Photo provided by The Field Museum
If you're wanting to experience art and culture during this “shelter in place” period, now is the time to check out some of the best online museum collections from the comfort of your home.
Google has teamed up with over 2,000 museums from around the world to archive and document priceless pieces of art and historical artifacts. The Google Arts & Culture site offers high resolution images with the ability to enlarge art to an extreme detail.
There are many search options — you can search for a specific institution or you can narrow the search by artist, time period, or even color. You can even be your own curator by finding your favorites and creating your own collections and sharing them with your friends.
The museums that took part in this project offer a substantial amount of their collection for the public to see online. Some museums also offer virtual tours of their galleries and their grounds through the use of Google Street View technology.
Even though the list below is composed of just a small sampling of art museums, Google Arts & Culture also offers natural history museums such as the Field Museum and historical museums such as the British Museum.
Google’s Street View technology also allows you to enjoy close-up views of historic landmarks from around the globe, including the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Palace of Versailles, Machu Picchu, and the Colosseum.
This site not only acts as a cultural experience for adults, but it's also a fun, educational tool for kids, particularly during this time when they must study at home.
Take a look at the complete list of museums that are participating in this project.
Musée d’Orsay, Paris
This museum has one of the largest art collections in Europe. Visitors can take a virtual tour of the art-nouveau building and enjoy artworks that include masterpieces by Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet and Paul Gauguin.
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul
Take a virtual tour of this museum that is in the heart of Seoul. View works that include global contemporary art not only from Korea but from around the world.
The J. Paul Getty Museum
The collection includes works from the eighth through the twenty-first century. In this online collection, one can view European paintings, drawings, sculpture, as well as a vast collection of photography.
Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico City
This museum is located in the historical center of Mexico City and hosts some of the most important works of Mexican Art. See works by artists such as María Izquierdo, José María Velasco, and Diego Rivera.
The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
The collection includes paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, and sculpture that traces the development of Western Art from the Middle Ages to the present. See works by Auguste Rodin, Edgar Degas, William Blake, Mary Cassatt, Edvard Munch and Jasper Johns.
Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Enjoy the breathtaking works by Renaissance masters such as Michelangelo, Leonardo DaVinci, and Sandro Botticelli.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The collection includes paintings and sculptures from nearly all the European masters, an extensive collection of American and modern art, and also art from classical antiquity and ancient Egypt.
Van Gogh Museum
Located in Amsterdam, the Van Gogh Museum houses the largest collection of art by Vincent Van Gogh. View works such as Self-Portrait with Straw Hat, Field with Flowers near Arles, and Sunflowers.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
View iconic works from the Dutch Golden Age by painters such as Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Frans Hals.
The Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago houses one of the largest permanent collections in the United States. View a large sample from their collection that includes works by Edgar Degas, Edward Hopper, Pablo Picasso, Georges Seurat, and Georgia O’Keefe.