1. What is “Masked Mondays”?

Masked Mondays is a campaign to keep culture accessible to all, asking cultural institutions to join a growing communities in implementing recurring “mask-mandatory” periods for people who prefer or need to enjoy safer, masked cultural spaces.

“For those of us who want or need a masked environment, this option provides an opportunity for us to join in and access culture,“ says Aquil Virani, a visual artist living with disability, who collected various resources and perspectives from mask-wearing friends and colleagues to assemble and present the Masked Mondays campaign you see here.

2. Why should I adopt such a policy? Here are 9 reasons.

#1 — [9 reasons go here, with graphics]

3. How can I adjust this idea for my specific institution?

“Masked Mondays” is just the name of the campaign, but the idea is to implement any recurring period of mask-mandatory access. This might be a Tuesday evening slot, or the first Monday of every month. You might start a new time slot in the morning that is “mask-mandatory from the beginning” to avoid any confusion.

4. Has any institution continued with mask mandates?

Yes – for example, Tangled Art Gallery (401 Richmond Street West, Toronto) continues with a mask mandate to this day. Even after many institutions have “moved on” from the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for masked access remains.

“We ask all of our visitors to mask,” says Sean Lee, Director of Programming at Tangled. “This is the rest of the quote that Sean still needs to approve before sharing.”

5. Who is behind “Masked Mondays” anyway?

This campaign was organized with labour from artist Aquil Virani (aquil.ca) during an artist fellowship with ArtsPond (artspond.com). Special thanks to our special partners, Tangled Arts + Disability (tangledarts.org), and to our campaign material participants.