There are few things in life that can be compared to waiting for the weekend to arrive, head downtown, grab a bite and enjoy the most recent temporary exhibition in your favourite museum. However, given the present circumstances, museums have temporarily closed and we must act accordingly in a responsible way.
Thankfully, that doesn’t mean we should stop living and keeping the culture alive. Many museums across the globe have made a huge effort to maintain cultural and artistic activities alive and accessible through digital tools that people can use from home. To all our arts and culture aficionados out there, we prepared a digital tour of museums and collections to visualize.
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Madrid
First stop, Madrid, Spain. Museum Reina Sofía, hosts one of the most iconic and historically relevant paintings of all time “Guernica”. An incredibly well developed digital piece named “Rethinking Guernica” holds more than 2,000 documents that reference this masterpiece by Pablo Picasso. The digital tour encompasses a Gigapixel photography technology that allows us to visualize the tiniest of details in the painting, something that the security line in the physical museum would never allow us to see. This technological visit narrates the historical journey of the painting and its relevance not only in artistic terms but in the historical and political history of Europe. If you’re thirsty for more while you are in Madrid you might want to check out the Museo del Prado, which hosts astonishing narrations and details to some of its paintings, also, the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum contains a digital tour through its hallways worth seeing.
London
Across the English-channel we arrive at The British Museum’s webpage which hosts an explosive interactive digital timeline. In this timeline it is possible to travel and move around the most important events of our history, learning of the events and watching the evolution of objects being created. This project is a partnership between the British Museum and the Google Cultural Institute. Another great feature worth seeing is The Royal Opera house YouTube channel which hosts astonishing performances, including the Nutcracker and videos behind the scenes.
Paris
Can you picture yourself looking at the Gioconda by Leonardo da Vinci, comfortably from your couch? The Louvre Museum has made this possible by digitalizing its immense collection into several categories, from oriental antiquities, medieval paintings to Islamic art. No cultural tour is complete without taking a look into some of the infinite possibilities of one of the world’s most important museums in the world.
Rome
The most affected country by COVI-19 must not be left behind. Not only its people have shown a tremendous display of unity and courage, but many institutions have joined this rising spirit offering tours and digital exhibitions for people to enjoy. The Vatican Museum webpage makes available many iconic pieces of Italian art, ranging from works of art of Caravaggio, Giotto and Leonardo da Vinci. Now that you’re in Italy we also highly recommend looking at Le Gallerie Degli Uffizi online exhibitions done with Google, includes some of the most famous collections of antique sculptures and paintings in the world.
New York
The Big Apple has also frozen, but the Metropolitan Museum of Art has not. The Met offers a 360º tour, where you can zoom into some of its most famous artworks. This tour has been visualized by more than 11 million people and has won several awards. You can also use the Street View to walk through the different galleries of the place. Their website also holds other types of content like behind the scenes and a library to browse works of art within their collection.
Mexico City
To conclude the tour with some warm vibes we also recommend this Google powered digital tour of the National Anthropological Museum of Mexico the biggest in the country. The page holds a collection of images and history about the prehispanic cultures that expanded in Mesoamerica from 2000 BC. There’s no excuse to leave time for art and culture behind, enjoy yourself and support the cultural institutions of our time.
