Bring art and culture into your living room by visiting museums online

A cultural experience from your sofa

Right now it is important that we stay at home. Are you beginning to run out of ideas for things to do with all your free time? Have you already watched all your favourite films and TV series? The banana bread is already baked. Your muscles are aching after all the home workouts. If you like art and culture, this will make an interesting change. It is currently possible to visit a great number of museums, just by sitting comfortably in front of a screen.

Here are a few ideas we put together for a virtual museum visit:

Switzerland
Museum Burg Zug (de/en)

Since 2 April, a 3D virtual tour of the special exhibition “Emergency! Switzerland in the Cold War” has been available on the museum’s website, and you don’t even need to leave your house. Isn’t that awesome?

Kunsthaus Zug (de/en)
Kunsthaus Zug is also offering digital invitations. A digital exhibition tour is under development. If you want to join in live, you can view works of art on Art at Midday, every Tuesday lunchtime via Zoom, and talk to the other participants about them. Kunstvermittlung@home has ideas for families and children.

The Swiss National Museum, Zurich
Unfortunately there are currently no virtual tours of the Swiss National Museum in Zurich. However, insights into the museum’s 14 collections are available in the museum blog, where you can learn many new things about individual objects.

Kunsthaus, Zürich (de/en/fr)
You cannot, unfortunately, take a virtual tour in the Kunsthaus Zurich, but take a look at the online archive, which has a great many works and collections for you to admire.

Museum of Digital Art, Zurich
Corona Creative Classes – the Museum of Digital Art is launching a free online school for different age groups, including adults. Browse the prospectus for a course that interests you and apply online. What about “creative programming” or “music with everyday objects”?

Kunstmuseum Basel (de/en/fr)
With the motto “Bringing Art to Where You Are”, the Kunstmuseum Basel currently gives viewings of artworks from the collection as well as retrospectives on previous star exhibitions.

Museum Tinguely, Basel (de/en/fr)
It is possible not just to visit Basel's Tinguely Museum on an online tour, but also to get actively involved as a virtual visitor using the “Meta-Tinguely” exhibition guide.

Museum of Natural History, Basel
The “Home Museum” can be explored virtually, with expert knowledge, an insight into what goes on behind the scenes and a Kids’ Corner with puzzles.

 

Austria
The Albertina Museum, Vienna
DVienna’s Albertina is home to one of the most important art collections in the world. You can admire countless graphic collections from the Renaissance to the modern age in the digital museum. A digital visit to the museum is worth your while, because the Albertina’s rooms are sumptuously decorated and furnished.

 

Germany
The German Oceanographic Museum, Stralsund

The Oceanographic Museum provides a digital tour, on which you can see various aquariums and exhibition rooms. Shark-feeding time, the main attraction, is unfortunately not being broadcast at the moment.

 

Netherlands
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (nl/en)

The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam is a Dutch national museum devoted to arts, crafts and history. The museum has an app that allows you to view all the works of art in the building. The app will act as a guide through the individual rooms and for individual artworks, just like a normal museum visit. You will see paintings by artists like Vermeer and Rembrandt.

The Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
In this museum you can learn about the tragic life of Vincent van Gogh. In two virtual exhibitions you will learn everything about his tumultuous love life and the books he read.

 

France
The Louvre in Paris

The Louvre in Paris is one of France’s most famous art galleries. Bring a bit of France into your living room and discover the Louvre’s collections on various virtual tours.

 

Italy
Museo Galileo, Florenz

This museum was founded in 1927 and has already survived a number of difficult periods. The Museo Galileo collection contains antique tools, weapons and instruments, all categorised. You can learn something about Leonardo da Vinci in the virtual exhibitions, for example, and there are plenty of other collections to view.

Gallerie degli Uffizie
Travelling to Florence to visit Italy’s most famous museum is unfortunately impossible right now. But this is no reason to miss out on a museum visit. The Uffizi has made it possible for you to visit some of its exhibitions virtually.

 

Spain
The Dali Theatre Museum

The Dali Theatre Museum is devoted to the artist Salvador Dali in his Catalan hometown Figueres. You can visit the entire museum virtually, and admire Dali’s masterpieces, from the comfort of your own home. When walking virtually around the museum, you will feel as if you are actually there.

 

England
The British Museum

You can visit the British Museum for free on 45 different virtual tours.

The National Gallery, London
You can view all the National Gallery’s works in a virtual tour. This museum exhibits works of art by many different artists from the 13th to the 19th centuries.

University of Oxford's History of Science Museum
Oxford’s History of Science Museum has over 20,000 objects on display. A department of the University of Oxford, the museum has many different videos of experts demonstrating, for example, how the famous Camera Obscura or Gregorian telescope work.

 

USA
Metropolitan Museum of Art (en)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City is the USA’s largest art museum and boasts one of the most significant collections of historic art in the world. Although travelling to NYC is not possible right now, you can discover the collection in a series of interactive videos without leaving your living room. You can find these interactive videos here.

Guggenheim-Museum, New York (en)
The Guggenheim Museum in New York is famous for modern and contemporary art from the 20th and 21st centuries. You can visit it from home too, and even climb the museum’s famous spiral staircase virtually.

Museum of Modern Art (MoMa), New York)
MoMA is one of the world’s best-known museums. The collection, including works of architecture and design, paintings, sculptures, prints, photos, illustrations, drawings, film and electronic media, can be visited virtually. In addition, MoMA has a library containing more than 300,000 books.

The Frick's Garden Court, New York
The Frick Collection is housed in a beautiful old mansion in New York, and primarily contains paintings by old masters and European sculpture. The green garden court and the rest of the museum are both worth a virtual visit.

Smithsonian
The Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. is one of the world’s largest natural history museums. You can take a highly impressive online tour through the museum at any time, and you will feel as if you are actually there, allowing you to forget briefly that you are stuck at home within your own four walls.

The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, California
This museum, located in San Jose, California, houses the largest collection of Egyptian artefacts in North America. You can admire the collection on a virtual tour and also learn how the ancient Egyptians imagined life after death. This makes your virtual trip both cultural and educational in one.

Nasa - Glenn Research Center
Have you always wanted to take a look at the Nasa Center? Right now is the perfect time to do so. During an exciting virtual tour through Nasa’s facilities, you will gain insights and feel that you are right there on the spot.

 

Mexico
Museo Frida Kahlo, Mexico

Travel on your sofa to Mexico, where you can wander virtually through the rooms and the eventful life of outstanding Latin American artist Frida Kahlo. In the online exhibition “Appearances Can Be Deceiving” (https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/mehr-schein-als-sein/6gICPDLcNAzkJA), the Museo Frida Kahlo tells the artist’s story with detailed texts and impressive pictures.

 

South Korea
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul

You can visit this museum from anywhere in the world. On the virtual tour (https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/national-museum-of-modern-and-contemporary-art-korea), you can visit four different exhibitions and explore the origins and development of Korean art and the museum itself. A total of 235 objects and four different virtual tours will give you different insights into the museum, with no need to leave your house.

 

Australia
Australian Museum, Sydney

You can even travel down under, from the comfort of your sofa, and go on a virtual visit to the Australian museum in Sydney. It is the oldest natural history museum in the world. In addition to Australia’s unique animal life, Aboriginal history also comes under the spotlight. You can visit the museum virtually via a Google Arts & Culture Tour.

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