We may be confined to our homes, but luckily our access to the finest art and culture is still available despite lock-down. Here are several ways to experience local and global culture from your home via virtual tours.
The Walker Art Gallery
The Walker Art Gallery is home to a stunning collection of decorative art and sculptural pieces dating back to the 13th century and currently holds the best collection of historic art outside of London.
With a variety of genres featured at the gallery, there is something for every taste, ranging from European Renaissance paintings, masterpieces by Rubens, Poussin, Rembrandt, Turner and Stubbs, Pre-Raphaelite artworks by Rossetti and Millais and Impressionist works by Monet and Degas.
Take a virtual tour of the Walker Art Gallery on the Google Arts and Culture website and experience all that the facility has to offer today.
Open Eye Gallery
Open Eye Gallery is more than a gallery – featuring exhibitions, collaborative projects, publications, festivals and academic courses, the team are taking the lead on socially engaged photography nationally and lock down will not stop them.
The Open Eye online programme is continuously updated and features live streamed talks and virtual reality exhibitions – like their current exhibition – A City Through It’s People
Taki Katei
© Gareth Jones
Once a celebrated artist in Tokyo, Taki Katei’s paintings were displayed in the Imperial Court, before his art fell out of fashion after his death. However, these wonderful paintings proved exceptionally popular when World Museum hosted the first ever exhibition of his work outside Japan. The exhibition has been restored online for you to enjoy these pieces from home.
World Museum Liverpool
If you’d like to stretch your virtual legs, why not take a walk on the wild side in a virtual tour of The World Cultures gallery at the World Museum. Showcasing National Museums Liverpool’s huge collections from Africa, The Americas, Asia and Oceania, you can explore the relationships between Europe and the different cultures which are all featured in the displays.
FACT
Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, The Substitute (2019). Image by Rob Battersby. Installation view at FACT.
And Say the Animal Responded? presents work by five international artist/artist groups who have captured animal voices through the use of human technology. Explore the galleries virtually, discover artist interviews and listen to FACT CEO/Director and curator of the exhibition Nicola Triscott describe each artwork, as we question the relationship between human and animal. If we put the animal’s perspective before that of the human, what would they tell us about the current state of the planet – and what can we learn from this?
Western Approaches
To visit the Liverpool’s top secret underground WWII bunker in 3D from the comfort of home, visit here, where you will be able to discover everything from the Map Room to the Main Switchboard, and even Commander in Chief’s office!
International Slavery Museum
Take a look around the International Slavery Museum’s main galleries and exhibition space and find out about some of the highlights. On this tour you can explore several experiences, including Life in West Africa gallery, Enslavement and the Middle Passage gallery, Legacy gallery and Journey to Justice former exhibition.
Discover the ISM’s virtual tours today
The National Gallery, London
If you’ve never been to the National Gallery, make the most of this virtual tour Via Google Street View, you can immerse yourself in Renaissance masterpieces from the Netherlands, Germany and Northern Italy.
If you like what you see and want to learn more about the artists behind the artwork, why not take a virtual tour of 18 rooms at the National Gallery? Integrating the Gallery’s information pages with the artworks themselves this is a great opportunity to gain a deeper insight and understanding of the artworks.
The Natural History Museum (London, UK)
We are deeply dippy about the diplodocus, dogs and the dodo so a virtual tour of The Natural History Museum is naturally, right up our virtual street. From butterflies to bumble bees, spectacular specimens preserved in jars to cracking crystals there is something for all ages and interests to enjoy in this world-class visitor attraction and leading science research centre. With more than 80 million specimens housed at the museum there’s plenty to keep you busy in this virtual tour, whatever your age.
Tate Modern
Credit – Andy Warhol: 210 Cola Bottles
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Alastair Sooke gains privileged access to the Tate Modern for a last look at the Warhol exhibition. Sooke argues that Warhol might just be the most significant artist of the second half of the 20th century. Warhol not only predicted, but in many ways helped to create, the world we live in – one obsessed with hyper-consumption, mass media and celebrity. Not strictly a virtual tour, but a wonderful hit of culture nevertheless! Click here to watch Warhol on BBC iPlayer.
Musee d’Orsay (Paris, France)
Take a stroll along the bank of the Seine in Paris, to what many people consider the world’s greatest gallery. Home to long term guests many masterpieces by Monet and Cezanne.
Originally built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900, this architectural gem is in itself, a work of art. Featuring a 138m-long curved glass roof, the museum displays art collections dating back to 1848 and includes the largest collection of impressionist and post-impressionist works in the world. From the building’s transformative history to its digital exhibits, find out more in a virtual tour.
Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Bursting with 80 galleries across art and historical objects, this grand museum combines both 19th- Century grandeur with contemporary twists in its new glass-roofed atrium. Augmenting this unique venue, the interactive tour of the museum means you too can get up close to masterpieces by Vermeer and Rembrandt, enjoy stories by the curators themselves and take part in interactive pieces with some of the world’s most famous artworks.
Over to you…
We’ve compiled a list of a few of our favourites above, but do you have any recommendations? Get in touch or tag us on social media to share your cultural suggestions.
