There are only so many YouTube cat videos you can watch, Netflix offerings to chill with, or dramas to absorb from the latest celebrity beef on Twitter. Sometimes, you just need a bit of a break from pop culture. When it comes to masterful storytelling, try delving into our past.
As Google has now teamed up with over 500 of the world’s most outstanding Art Galleries, Museums and exhibitions, you can enjoy a novel [COVID-19] cultural experience by taking virtual tours across the globe, visiting exhibits curated especially for the online visitor, and through exploring the many fascinating websites you will find links to every Google Arts and Culture partner or association page you can hope for. It’s a rabbit hole you’ll go down for hours!
Hubei Provincial Museum, Wuhan, China
Founded in 1953, this museum is one of only eight in China supported by the national government. As the only comprehensive provincial museum, it contains 200,000 cultural relics ranging from ancient bronze vessels, to musical instruments, and ceramics. It is Hubei province’s most important heritage collection.
Museo del Novencento, Milano, Italy
Not even a decade in existence, this museum in the Piazza del Duomo, hosts a collection of over 4000 works that catalyze the development of 20th century Italian art. In the “10 Masterpieces” online exhibit, you can see lost work, which exists only in photographic reproduction, of a piece considered “degenerate arte” and requisitioned by the Nazis.
While there are no Google Arts and Culture partners in Iran itself, in this exhibit you can see selected works from a book collaboration between Luciano Benetton and artist Bita Fayyazi. The book features 149 images from 109 contemporary artists from Iran and the images from the book’s online exhibit come from the collection of Imago Mundi.
Seoul Design Foundation, South Korea
Seoul’s sartorial design industry is exciting and innovative, and the foundation was established to promote this culture locally and for the world to see. Here you can see Korean fashion develop, and explore decades of the work of true pioneers in textile use, cutting and graphic design.
Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
Founded in 1990 after originally being created as an arts center, the museo is among the culminating events of the Spanish transition to democracy, recovering Picasso’s “Guernica” as well as an outstanding representation of the international avant-gardes and neo avant-gardes. You can virtually explore the Palacia de Cristal, the Museo Reina Sofia and the Palacio de Velázquez.
Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany
The brainchild of Friedrich Wilhelm IV to create a sanctuary for art and science. The original home of the National Galleries, during the division of Germany, paintings that survived the war in the Western zones of occupation were placed elsewhere. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the growing collections were united in this original building which will celebrate 145 years of existence in 2021. The online exhibit titles are life! This may be a Berliner thing because it’s worth checking out Bode-Museum for these hilarious titles too.
In the center of Paris on the banks of the Seine, the museum is housed by the former Orsay railway station which was built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900. Online, discover the most important impressionist era works of art by Cézanne, Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir and others within this, at the time shocking, art movement.
Soloman R. Guggenheim, New York, New York, USA
If you can’t wait for the opening of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, virtually travel to New York to see this museum established to promote the understanding and appreciation of art, primarily of the modern and contemporary periods. You can even click-walk around the famous atrium of spiral ramps, resembling the chambered shell of the Nautilus, that take you to each level of the museum.
The Olympic Museum, Lausanne, Switzerland
Less about art and more about an idea: Olympism. This museum seeks to have people discover the Olympic movement, witnessing its essential contribution to society. Some of the online exhibits have spoken descriptions in English. There is some incredible sports photography to be seen here, including interpretive, quirky, documentary and photo-finish.
The International Museum of Children’s Art, Oslo, Norway
The world’s first full scale Museum of Child Art. Today, the museum’s art collection contains art works by children and youngsters from more than 180 countries. The Museum regards children’s art as a living part of folk art and also as an important element in national and universal culture. The children’s own opinion and concerns are presented through changing thematic exhibitions, carefully chosen with the same demands for quality as in an adults’ art museum. The main goal is to promote “The Rights of the Child” and in the future also serve as a research center for the study of the history, art and culture of the child.
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
As far back as the beginning of the Meiji period in 1868, there was a movement demanding the establishment of a museum to permanently display contemporary art. Although the petition was taken up several times in parliament, a national facility for the permanent display of modern art was never realized until the opening of this Museum in 1952, and it is governed by the Ministry of Education.
The Al Sabah Collection, Kuwait
The Al Sabah collection began to take form in 1975 when Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah purchased the collection’s first object. It was a mid 14th century enameled glass bottle he found in a London art gallery. The collection has now grown to more than 20,000 objects representing different chronological and geographical points from the Islamic world. The Al Sabah Collection is regarded by international authorities as one of a small handful of the most comprehensive collections of Islamic art in the world. It has continued to grow since its inception increasing its strengths in all categories: arms and armour, calligraphy, carpets and textiles, coins, glass, hardstones, ivory, jewelry, manuscripts and miniatures, metalwork, stone and stucco, and woodwork. The collection has long had an active program of the publication of volumes focused on its holdings, which is ongoing. It also has an impressive history in the generation of distinguished special exhibitions, in addition to the loaning of objects to exhibitions organized elsewhere in the world.
This article was inspired by the piece: Stuck at Home? These 12 Famous Museums Offer Virtual Tours You Can Take On Your Couch published on travelandleisure.com. Images sourced from artsandculture.google.com. Featured photo from Unsplash.
