Mystic — When Mystic Seaport Museum recently began its reopening to the public, it needed to come up with a new exhibit for Thompson Exhibition Building.

That's because the COVID-19 pandemic had forced the museum to cancel an exhibit called SALT: Tracing Memories, an installation by Japanese artist Motoi Yamaoto, which had been slated to open April 26.

Seaport spokesman Dan McFadden said museum staff held a brainstorming session to come up with an idea because the museum could not have its signature 5,00-square-foot gallery empty this summer as visitors return.

McFadden said the museum took a look at what assets it had in its vast collection and what its staff could turn into an exhibit “in short order.”

“Obviously wood is a special material here at the museum and it just went from there,” McFadden explained about the idea that led to the new exhibition entitled “A Way with Wood: Celebrating Craft” which opened Friday.

The museum said the exhibit will “introduce visitors to the many ways people transform one of nature’s most malleable materials to objects of utility, art, and beauty.”

At the center of the exhibition will be museum shipwrights restoring and building boats in the middle of the gallery. Visitors can watch the work, which usually takes place behind the scenes in the museum shipyard and ask questions of the shipwrights.

The first project will be the restoration of Afterglow, a tender for the museum’s schooner Brilliant. That will be followed by the completion of a restoration of the Woods Hole spritsail cat Sandy Ford, and then the construction of a new dory for the L.A. Dunton. Shipwrights will use mostly hand tools, the same way the boats were constructed.

In addition a changing group of outside woodworkers will also demonstrate their crafts such as carving, furniture making, sculpture, and model making.

There will be rotating displays of objects from the museum’s collections, such as rare tools, unique carvings, small boats, photographs and other artifacts that illustrate the many ways wood has been shaped by artisans. There is no end date yet for the exhibit.

“Warm, renewable, flexible, strong – the remarkable qualities of wood have appealed to countless generations, making it the traditional go-to material for crafting boats, buildings, furniture, and much more,” said museum Director of Exhibits Elysa Engelman. “We’re excited to be using our largest and newest gallery to show-off our staff skills and our collections, by celebrating woodcraft and the craft of woodworking in a maritime setting.”

McFadden said plans are to open the SALT exhibit next spring. In addition, he said the opening of a major new exhibit on Antarctica in November is on hold because the pandemic has made it difficult to acquire the artifacts it needs from around the world.