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THE STUDENTS’ VOICE SINCE 1887
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NATIONAL MUSIC MUSEUM RENOVATIONS ON TRACK
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The Nutrition DEN brings healthy alternatives to Vermillion community The Nutrition DEN is a brand new business in Vermillion and features healthy shakes, teas and aloe vera shots. Learn more about this new onestop shop and their fit foods on page B3.
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The National Music Museum is planning to reopen in the spring or summer of 2022. Renderings for the exhibts show new, interactive features in the museum. Rachel Spinks
Rachel.Spinks@coyotes.usd.edu
The National Music Museum closed its doors the fall of 2018 for a complete $10 million renovation of their facility. With over two years of construction, the museum will now include changing gallery exhibits, a performance hall for concerts, a new research and conservation lab and photography lab among many other additions. The director of the National Music Museum, Matt Collinsworth, said the museum contains over 2,000 historical pieces of some of the worlds earliest collections of stringed instruments dating back more than 2,000 years. “This is the finest collection of its kind in the world here in little Vermillion, South Dakota,” Collinsworth said. With everything from non-western to classical, the museum offers many unique artifacts. With an ever-expanding collection of over 15,000 artifacts, the National Music Museum has been awaiting an upgrade. With hopes to reopen to the public in late spring of 2022, The National Music Museum continues to work around COVID-19 to reach their goal. “Renovation schedule hasn’t been impacted in any significant way because of COVID, we’ve run pretty close to schedule with building renovations,” Collinsworth said. “There has been challenges on how we handle design work, it’s still ongoing because everything has shifted to digital, but we are set to open in the spring/summer of 2022.” The interactive components the museum intended to incorporate had to be modified because of the uncertainty that COVID-19 brings to the future.
“(With) exhibition designs in the past you might have had a listening device,” Collinsworth said. “That’s not a smart idea going forward because it may be years before someone feels comfortable using a public touch screen or listening device.” His team has been working with a design firm with motion sensors for a new innovative way to keep the public safe going forward. “It was a really good time to close because we weren’t scrambling around trying to figure out what we were going to do before the summer tourist season because we had planned to be closed anyway,” Collinsworth said. Collinsworth said the pandemic affected traveling events the most. To keep the public involved while closed, the NMM worked with the city of Vermillion to host Thursdays on the Platz and began working on digital presentation components for the public. The museum has also continued their pop-up exhibition program, which places instruments in locations around Vermillion and all over the state of South Dakota. Collinsworth said the museum hopes to grow more awareness from online. “Going digital helped engage people short term,” Collinsworth said. The museum has begun work to create a multimedia tour for those who cannot physically visit the location, and is hoping to build onto it so others can visit remotely from around the world. “We are getting closer and closer each day for the time when folks are allowed back in to watch a concert or enjoy our collection,” Collinsworth said. “We got a little bit more work to do, some hard work over the next 16-18 months but this is going to be a world-class facility when it’s all done.” To learn more information about museum reopening, visit http:// nmmusd.org
Volleyball hosts No. 14 Creighton Women’s Volleyball hosted No. 14 Creighton on Sunday, Jan. 31 in the Sanford Coyote Sports Center. Learn more on B1.
Greening Vermillion makes plans for Earth Days Miles Amende
Local bars maintain steady business Maddi Kallsen
Maddilynn.Kallsen@coyotes.usd.edu
Vermillion bars have stayed open throughout the later part of the pandemic. The Dakota Brickhouse General Manager, Josh Scherrer, said all Vermillion businesses have been affected in some way or another in the past year. Businesses have responded in different ways to the new normal. The Brickhouse closes earlier at 11 p.m. and opens later at 4 p.m. The Brickhouse is still at 50% occupancy and has been since the pandemic started. Social distancing is expected and encouraged. Tables and menus are sanitized after every use, Scherrer said. “We were the first in town to separate our tables, mask up everybody, and we have temp logs that we all use every day,” Scherrer said. Diane Wirth, owner of The Varsity Pub, said when they first reopened, business was very slow but eventually picked up. Expenses are heavily monitored and controlled in order to save money and adapt. Slower business is harder to sustain. “We’re not maintaining the same amount of business but we’re maintaining the new normal for now. Every business has been affected differently,” Scherrer said. The 100th anniversary for Varsity is this year, but a celebration
won’t happen until it’s safe to do so later in the year or in 2022, Wirth said. Promotions for major social gatherings are essentially nonexistent. During the spring and summer months, there were many cancellations, Wirth said. Throughout fall and winter, there have been no scheduled events at Varsity. There have been shortages on several products Varsity uses due to manufactures scaling production back and closing, Wirth said. Vermillion bars are also seeing a drop in business. ”From a business perspective, we’ve definitely tried to make do with what we have,” Scherrer said. Social media has been optimized in order to keep in touch with customers. Both Brickhouse and Varsity are active on several different platforms including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. “Since the beginning of this incident, we’ve been pretty forefront on social media; this has been helpful for us,” Scherrer said. The Vermillion Chamber and Development Company (VCDC) gave out Vermillion Victory Bonds at a discounted rate to local businesses to help stimulate the local economy. “I feel very fortunate to do business in Vermillion,” Wirth said. “The VCDC has been so supportive, not to mention the whole community’s love and support.”
Maddi Kallsen | The Volante
Varsity Pub is celebrating their 100th anniversary this year, but will not host a formal party until it is safer. There are no future events planned at Varsity Pub for now.
Miles.Amende@coyotes.usd.edu
In celebration of Earth Day 2021, Greening Vermillion—an organization dedicated to making Vermillion the greenest town in South Dakota— has begun tentatively planning for Vermillion Earth Days, a week of events which promote sustainability. Mark Sweeney, a USD professor and board member of Greening Vermillion, said the 2020 Vermillion Earth Days were intended to kick off the organization’s curbside recycling education campaign, but they were cancelled due to the pandemic. The campaign proceeded on social media, but Sweeney said the cancellation of events was a letdown. “Last year was the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, and it was a dud,” Sweeney said. “I’m looking forward to it this year because we can put in a lot better effort planning-wise to celebrate Earth Days even if we’re still in the middle of a pandemic.” Some of the planned events this year include an artist’s talk with visiting guest Nina Elders, a book discussion, a fair and a walk-run. Meghann Jarchow, Chair of Greening Vermillion, said the organization is in a much better place to put on Earth Days this year. “We have some virtual events, some in-person events that are also virtual,” Jarchow said. “In the past there were some bigger gatherings, and we can’t do those types of things, but I think there is a lot that we can do.” Sweeney said this year’s Earth Days are intended to bring a broader awareness about environmental issues to Vermillion, and that events like the artist’s visit will help connect people to sustainability. “People might be interested in the science behind what’s going on with climate change or our environment,” Sweeey said. “It’s one thing to be told these things in a keynote address or a lecture… but it’s another thing entirely to then relate to it through an experience like hiking or art.” Anna Moore, USD Campus Recycling coordinator and board member of Greening Vermillion, is coordinating an event called the “Re-cook Cafe.” Moore said the idea is based on the “Repair Cafe” in which specialists teach people how to repair household objects so they don’t get thrown away. Instead of fixing appliances, however, attendees will learn how to cook more resourcefully and sustainably by using leftovers in recipes and composting food scraps. “So far, we’ve recruited three chefs to be part of our Re-Cook Cafe... and I’m trying to recruit one more,” Moore said. “We’re planning the Re-Cook Cafe to be the evening of Earth Day so that after their dinner, people can just log on (to Zoom) and participate.” See Greening, Page A3