Google Arts & Culture Virtual Museum Tours
The first virtual museum tour for kids we want to suggest isnt just a museum! It is a destination for all sorts of amazing works. Google has partnered with over 2000 museums, galleries and associations to bring a curated collection to your home.
Visitors can choose from more than 500 galleries and museums to experience from the comfort and safety of their own couch, thanks to a massive project organized by Google Arts & Culture. We have highlighted several of our favorites in this article.
Choose from a list of over 500 galleries and virtual museum tours at
Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam Netherlands
The Van Gogh Museum boasts the largest collection of paintings by the Post-Impressions master Vincent Van Gogh, whos known for his colorful sunflowers, vivid landscapes, and searing portraits. Online, you can see panoramic views of the museum rooms.
The museum offers almost 1500 images of paintings to inspect. Theres also a 360 virtual tour of its Sunflower Gallery, with paintings from five international museums.
Best Free Virtual Tours For Art Students
Emily in Paris? More like Emily-sad-and-stuck-at-home. Coronavirus, vaccine trials, restrictions, pandemic, lockdown we are sick and tired of hearing of these words. This virus has definitely got all of us on a tightly-wound leash. Not one to just complain and do nothing, we thought we could help you make the most of it with our list of free virtual tours of famous museums.
They are in 12 countries and full of unique and individual art and history, perfect if youre an art student or an enthusiast. Most of the virtual exhibits mentioned in this article are available through as the online platform has collaborated with said museums, showcasing high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from over 2,000 museums throughout the world and all from the comfort of your sofa.
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Museo Frida Kahlo Mexico Virtual Museum Tour
Frida Kahlo is a famous Latin American artist in the world. The museum displays little house of Frida Kahlo. The museum displays art works of Frida Kahlo, and many of old photographs.
In the virtual museum tour, you can explore the Garden, Temporary exhibition about appearances can be deceiving, Frida Kahlos studio, and the kitchen.
National Museums Scotland Virtual Museum Tours For Kids
National Museums Scotland has been working with Google in exhibiting the museums key objects. With the help of Googles advanced technology Google StreetView, a lot of scenes at the National Museum of Scotland can be explored virtually. The main parts are: Grand Gallery, Roof Terrace, Exploring East Asia, and Ancient Egypt Rediscovered.
In the online Exhibit section, you can explore:
- Scottish inventions that rocked the world
- Tele-visionary genius: John Logie Baird
- How Alexander Graham Bell Invented the Telephone
- Scotlands Early Silver
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The Anne Frank House Museum
Im sure you know who Anne Frank is, and her story. She must be one of the most talked about victims of the Holocaust. A young, Jewish girl who wrote in her diary while in hiding with her family during World War II.
You can check out this exhibit about her on Google Arts and Culture in the link above, and learn more. I remember reading the book of her diary, if you havent its a good read and shows you a different view of how it would have been during the Holocaust. You can get the book here or its available for free on audiobook if you have Audible. If you want, you can try it for free for 30 days here.
Visit the house where Anne Frank and her family lived before going into hiding, with this free 360 virtual tour . And explore the secret annex where she and her family hid during the war with this free VR app.
The Spy Museum Washington Dc
The Spy Museum is always a crowd pleaser. But if youd like to avoid crowds, you can just visit online.
The Spy Museum gives you 360 degrees views of every room. Its also got an amazing , featuring photos of its precious artifacts. The Spy Museum even has a list online of the 10 most important pieces in its collection, including the Enigma Machine that Germany used in WWII to secretly communicate.
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Educational Museums With Free Virtual Tours
1. NASATake a virtual tour of NASAs International Space Station! Theres a series of cool YouTube videos that take you through their station.
2. Google Museum ViewGoogle Maps has cool street maps, allowing you to see virtually any place in a 360 degree view as if you were already there. offers the same thing with museums! You can see panoramic views of beautiful places around the world. There are museums from all over the world the United States, France, Spain, Indonesia, South Africa, and more!
3. Smithsonian MuseumMove over Night at the Museum and try the Smithsonian Museum virtual tour! The format is a bit like Google Maps, and you can move around and get a 360 degree view.
4. The Louvre
Located in Paris, France, the Louvre is the largest art museum in the world. Use their virtual exhibits to explore a bit of the museum! 5. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC has several of their exhibits online. Pick a subject, and several resources will come up, ready to view.
