The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and Cincinnati Museum Center (CMC) updated their timelines for reopening following a temporary closure due to an ongoing systems failure.
The systems failure has impacted museum ticketing and email systems, as well as exhibit-specific systems including lighting, digital interactives and theatrical programs that prevent the museums from reopening to the public.
Freedom Center reoopening March 30
The Freedom Center is targeting a reopening of Wednesday, March 30 and CMC a reopening of Thursday, March 31.
CMC’s systems were impacted by a virus on March 12, which disrupted both CMC’s and Freedom Center’s public operations.
In addition to exhibit-specific systems, the virus has damaged CMC’s networking capabilities, disrupting how various internal systems communicate with each other. CMC is working with trusted partners to repair the damage to its systems, methodically working through each system and each device.
The complexity and scope of the process has necessitated CMC and the Freedom Center to push back their reopening dates.
“We are taking the painstaking, necessary steps to restore and secure our systems in a way that allows us the most complete recovery and to protect our museums in the future,” said Elizabeth Pierce, president and CEO of Cincinnati Museum Center, and Woodrow Keown, Jr., president and COO of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. “We understand the inconvenience this presents to our guests, and we are working to welcome each of you back into our museums as quickly as possible.”
There continues to be no indication that personal data has been compromised.
