5 Museums in the World you can Visit from your Couch!
Though we all try to stay busy by keeping active and working from home during the COVID-19 outbreak, it's easy to fall into a rut. Luckily, there's more than one way to stave off boredom while staying indoors. We have selected some of our favourite gallery and museum tours from around the world that can be enjoyed from the comfort of your home.
Natural History Museum – London
1. Take a deep dive into the life of a blue whale: Explore the rich history of Hope, the blue whale suspended from the ceiling in Hintze Hall. In this online interactive, see what her life was like in the ocean, find out how she got to her home in the Museum and get a behind-the-scenes peek of the Museum's collections.
2. Hang out with scientists online: Join the Nature Live Online team on Tuesdays at 12.00 and Fridays at 10.30 for interactive talks featuring topical discussions with our scientists and cutting-edge research.
3. Let Sir David Attenborough guide you around Hintze Hall: Sir David's unmistakable voice and expertise on all things nature make him the perfect person to take you on a tour of Hintze Hall's star specimens (including the blue marlin), all from the comfort of home.
4. Go on a virtual tour of the Museum: Google Arts & Culture gives you access to 300,000 specimens within the Museum's collections, along with 14 digital exhibitions, virtual tours and an interactive gigapixel photo (so enormous you can zoom in on the tiniest detail) of Hintze Hall's gilded canopy.
The Getty - Los Angeles
The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center features works of art dating from the eighth through the twenty-first century, showcased against a backdrop of dramatic architecture, tranquil gardens, and breathtaking views of Los Angeles. The collection includes European paintings, drawings, sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, decorative arts, and European, Asian, and American photographs.
1. Michelangelo: Mind of the Master - Michelangelo was one of the most creative and influential artists in the history of Western art. This exhibition explores the full range of his work as a painter, sculptor, and architect through more than two dozen of his extraordinary drawings, including designs for celebrated projects such as the Sistine Chapel ceiling, the Medici Chapel tombs, and The Last Judgment. These studies and sketches enable us to witness Michelangelo at work, and to experience firsthand his boundless creativity and his pioneering representation of the human form.
2. History of the Bauhaus - Considered one of the most influential schools of art and design of the 20th century, the Bauhaus forged a unique educational vision that blended theory with practice in order to cultivate a new generation of artists and designers. Conceived in tandem with the Getty Research Institute’s gallery exhibition, Bauhaus Beginnings, this online exhibition offers an in-depth look into the school’s novel pedagogy.
3. Mesopotamia Civilization Begins - Mesopotamia—the land "between the rivers" in modern-day Iraq—was home to the ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. Among their many achievements are the creation of the earliest known script (cuneiform), the formation of the first cities, the development of advanced astronomical and mathematical knowledge, and spectacular artistic and literary accomplishments. The exhibition covers three millennia from the first cities in about 3200 BC to Alexander the Great’s conquest of Babylon in 331 BC.
Uffizi Gallery – Florence
- Hall of the Dynasties,
- Giorgione Gallery,
- Venetian Chapel,
- Antechamber of the Tribute Office,
- Small Titian Gallery,
- Gallery of Titian’s Venus of Urbino,
- Gallery of Venetian Naturalism,
- Tintoretto Gallery,
- Veronese Gallery,
- Mall Veronese Gallery
National Gallery of Victoria - Melbourne
NGV presents exhibitions from home with interactive virtual self-guided tours;
1. Olympia: Photographs By Polixeni Papapetrou - This exhibition comprises photographs by Australian photographer Polixeni Papapetrou (1960–2018) of her daughter Olympia, covering the period from Olympia’s birth (1997) until the artist’s death (2018).
2. Japanese Modernism - The exhibition features major works by young female artists of the era and rare large-scale paintings by young Japanese artists and modernist colour prints produced with the refined techniques of traditional ukiyo-e. The exhibition also features fashion of the era, including women’s and men’s kimonos and related accessories. Popular culture and interior design will be represented with beautifully crafted glassware, lacquer ware and bronze ware, as well as street posters, magazines and graphic design.
3. Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines - In an unprecedented, world premiere exhibition, the National Gallery of Victoria presents the work of two of the most significant and influential artists of the late twentieth century in Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines. Exclusive to Melbourne, the exhibition offers new and fascinating insights into their unique visual languages and reveals, for the first time, the many intersections between their lives, practices and ideas.
4. Kaws: Companionship In The Age Of Loneliness - Brian Donnelly (born 1974), aka KAWS, is one of the most prominent and prolific artists of his generation. His body of work straddles the worlds of art, fashion and design to include paintings, murals, large-scale sculptures, street and public art, and fashion, graphic and product design. His work is infused with humour, humanity and affection for our times. Admired for his larger-than-life sculptures and colour-filled paintings, KAWS’s cast of hybrid cartoon and human characters are drawn from pop-culture animations and form a distinctive artistic vocabulary
5. Collecting Comme - Collecting Comme examines the radical concepts and design methods that have informed Kawakubo’s practice since 1981, the year she first presented in Paris.
Featuring more than fifty examples drawn from the NGV’s significant Comme des Garçons holdings, generously gifted to the Gallery by Takamasa Takahashi
Rijksmuseum - Amsterdam
The Golden Age of Dutch art is highlighted in this museum which includes the work of Vermeer and Rembrandt.
1. #Rijksmuseumfromhome Video series: Rijksmuseum curators share short videos from home with stories about their favourite works of art. All the videos are posted to Rijksmuseum social media channels.
2. Grand Rijksmuseum Pub Quiz: Meet up with your friends online, pour yourself a drink, and get started on the Grand Rijksmuseum Pub Quiz!
3. Masterpieces Up Close: Digital tour of Rijksmuseum’s Gallery of Honour, home of Rembrandt’s The Night Watch, The Jewish Bride, Vermeer’s The Milkmaid, among history’s most celebrated paintings, will re-open to the public around the globe via a new online platform Rijksmuseum Masterpieces Up Close.
4. RijksCreative: Teachers from Rijksmuseum’s Education Centre present YouTube tutorials on the techniques of the great masters, in the process creating new masterpieces of their own. Three seasons of films are already available, each one exploring a different art movement and technique.
5. Rijksstudio: Launched in 2012, Rijksmuseum started a revolution in the museum world when it made available more than 700,000 high-resolution images of its collection completely free of charge. Rijksstudio continues to be a major source of inspiration (and distraction) for designers and art lovers around the world.
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza - Madrid
1. Virtual tour of the Permanent Colletion and the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Colletion
2. Thematic tours of their collection including; Women and book, Pioneers, Food, Sustainability, Fashion and Inclusive Love
3. Rembrandt and Amsterdam portraiture, 1590-1670 Displayed From 18 February to 24 May 2020 .