LYNN — With each passing week of the coronavirus pandemic, Doneeca Thurston, the director of Lynn Museum & Historical Society/LynnArts, realized tough financial decisions had to be made. All Massachusetts museums were forced to close and rentals of the historic building, a major revenue source, vanished due to the no-more-than-10-person social distancing order.
So, what did she do? She gave back some of her salary and got a second job at a grocery store, ensuring that her hard-working part-time staff wouldn’t be laid off and the organization could survive the pandemic.
“I knew that a pay cut was inevitable and it didn’t feel right furloughing my staff or reducing their hours, and not bearing some of the burden myself,” said Thurston, a Lynn native and Classical High grad. She said the museum has lost about $50,000 in rental income this year due to COVID-19 restrictions.
In the meantime, Thurston and the museum’s board of directors applied for grants targeted for arts and culture organizations and loans, eventually receiving a Payroll Protection Program small business loan. That meant that staffers Elena Hirshman-Seidel and Susan Walker, who had been furloughed briefly, could return to work.
“They are essential to day-to-day operations. I’m in this with them,” said Thurston. “I’m prioritizing their hours over mine, as I’m able to make some money working a second job at Trader Joe’s in Peabody, where I worked in 2017-18. I still had my Trader Joe’s shirt.”
Thurston downplayed her munificence. “It’s inspirational to see so many community members coming together at this time to help one another. But we shouldn’t be surprised. People in Lynn have always done that, looking out for each other.”
Gov. Charlie Baker on Monday said museums could reopen as part of Step 3 of his return-to-work plan. The earliest that could happen is in late June.
“We’re doing as much as we can to prepare for the day when we can reopen, whenever that will be,” Thurston said. In the meantime, she and her staff are conducting research, planning online-only programs and mapping out in-person exhibitions, even though museum occupancy will likely be only 30 percent of capacity at first.
She said the popular Trivia Night fundraiser will return sometime in June, though participants will play from home instead of in the museum’s Washington Street headquarters. Drew Russo, Thurston’s predecessor as museum director, will be back as co-host and Sarah and Corey Jackson, whose virtual home concerts have been a hit online, will provide the music.
Pop-up art installations in the museum’s courtyard, with city restaurateurs providing the food, will be a cause of celebration once the venue is open.
Thurston also oversees the LynnArts building at 25 Exchange St., whose tenants include many artists and arts professionals, making sure all state guidelines are adhered to.
While growing up in Lynn, Thurston participated in Raw Art Works programs. Before being selected to run the museum, she was in charge of creative programs at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem for five years. She earned a bachelor of arts in history from Bucknell University and a master of arts in history from Northeastern University. In addition, Thurston was a graduate intern for the Black Cultural Archives at the University of Oxford in London.
