Visitors bereft as museum’s online happy hour ends

For more than 60 Fridays during the pandemic, the Frick Museum in New York hosted an online happy hour called “Cocktails With a Curator.” The live episodes featured a work of art from the collection, a cocktail chosen by the presenting curator and a lively chat room of ultimately 1.6 million viewers from literally all over the world. Ultimately, friendships formed, and now folks from Ireland, Iceland and Irvington are talking about traveling together in person to look at art — and to somehow continue the essential Friday gatherings. Reporter Karen Michel has a first-person account of what will be lost when the virtual event comes to a close.

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