Using SMC’s studios? You’ll need proof of vaccination

Beginning Jan. 13, 2022, everyone age 5 and up entering Somerville Media Center facilities at 90 Union Square must show proof of full vaccination.

This is a temporary measure due to the current COVID surge, made so we can use all the tools at our disposal to keep the students, artists and staff of the Somerville Media Center safe.

You may show proof of vaccination — two shots plus two weeks, or two weeks after a Johnson & Johnson vaccine — in a number of ways.

• Bring in your vaccine card
• Bring in a photo of your vaccine card on your phone
• Enroll in the Commonwealth’s COVID-19 SMART Health Card and we’ll scan and verify the QR code.

In addition to the vaccine policy, we’ll have zero tolerance of noses in public spaces. We will offer you a new mask if yours is ill-fitting, but if we see noses hanging out of masks or masks hanging off faces, we will ask that face’s owner to leave.

We will rescind this emergency policy and destroy our record of who is vaccinated when this current COVID-19 wave fueled by the Omicron variant has passed. We hope you’ll celebrate that day with us by coming masked, into our studios, to freely create art.

The Somerville Media Center is enacting this policy as an emergency measure even before the Somerville Board of Health meets to discuss its proposed vaccine mandate. Our mandate requires everyone, even performers, to be vaccinated. Should the city of Somerville enact a vaccine mandate, we will take the more restrictive action until this surge is over.

Any questions about this policy will be handled by Kat Powers, Executive Director of SMC. If you feel she has not addressed your concerns, she will quickly arrange for you to be heard by the Personnel Committee of the Somerville Media Center Board of Directors.

Our entire team thanks you for keeping our community safe, and hope that someday, when this virus has been rendered harmless, that we can see your faces again in our studios.