as well as social distancing dots on the floor of the gallery.

Guests were also asked protocol questions before entering the show.

On March 15, the Gallery at Penn College reopened to the public with a new exhibit called Sarah Patterson: Second Nature and followed with a student graphic design exhibit.

Now, they are showing Textiles in Translation, a show that has fiber-based artwork from a total of 35 artists.

They are also requiring masking for guests that are unvaccinated and not requiring masking for those that are vaccinated, in compliance with the CDC and state Department of Health guidelines, according to Penny Lutz, director of the Gallery at Penn College.

Both galleries took the initial pandemic closures to maintain exhibits, work in collaboration on local projects as well as prepare for upcoming shows.

Six students from the Lycoming College Art Department got the chance to collaborate with the New Covent United Church of Christ to create a mural on East Third Street from May 12 to June 2.

The mural showed “affirmations of equality, support and welcoming attitudes,” DiRocco-Hodges said.

“We maintained an active exhibit schedule and incorporated virtual exhibits for each show, as well as outreach workshops,” Lutz said about the Gallery at Penn College.

She added that the artist, Melissa Haviland, that was supposed to be at the gallery in Fall created videos on screen printing and teachers and students alike got to work alongside local high schools in the workshop.

During the Second Nature exhibit in the spring, the gallery mailed out journals to those interested to “encourage people to draw or write”.

Both galleries bring opportunities for student artists as well as local, national and international artists to show their pieces to the Williamsport area.

This summer, the Gallery at Penn College is open Tuesday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Hours can expect to be changed in the fall.

For more information, please visit both the Gallery at Penn College and the Gallery at Lycoming College’s websites.