From our home in Lower Manhattan, HERE has built an inclusive community that nurtures artists of all backgrounds as they disrupt conventional expectations to create innovative performances in theatre, dance, music, puppetry, media, and visual art. But as the COVID-19 pandemic began to take a hold of New York City, on March 12, 2020, HERE closed its doors to the public.

During our closure, we continued our commitment to nurturing our community and our artists through a variety of programs and services, including making our venue available for filming and live streaming, for creative development, and acting as an ongoing resource to other service organizations. In addition, we have pivoted to new models of producing, both online and "in real life".

HERE is a multi-faceted organization, operating as a café; a gallery; a filming space; a rehearsal space; a dance studio; a scenic, prop and costume shop; an office; a producing company; and ultimately as a live performance venue. Working in so many different ways, we could not approach our reopening under one set of guidelines, but rather, were mindful of the many ways in which we work and the many ways in which we must adapt to this new pandemic world.

To that end, we have created this comprehensive reopening plan, which has taken into account city, state and federal guidelines, as well as union and industry guidelines, and numerous scientific studies. We know that new information about best practices is becoming available regularly, and we are prepared to adjust accordingly.

In the spirit of community, we honor those whose own work formed the basis of this plan and offer this up publicly, that we all might learn from each other and provide the highest degree of safety to everyone we encounter along this journey.

We are all in this together.