13 MUSEUMS YOU CAN VIRTUALLY VISIT DURING QUARANTINE

As the coronavirus outbreak continues to impact our daily lives, you may find yourself at home on your couch a lot more than you normally would.  That also probably means you’re in for a lot  lot of Netflix, surfing internet and boredom. Instead you can use your time wisely and make the most of it by educating yourself online.

 As a big art lover I was excited to hear that Google Arts & Culture teamed up with over 2500 museums and galleries around the world to showcase the greatest artwork to everyone through their online exhibits. I have checked many of them and here is the selection of the 13 most fascinating museums and how you can access them. 

Explore exhibits dating back to 1929 and check out the iconic works of Matisse, Picasso, and more. Google may only present 129 of those artworks, but they are some of the world’s most notable, including Henri Rousseau’s The Dream, Van Gogh’s The Starry Night, Cezanne’s The Bather. "Water Lilies" by Claude Monet was the most exciting discovery for me here. Start exploring right here.

By using Google's Street View feature, you can now tour the Guggenheim’s famous spiral staircase without having to do the actual traveling and walking. There, you can see incredible works of art from various historical periods, including the Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary eras. I have discovered here my new favourite painting "Femme a l'Eventail" by French cubist Jean Metzinger.

The museum offers free online tours of some of its most important and popular exhibits, such as its Egyptian Antiquities and works from Michelangelo. You can take a 360-degree look at the museum, and click around the rare artifacts to get additional information on their histories.

Over the coming days Tate Modern will be sharing ways to make the best of its collections online. Tate has more than 78,000 pieces catalogued online, most of which are available to browse.

This iconic museum located in the heart of London allows virtual visitors to tour the Great Court and discover the ancient Rosetta Stone and Egyptian mummies. You can also find hundreds of artifacts on the museum’s virtual tour. Haven't been here since I was a kid, so now is a good time to be back!

One of my favourite gallery in the city I used to call home for a year. The Uffizi Gallery has the art collection of the Medici family and showcases famous works like Botticelli's Birth of Venus or Caravaggio's Medusa. Enjoy your virtual tour!

Dali has been my long time favourite! But to be honest it is quite difficult to get to the museum when you visit Spanish popular cities like Barcelona or Madrid. Now you are good to go! Located in the town of Figueres in Catalonia, the Dali Theatre-Museum is completely dedicated to the artwork of Salvador Dali. It features many rooms and exhibits surrounding every era of Dali’s life and career, and the artist himself is buried here. The museum offers virtual tours of the grounds and a few exhibits.

The new website that the Prado Museum presented last December, provides access to more than 10.000 works of art that the gallery treasures in their rooms, so you can access online to great part of its collection and get complementary information in an easily and comfortable way.

I am glad to be back to visit Mr Van Gogh without queuing up! The largest collection of Vincent Van Gogh pieces is located at this museum in Amsterdam, and you can explore it with a 360 degree virtual tour. Don’t forget to stop and smell the “Sunflowers!”

If Vermeer or Rembrandt ranks among your favorite artists, Amsterdam’s Rijks Museum is a must. Google offers a Street View tour of this iconic museum, so you can feel as if you’re actually wandering its halls.

Fun fact : I have been here only once, at night with a cocktail in my hand! And it was my birthday! I was lucky to turn 29 during the Amsterdam Museum Night in 2018. 

The huge collection of South Korea's Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art is also available for virtual tours through Google Maps.  

La Casa Azul is where acclaimed artist Frida Kahlo lived and died. It is also home to the museum honouring her  art. Nearly 70 examples of Kahlo’s artworks and attire are accessible digitally, including the body cast she famously painted while ill and Self-Portrait Wearing a Velvet Dress.

Well, not exactly a museum but I'm excited to see the work of the most mysterious artist in one place.

In each image that is not mine I have put the link to the source. Images at MoMa  and Guggenheim Museum were taken by Owen Thitiphol Charoensri.