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Tuesday, December 22, 2020

A List of Virtual Art Galleries & Museums #1 - in the UK

If you've been clicking your way through Google Trends (I aced it on the quizzes!) you'll have seen this.....

Virtual Museum was the top trending search in relation to virtual activity

"Virtual Museum" hurtled up the search query rankings to become a TOP TREND in 2020 for virtual activities

So I thought I'd make a list of Virtual Museums - for your delectation over the Covid / Christmas Break (take your pick - says woman sat in a 'Deep Purple' zone in Tier 4 London - who's going absolutely nowhere in the foreseeable future).

Here's some of the things I've learned through this process:
  • some art galleries and museums are using the word "virtual" to rechristen their existing offering on the website. Doubtless after they realise that "virtual museum" was a search query which was hitting new heights during Covid. 
  • I'm looking for either:
    • pre-existing and genuine virtual tours (i.e. you get to decide where you go and what you look at)
    • new initiatives aimed at making art galleries and museums more accessible via virtual tours.
  • The process also told me which art galleries and museum 
    • really think hard about "virtual" from the perspective of the viewer i.e. we want to decide where we go and what we do - just as we do when we visit for real
    • have an online marketing team which does NOT look at trends in search queries - and 
    • which have not used the downtime associated with museums being closed to get virtual tours started properly!
Initially I'm going to divide the listing into three posts covering museums and art galleries in different geographical area i.e. 
  1. the United Kingdom
  2. Europe
    • France
    • Italy
    • Spain
  3. the USA
However if you like these posts, I'll do more!  Plus these are posts I can come back to and add in more art galleries and museums with virtual tours - and I'll do an update post to tell you what's been added when I do.

Finally - this is very much a work in progress - broken off initially today because I need to make dinner - but I will return!

A List of Virtual Museums

This list of art galleries and museums is ordered on the basis of which museums I found had invested and produced the best results. 
  • I'm starting today with London - but will add in more museums from elsewhere in the UK later - within a regional context
  • Suggestions of Virtual Tours you know about elsewhere in the UK to me on my Facebook Page

LONDON

British Museum

The British Museum has some unusual ways of viewing its collection online.
There are 11 ways to visit virtually, discover how on the Museum blog.
  • Explore British Museum Galleries - two galleries have been created for an online audience - although frankly they fall far short of a proper virtual gallery since they basically look like every other permanent collection online gallery (unless I'm missing something)
However the most impressive of the British Museum's virtual activities - in terms of user generated navigation - results from its collaboration with Google
Google Streetview of the Rosetta Stone
in the Egyptian Galleries of the British Museum

The numbers on the right relate to the floors of the British Museum. Just click the little man icon in the Google Maps version of the British Museum and place it in the Museum you want to look at. The turquoise lines are the routes the cameras took.

In some ways Google Maps - in Streetview - are the best way of navigating museums which have been visited and filmed and photographed by Google.


The British Museum has also connected to Google to create the following:
  • RECOMMENDED The Museum of the World - Not a Virtual Tour - but one of the most unusual ways of illustrating culture across the world and the centuries. It produces a really unusual experience based on the timeline of the cultures it covers in history. It's impressive! As guide:
    • the colour coding at the front (bottom) edge relates to the different continents
    • top left the Menu gives you access to the timeline in terms of time periods
    • right gives you access to themes e.g. Art and design
    • click an item emerging in the timeline in front of you and you get a photograph, an audio piece, an indication of where it comes from and related pieces

National Gallery 

The National Gallery Virtual Tours are impressive - and enable me to get to see the piece I want to look at much quicker than when I'm on foot!
In addition, the National Gallery has created ticketed (paid) views of current exhibitions e.g. 
I've not checked yet as I've only just found this but I'm assuming as a member I get in for free!

In addition, the National Gallery Collection is available via Google Arts & Culture - which includes 40 stories and 224 items.


The Painted Hall - Old Royal Naval College

Take the free 360 degree virtual tour of the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College allows an interactive and up-close exploration of this magnificent Baroque masterpiece from the comfort of your own home.
  • you can pan around and zoom in
  • plus there is annotation to explain what you are seeing
A very sophisticated and well executed Virtual Tour for an interior which provides a benefit to those - like me - who've actually seen it in person 

Courtauld Gallery


The Courtauld Gallery has been closed for some time for renovations. However it has a Virtual Tour of the Gallery before it was closed!  You can also rotate through 360 degrees and zoom in and out.
I have to say the quality of the zoom is EXCELLENT as you can see the actual surface of the paint on the paintings!