6. Lincoln Memorial
National Park Services has panoramas of the Lincoln Memorial. Click and drag to experience things up-close, so you can read inscriptions. They also have a map of the whole memorial, which makes it easy to quickly move from location to location.
7. Yad Vashem
8. Martin Luther King Jr.s Home
9. The White House
10. Buckingham Palace
11. Boston Childrens Museum
12. National Womens History Museum
Awesome Free Virtual Museum Tours To Take With Kids Today
There are hundreds of virtual museum tours that you can take with your kids. What a magical thing it is to be able to visit a world class museum from home no standing in line, no bustling around an exhibit to get a closer look and no tired feet at the end of the day. We found the best free virtual museum tours that your kids can visit today!
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State Hermitage Museum St Petersburg
In addition to being one of the most popular museums in the world, this Russian location claims to be the world’s largest museum by gallery space. The eye-catching green building with gold and white accents houses more than three million artifacts and works of art, and it saw just under one million visitors in 2020.
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Monterey Bay Aquarium Exotic Underwater Museum
This aquarium based museum offers exotic way in exploring the museum virtually. It uses LIVE CAM.
Here, you can see Aviary Cam, in which you explore and peek into Aviary for an adventure in bird watching. In the Jelly Cam, you see the breathtaking sea nettles drift and pulse. In the Kelp Forest Cam, you see sardines swirl and leopard sharks glide through gently swaying kelp canopies. In the Monetary Bay Cam, you look at otters, birds and sailboats. In the Moon Jelly Cam, you will witness and be hypnotised by gorgeous glowing moon jellies. In the Open Sea Cam, you view open-ocean animals, like tuna, turtles, sharks, and sardines. In the Penguin Cam, you check the African penguins waddling and nesting. The Sea Otter Cam offers sightseeing of sea otters frolicking and swimming. In the shark cam, you will be amazed by the sharks and other habitats in the bay.
In the official website you can learn further about animals. You can check the Animals A to Z section, Habitats, Animal stories, Animal Care, live cams, and wall papers.
This website is specifically established for charity and educational purposes.
Here is the live Cams of Shark Cam, as broadcasted in youtube:
Want to see more?
J Paul Getty Museum At The Getty Center Los Angeles Us
Designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Richard Meier, the world famous Getty Center in southern California opened to the public in 1997.
The GettyMuseum has an outstanding online virtual tour with Google Arts & Culture. It even has an outdoor virtual tour, which uses photography and time-lapse videos to enliven the experience.
There are 15,000 paintings and artifacts to see with accompanying audio explanations. Check out the Gettys most famous pieces Van Goghs Irises and Rembrandt Laughing, Renoirs La Promenade, and the Lansdowne Herakles sculpture from Roman antiquity.
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The J Paul Getty Museum
Explore thousands of items in the Gettys collection with help from Google Arts & Culture. The J. Paul Getty Museum specifically has several interactive options for exploring their collection: a museum view virtual tour, three ebook-style online exhibits, and the library of over 15,000 collected pieces of art.
Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery Washington Dc
Immerse yourself in the Smithsonians expansive National Portrait Gallery, which includes Portraits of African Americans, First Ladies, Votes for Women, and much more. Becoming increasingly bored as the days go by while you are social distancing from society? Scroll the extensive array of online museum collections here and absorb world culture without even leaving your bed.
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World Class Museums To Enjoy Online For Free
Heres my guide to the best virtual museums you can visit online at home from the comfort of your couch or computer.
Many world class museums have released some or all of their collections online. Or theyve partnered with Google Arts & Culture to make collections accessible in high resolution. Some museums have used the technology that powers Google Street View to let you zoom in to see floor plans or specific art works.
If you cant travel for any reason, this is a splendid time to travel virtually to a museum of your choice. Theres an almost dizzying array of virtual options. Its not quite like walking through a museum. But it has its own strange pleasures.
Virtual Tours Of Theme Parks
The World of Harry Potter
Virtual tours for kids don’t come more magical than Harry Potter’s wizarding world! Using this amazing , you can explore all the places J.K Rowling’s magic world was based on. See the London market that was the inspiration for Diagon Alley and the famous Platform 9 3/4 that whisked the witches and wizards off to Hogwarts.
While you might not be able to enjoy the treats of Honeyduke’s sweet shop or jump on the Hogwarts Express, this tour is the closest thing to it!
