Great Barrington art gallery owner Bill Talbot had been looking forward to re-opening a portion of his business on Monday.

“As of Friday, we believed that Governor Baker would allow the re-opening of places like my garden yard, where people can be socially distant and we require masks, so we sent out a tremendous amount of emails," Talbot said.

But, following the state’s re-opening outline announcement Monday morning, those plans quickly changed.

“Well of course it’s a bit frustrating to believe we were going to open today, but I respect the change and we will follow that, absolutely," he said.

Talbot says it’s been confusing to figure out when he will be allowed to open the doors at Asia Barong again. He’s eager to welcome visitors back because they rely on art sales to keep the gallery open.

“Unlike the other art houses, Tanglewood, Jacob’s Pillow, we have no corporate sponsors or state money or donators, so it’s up to us to see what we can do," Talbot said.

Talbot says they spent a lot of money buying new pieces over the winter, not anticipating the loss of business they’re now facing…

However, he’s optimistic his gallery will be able to survive.

“I anticipate doing OK," Talbot said. "We will never be up to where we were last year, or every year for the past 36 years we’ve been here, but I expect we’ll do OK in the end.”​