If You Can’t Make It to the Museum…

It’s interesting to think that a thousand years ago most people had never seen an image. They quite possibly could’ve seen images in their communities (churches mostly), but, unless they were part of the bourgeoisie, they didn’t likely own any.

Today, we thrive on images at every corner and with every handheld piece of technology. From Instagram to Pinterest to those famous yellow arches that let us know where McDonald’s is (even if we’re in a foreign country), images are everywhere. But how often do we actually go to a museum or gallery to view art pieces? I bet it’s not often. And I don’t necessarily think it’s because people are disinterested. I’d like to think it’s because people may not live in a city with an art museum or gallery, and they may think they’ll never make it to one. I’d love to see Monet’s The Rue Montorgueil in Paris, Celebration of June 30, 1878, van Gogh’s Starry Night Over the Rhone, or, one of my all-time favorites, Degas’ In a Café, but I doubt I’ll get to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris anytime soon, if ever. You want to know where I can see these pieces in all their glory and explore them by zooming in? Three words: Google Art Project.

Monet, van Gogh, Degas

Google Art Project is a virtual gallery with over 40,000 images from 151 museums in 40 countries. That’s impressive. Wanna know what else? Not only can you view and zoom in on art from these museums, you can take a virtual tour of lots of them, which uses Google’s Street View technology. It’s just like walking around the museum, but in the comfort of your own home, pj’s and all. The Monet, the van Gogh, and the Degas I mentioned earlier are all on there, and I can virtually walk through the museum to find exactly where they are. Freakin’ cool. 

There’s more. There is one image from each partnered museum that is captured as a gigapixel image—that’s over a billion pixels, that’s close-up at its finest as far as the internet goes. You can create your own gallery of your favorites and share with your friends. Oh, and did I mention there are educational tools for teachers, too? Yep. They're on there.

Google has other projects in their cultural institute, too, including Historic Moments, World Wonders, and Stories of the Holocaust to name a few.

It’s all worth the time to explore the sites. I believe everyone needs a little culture, and, if you can’t find it in your home town, you can definitely find it here. If you find any favorites, feel free to share them here in the comments.

mw