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The Vatican Museums Vatican City
I recently visited the Vatican Museums twice during a trip to Rome. The Vatican Museums are the public art and sculpture museums in the Vatican City complex.
The works in the Vatican are invaluable crowning glories of Western art. They tell stories of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, the history of the Catholic Church, and the birth of the Renaissance.
You can take an online virtual tour of the Vatican Museums, including the Sistine Chapel, the Pio Clementino Museum, and the Raphael Rooms.
Ive also written a lengthy piece on the Vaticans must see masterpieces. And a piece on Michelangelos Last Judgment, which is on the Sistine Chapel altar wall.
The Canadian Museum Of History In Quebec
The Canadian Museum of History is mainly all about the 20,000 year timeline of human history in Canada. Everything from Aboriginal history in North America to present time.
You cant really see a wholllle lot online, but theres several online exhibits you can check out including the beautiful Morningstar ceiling mural.
Also the worlds oldest ice hockey stick, hand carved in the 1830s has a home here. How very Canadian of us.
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The Frick Collection Virtual Museum Tour
The frick collection virtual museum tour offers unique museum presentation in which the virtual museum tour is arranged into a building map that you can explore by selecting specific room. Once selected, the 360 virtual tour page will load. Wait until it is 100% loaded and you are ready to explore the virtual museum.
Here is a quick view of the map:
You can also check the art gallery that displays photos of Paintings, Sculpture, furniture, ceramics, paper paintings, textiles, clocks, medals, enamels, and many other collections.
The Moai In Easter Island
Have you ever watched movies in which big stone statues buried on a remote island suddenly came out? Yes, here is the real place, the MOAI of Easter Island.
As a matter of fact, Rapa Nui, the indigenous name of Easter Island, is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world, separated form the coast of Chile far away.
There, you can also see the Ahu Nau Nau. One of the most recognisable sites in Rapa Nui, Ahu Nau Nau is a restored ceremonial platform site with 7 giant MOAI statues. The google arts and culture remade it in 3D format so that you can explore it from different angles.
The statues are believed to have a source of spiritual power.
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National Palace Museum Taipei City
With almost 700,000 objects, the National Palace Museum in Taiwan is the largest collection of ancient Chinese artifacts in the world. Featuring rare items from the Neolithic period to the present day, the museum was founded in 1965.
Theres a fantastic range of guided virtual tours online, including the exterior as well as the interior of the building. Admire Zhishan Garden, the Pavilions and the Cage Changing Goose sculptue before heading indoors to explore the rest of the collection.
You can take one of four featured routes or simply click around the galleries depending on your interests. Handy floor plans will prevent you from getting lost! Theres also a fun time lapse of the museum.
Smithsonian Museum Of Natural History Washington Dc Us
Washington D.C.s Museum of Natural History is one of the most visited museums in the world. You can inspect some of its wonderful treasures with an online virtual tour of the entire grounds.
Viewers head into its rotunda and receive a comprehensive 360 room by room walking tour of its most exceptional exhibits, including the Hall of Mammals, Insect Zoo, and Dinosaurs and Hall of Paleobiology.
In general, the Smithsonian museums have also released 2.8 million images into the public domain. Theyre searchable, shareable, and downloadable via the museums Open Access platform. The Smithsonian will continue to digitize and publish their collections.
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Guggenheim Bilbao Bilbao Spain
Who can argue with the emblematic Guggenheim Museum? Inaugurated in 1997, Frank Gehrys twisting shimmering museum is the star of the underrated city of Bilbao Spain.
The space age building is an awe-inspiring blend of titanium, glass, and limestone. The scaly exterior evokes a silvery fish and the wings of the building the wind-filled sails of a ship.
Outside, theres a veritable sculpture museum. Inside, the Guggenheims modern art collection is on par with Europes best modern art museums. Youll find works by Robert Motherwell, Yves Klein, Andy Warhol, Eduardo Chillada, and Anselm Kiefer.
Via Google Arts & Culture, you can explore the Guggenheim Bilbao. The onlineoffering includes cinematographic photos, videos, and guided tours of masterpieces from the collection.
What Is A Virtual Museum Tour
Many of the worlds best museums closed for a period of time during 2020, but wanted to offer ways for visitors to safely visit and learn. Virtual museum tours were born as a way to experience the museum from home touring it through your computer or phone and see the exhibits inside the museum just like you were touring on foot.
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