Tate


The general feeling I'm getting with the Tate is they've arrived pretty late to the notion of the Virtual Tour as current offerings are not very advanced and/or don't work.

PS Their website is also one of the most annoying ones I know. It is all-consumed by being the "Tate" and forgets that people relate to places they can visit.

Tate Britain


Google Arts and Culture has a virtual tour of Tate Britain which focuses on the paintings. However it's nowhere near as good as the British Museum offering.

However Meet 500 Years of British Art (at tate Britain) on Google Arts and Culture is a different proposition.

Tate Modern


This is the 360 (guided) tour of Tate Modern (i.e. it's a video not your steer yourself virtual tour) on the Tate website - EXCEPT it won't work on my Google Chrome browser.  It sounds as if it's very good - but I can't tell if it is.

The Google Arts and Culture Tours seem to be limited to the architecture. 

However they've started doing Virtual Tours of Exhibitions - the first being a seven-minute video tour of Andy Warhol at Tate Modern (on YouTube). The Tate curators Gregor Muir and Fiontán Moran discuss their approach to the major Tate Modern exhibition of American pop artist, Andy Warhol. 

National Portrait Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery is currently closed, hence 360 degree views of rooms - but irritatingly 
  • one can see the pictures but not get close as the point is fixed and the zoom is very limited. 
  • Plus no information at all within the virtual view about what you are seeing.
Here are the links:
  • Virtual Gallery Rooms 
  • This is the link to the Weldon Galleries where the Portrait Artist of the Year Final is normally filmed. You may recognise some of the pictures normally seen in the background.
  • There are some limited Virtual Tours of previous exhibitions eg 
    • Virtual tour of the exhibition Mirror Mirror: Self-portraits by women artists 12 September 2001 - 20 January 2002 (best seen with set screen resolution to 1024 x 768)

Doris Zinkeisen
by Doris Zinkeisen
exhibited 1929
NPG 6487

It's also not been visited by Google Maps/Streetview - but I imagine this might happen after the current renovation/refurbishment project completes in 3 years time.

Mall Galleries


The Mall Galleries - which shows the annual exhibitions of many of the national art societies - has had its first virtual exhibition. It started using Matterport - which provides the 3D options for different views of an exhibition. The last exhibition hung in the Galleries - the Annual Exhibition of the New English Art Club - received the 3D scanning treatment - which allowed travel around the various galleries to view the exhibition. The major problem lay in the "white out" i.e. the images were EXTREMELY bright and hence the artwork viewed on screen was distinctly different from that viewed in person - and I did both - see
This was the 'first go' and I'll be revising this entry when the reproduction of tone and colour improves.

Victoria and Albert Museum 

I couldn't find anything beyond the normal online explanations of items within the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.  Overall the V&S seems to be stuck in the text and pics mode of online exploration of its collection and exhibitions. It does however have a section devoted to Explore the V&A online - but it's not the same....

It's also not been visited by Google Maps/Streetview.

MIDLANDS


Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery


They've had ScanTech Digital in to do 3D scanning and virtual tours and 360 views of their rooms and collections. I'm a big fan of virtual tours which start with an overview of the room plan - so you can see where you are going.  The navigation tools are bottom left of the Virtual Tour screens. You get the options of:
  • View Dollhouse (see below)
  • Floor Plan
  • Explore the 3D Space - which works a bit like Google Streetview in the sense that you sometimes can't get right in front of the painting you'd like to take a closer look at.
If it also offered annotations for what you are looking at, it would be up there with the best.

Virtual Tours on offer relate to:
Take a walk through 700 years of art, as the galleries take you from the 14th to 20th century.
The "Dolls House" perspective on the Art Galleries
at Birmingham Museum and Art Galleries

NORTH


Manchester Art Gallery


Manchester Art Gallery has not got into Virtual Tours yet - but has started live streaming and videoing Curator's Tours of exhibitions - including a Curated Tour of Grayson's Art Club. 
During the December lockdown, exhibition curators Natasha Howes and Fiona Corridan livestreamed a tour of the show via Zoom.




on

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