After spending several months closed due to COVID-19, the Kalona Historical Village reopened June 1 with new exhibits and procedures to keep visitors safe.

Staff spent the months of downtime renovating several exhibits so the village could return with new and interesting displays.

“We’re excited to get some things changed,” Managing Director Nancy Roth said. “We’ve moved around exhibits and got some new exhibits just so they could see some new stuff.”

The former “crazy quilt room,” which previously displayed asymmetrical and unusually made quilts, has been refurbished. It now displays a variety of quilts from the 1930s and ’40s alongside a history of bridal wear from the same period.

Another admission-only room that formerly displayed Amish quilts is now filled with a much greater variety of Amish showpieces. Roth said the staff wanted to add context to the exhibit so that visitors could better understand the culture.

“Typically, the room just had quilts in it, so we wanted to jazz it up and actually have people have an understanding of why they live the way they do,” Jan Ferry, a volunteer at the Historical Village, said. “That’s the No. 1 thing people are looking for.”

The main exhibit area now displays a “history of thread,” featuring a spinning wheel and antique sewing machine alongside a wide variety of spool cabinets alongside an impressive display of pattern glass made in Iowa.

A handful of health safety measures accompany the new content.

Visitors will be required to wear masks and use hand sanitizer during their time in the Historical Village. Doors will be propped open to ensure ventilation without damaging exhibits and patrons will receive popsicle sticks to press information buttons in the museum.

Roth said that exhibits were already partitioned with small booths to observe from, helping ensure that visitors do not risk the health of others at the village.

Grace Tully, the loom house curator at the village, said she would be giving her section of tours to visitors through one such glass box, rather than letting them into the loom house proper as she has in years past.

“Even if I’m standing here and they’re standing there and we’re two feet apart, I figure it’s the same as if we were wearing face shields,” she said.

While plans for prominent events like the Fall Festival in September are yet undecided, Roth said she hoped they could happen and make up for the lost revenue from canceled bus tours, a main source of funding for the Historical Village which she said has seen a 60% drop in income due to COVID-19.