As more and more public places close due to coronavirus fears and people are working from home, you may feel a sense of isolation. Although there is nothing quite like the real experience, you can still stimulate your senses and expand your mind with Google Arts & Culture which has partnered with over 500 museums and galleries from across the globe.
Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh
1. Robben Island Prison Tour, Cape Town
Thanks to Google Street View you can enjoy a well-constructed virtual tour of Robben Island‘s prison complex guided by former political prisoner Vusumsi Mcongo. View the Censor’s Office where all prison letters were received and sent, former President Nelson Mandela’s cell, the courtyard of Section B, where Mandela was housed, plus more.
2. Musée d’Orsay, Paris
You can do a virtual walk through of this gallery, which is home to famous works created between 1848 and 1914 by French artists including artworks from Renoir, Monet, Manet, Cézanne, Degas and Gauguin, among others.
3. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
This museum has the largest collection of Vincent van Gogh’s works, including over 200 paintings, 500 drawings, and over 750 personal letters. You can visit the virtual museum here.
4. British Museum, London
Virtual visitors can tour England’s iconic museum and view Egyptian mummies, ancient artefacts from Mesopotamia and the Rosetta Stone.
5. Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg
View contemporary exhibits in the Johannesburg Art Gallery which includes works by Mary Sibande, Nandipha Mntambo, Gabrielle Goliath, Richardt Strydom and Apartheid resistance photography from James Baldwin’s book The Evidence of Things Not Seen.
6. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Enjoy Guggenheim’s famous spiral staircase without leaving your home using Google’s Street View and then move on and be enthralled by Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art.
7. MASP, São Paulo
The Museu de Arte de São Paulo is Brazil’s first modern museum. This non-profit museum has artworks that appear to be hovering in midair, as they are placed on clear perspex. A virtual tour will allow you to experience the interesting displays.
8. The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
The State Russian Museum set located in the Mikhailovsky Palace in Saint Petersburg has over 400,000 exhibits from the tenth to the twenty-first century. Among this significant collection of Russian art you can view Kazimir Malevich`s controversial painting ‘Black Square’, as well as other paintings by Russian artists like Ilya Repin, Boris Kustodiev and Vasily Surikov.
9. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
This well-known museum has two online exhibits through Google. The first shows American fashion from 1740 to 1895 and the second is a collection of art from Dutch Baroque painter Johannes Vermeer.
10. Tachibana Museum, Tokyo
Enjoy a virtual cultural tour of the Lady Ayako Tachibana exhibition, including the Tachibana Garden, which has been designated as a Japanese National Site of Scenic Beauty.
Image: Wikipedia
