The coronavirus pandemic has not only locked down the world’s economy, it has also taken an enormous toll on entertainment and culture. Luckily, technology has quickly come to the rescue. It offered alternative solutions for those who have suddenly found themselves unable to enjoy a Sunday stroll through their favorite art gallery or a holiday visit to some of the most renowned museums.
A virtual encounter with art, culture, and nature can be an easy and fun experience. Just keep in mind the essential internet safety measures, such as a secure VPN connection. Consider obtaining a NordVPN coupon for discounts and special offers. Among the many tools available online, Google Arts & Culture seems particularly interesting.
What is Google Arts & Culture?
Launched in 2011 due to the company’s 20% project policy, Google Arts & Culture has quickly grown. Now it’s considered to be the world’s biggest virtual art gallery and a vast source of information about arts.
Google Arts & Culture, available both as an online platform and an app, features high-resolution photographs of exhibits. They belong to over 2000 partner museums and art galleries worldwide. A plethora of fascinating functionalities, such as visual tours (some of them guided), augmented reality experience, art selfies, and many educational tools and resources, can turn a simple online museum visit into a thrilling experience.
Are you dreaming of visiting Australia? With Google Arts & Culture, this country’s most famous art collections are now within your reach, with no jet lag or queueing involved.
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Sydney is home to one of the most prestigious museums in the country, holding national, European, and Asian art collections. Google Arts and Culture app contains over 1000 gallery exhibits. It features such renowned artists as Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.
The online collection is divided into several categories: oil, paper, and metal painting, both secular and religious. Those interested in aboriginal art will rejoice at its rich collection of bark paintings, weavings, and indigenous sculptures.
Museums Victoria
Another partner that Google Arts & Culture has in Australia is Museums Victoria – the most extensive public museum in the country. In your virtual tour, you can visit a collection of almost 1400 specimens, the oldest ones dating back to the 1850s.
Are you a fan of zoology or paleontology? Would you like to learn more about Australia’s history? What about aboriginal culture and technological development? The numerous drawings, photographs, stuffed animals, and other artifacts belonging to this museum network are now at your fingerprints.
What’s more, with Google Arts and Culture, you can also visit special exhibitions available at any given time. Currently featured Minerals and Gemstones of Victoria is a feast to your eye and truly informative.
National Motor Museum
Are you a fan of old cars and motorcycles, yet a trip to Birdwood, where the Australian National Motor Museum is located, is not quite possible? Don’t worry; with Google’s help, you can now enjoy its collection without moving from your couch.
From the pre-war Dixi R12 Tourer to 1969 Benelli 250cc Racer, all the exhibits can be conveniently zoomed in. That can help to spot even the smallest stain of dirt on their tires. Detailed exhibit description available below the photograph is a useful source of information that can turn your virtual visit into an educational experience.
National Gallery of Australia
Proud of their artists and their role in stimulating the nation’s cultural sensitivity, in 1982, the government decided to open the National Gallery of Australia, hosting some of the best local art samples.
With as much as a click of your mouse, you can get instant access to the NGA collection. Use this opportunity to admire beautiful landscapes by some of the best Australian impressionists: Arthur Streeton, Frederick McCubbin, Charles Conder, or Tom Roberts.
Swiping to another category, you’ll find yourself immersed in the impressive aboriginal drawings by William Barak and Tommy McRae. With the Augmented Reality function, some of these pieces of art can be conveniently “hung” in your living room.
Make sure, not to miss The Aboriginal Memorial consisting of 200 hollow log bone coffins for each year of the European occupation.
Islamic Museum of Australia
Browsing through Google Arts & Culture, one can make really surprising discoveries. Who would have guessed that the Australian city of Thornbury is home to an extensive collection of Islamic art?
The online platform invites you for a tour through a beautiful paper-cutting collection (like The doors of heaven by Tusif Ahmad) as well as clay and ceramic artifacts.
If you are a fan of glass mosaics, you will love Twin peacocks by Anisa Sharif. If watercolor is your thing, don’t miss Harmony by Aya Mourad.
Image: National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (Wikimedia Commons)