Following Monday’s announcement from the Prime Minister of a four-week delay in any further relaxation in coronavirus restrictions, the Society has updated its plan for reopening to visitors.
The Foyle Reading Room will now be open on an appointment-only basis from Tuesday 20 July. Details of how to book an appointment, which will be available on Tuesdays and Thursdays, are available here.
The opening of our Earth Photo exhibition has been postponed. Exhibition previews for Fellows and members have been moved to 19 and 20 July, and the exhibition will be open to the public on 26 and 27 July. If you have already booked a visit to the exhibition for a date before 19 July, we will be in touch with you directly to rearrange. All visitors to the exhibition, including Fellows and members, must pre-book one of the curated tours. We hope to add further dates in August.
Society staff are working remotely and will continue to do so until Monday 2 August, when we hope they will return to the office. We are planning on re-opening the Members’ Room at the same time, however there will be no catering facilities available. The Tea Room will, unfortunately, remain closed until later in the year.
Society-organised events will continue to be online-only until September, when our Annual International Conference will be running as a hybrid event with sessions online and in-person. We are planning for this autumn’s Monday night lectures to be in the Ondaatje Theatre in front of a live audience, but we will also continue to live stream them so they are available to Fellows and members wherever they live. Depending on what restrictions are in place at the time, we might need to introduce booking for Monday night lectures, however we will let you know as soon as we can what this will involve.
Externally-organised events will also be returning to the building as restrictions lift, taking advantage of our Venue Hire team’s skills in running hybrid in-person/online events and the technology we have in place to deliver them. If you have an event that needs a venue, please do contact the team.
All of our plans are dependent on government restrictions, advice and guidance, and as such we may have to alter them at short notice. However, we will keep you informed as and when things are confirmed or need to be changed.