9 Dazzling Virtual Art Experiences You Can Have From the Comfort of Your Own Home, Including a Trip to the Sistine Chapel

The moods of quarantine are
fickle, as we’re all learning. One minute you might be longing to
galavant in the great outdoors, and the next, you’re wondering when
you’ll be able to return to the crowded halls of a great museum.
And if you’re one of those art-worlders who never miss a gala, let
alone an opening, the next few weeks may feel nothing short of
deflating.

Thankfully, digital art
experiences—from Google’s dazzling Arts & Culture platform to
360-degree displays of gallery exhibitions—can carry us away from
our humble abodes (which may feel increasingly claustrophobic) and
out into the wider world. 

Below, we rounded up some of the
best virtual art experiences to fulfill your art-centric quarantine
needs. 

If you’re wishing you could
ditch your apartment for a palatial promenade… 

Have you been dreaming that the
weird half-closet in the living room is actually a portal to a vast
estate? If so, it might be time to explore some of the sprawling
estates and opulent palaces navigable on the incredibly rich Google
Arts & Culture platform. Take a virtual spin through regal Vienna
by touring through the gilded, opulent Schönbrunn
Palace, home of the
Habsburgs, or by wandering the Belvedere, home to Gustav
Klimt’s The Kiss. Then quickly jaunt over to Versailles, perhaps to
virtually stroll to Marie Antoinette’s private home Petit
Trianon.

If you have an afternoon to
while away, another option is a five-hour, scored tour through
the Hermitage
Museum in St. Petersburg
courtesy of Apple. The opulent video is an extended advertisement
for the new iPhone (and a
testament to its battery life), but it’s also a mesmerizing look
into one of the world’s most lavish museums, and includes a tour
through the Winter Palace, the former home of Russia’s
monarchs.

If you’re seeking a moment of
zen… 

And who isn’t right now? Lucky
for us, the Rubin Museum’s Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room is now accessible
via the web. You can choose between a two-hour video
recording, accompanied by Buddhist chants and flickering
candlelight, or a self-guided virtual
tour of the space, where
you can take time to learn about the individual objects
inside.

If you’re longing for a
lunchtime museum excursion… 

While it’s not likely many of us
ever made time for a midday museum visit during the workweek, now
that the option is wholly out of reach, the notion seems even more
idyllic. Why not make a point to pause your work obligations at
midday, and use Google Arts & Culture, which offers access to over
500 institutions, to explore some of the world’s greatest museums?
There are some architectural gems too, including the Guggenheim’s Frank Lloyd Wright-designed spiral
ramp, the Musée
d’Orsay, a former
railway station, and even Rome’s MAXXI National
Museum, designed by Zaha
Hadid.

If you’re missing Thursday night
gallery-hopping… 

Bust out a bottle of wine, video
chat some friends, and head out on a simulated gallery crawl of New
York, London, or Berlin, via the Artland
or Eazel platforms, which offer 3D tours of
gallery exhibitions. If you’re feeling ambitious, why not tour the
galleries of a city you’ve never visited? Copenhagen and Seoul both
have lots of offerings.  

If you’re longing for La
Dolce Vita… 

Though it may be a while before
any of us can see Italy’s many famed cultural sites in person, for
now, we can visit them on our laptops. In the north of Italy,
several museums have undertaken bold online initiatives.
Turin’s Castello di Rivoli
has released digital tours and
related videos for three
just-opened (then abruptly closed) exhibitions. Similarly, the
contemporary art hub Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo has
undertaken a series of new online tours and
social-media initiatives.

And in Rome, the seriousness of
the lockdown was underscored by the Vatican’s announcement that
Easter mass would be celebrated by the pontiff—but without a public
audience. For those longing to see the rich treasures of the Holy
See, the Vatican Museum
offers virtual tours,
and this may be your one shot for an uncrowded peek at the Sistine
Ceiling.

If you’re looking for a socially
distant life drawing class… 

Have your pencils and charcoals
ready, but stuck with an unwilling roommate? The
Minneapolis Institute of Art is
offering the next best thing with a searchable collection of
3D photograps
of 138 objects from its collection,
which allows at-home visitors to experience—and sketch—works in the
round. If you’re proud of your final product, you can
send
images back to the
museum to be uploaded to their website.

If your destination vacation is
indefinitely postponed…  

Get off the beaten path… while staying on your
couch. Google also offers
virtual tours of ancient heritage sites through Open
Heritage. Explore famous
destinations including Machu
Picchu, Stonehenge, the Pyramids of
Giza, or discover a
wealth of lesser-known but equally fascinating wonders. Google also
recently announced Heritage on the
Edge, a partnership with
UNESCO that details five heritage sites threatened by climate
change through 2D and 3D maps. Learn how conservationists and
environmentalists are working to preserve the monumental totemic
sculptures of Easter
Island and fighting
devastating salt-water floods threatening the ancient city of
mosques in Bagerhat,
Bangladesh.

If you’re missing the world’s
most popular museum…

The Louvre has three of its own
virtual tours, including one of the remains of the museum’s
moat (from the era of
Louvre’s former life as a fortress), a tour of the Galerie
d’Apollon, and as well
as a “walkable” scroll through the Ancient Egyptian
wing, where you can stop
and marvel at sphinxes and mummies.

If you’re running out of
(illustrated) reading materials… 

You’ll find plenty to peruse the British
Library’s flippable site, where you can examine illuminated
manuscripts and rare illustrated books, including Leonardo
da Vinci’s notebook and the original Alice in
Wonderland (called Alice’s Adventures Under Ground),
illustrated by Lewis Carroll himself.

The post 9 Dazzling Virtual Art Experiences You Can Have
From the Comfort of Your Own Home, Including a Trip to the Sistine
Chapel appeared first on artnet News.