Google Cultural Institute

The Google Cultural Institute is a massive project to bring the world of art and culture to your screen. Google has partnered with art organizations and heritage sites from all over the world to digitize their holdings and assets and bring them, free, to the public in meaningful ways. There are three parts to the Institute – the Art Project, the World Wonders Project, and Archive Exhibitions.

The Art Project gives you access to works of art from around the world and lets you examine them in very fine detail. “The Peacock Mosaic from entrance hall of the Henry O.Havemeyer house, New York,” for instance, is very beautiful, and the site allows you to zoom in until you can see every tiny tile. You can search for works in a variety of ways, by museum collection or artist, medium or time period, for example. You can also tour the museums themselves, which is a real treat for places like Versailles and The Hermitage. The Art Project is also on YouTube, which includes interviews with artists.

The World Wonders project takes you to places of cultural or natural significance from UNESCO's World Heritage Site program. For Angkor Wat, a temple in Cambodia, you can tour through 14 Google Street Views (it's a huge site); photos of details of the artwork, including 1949 LIFE magazine photos that offer amazing crispness and detail, and animations and virtual models of what it might have looked like in its heyday. This project is also on YouTube, offering behind the scenes videos, as well as videos from other sources about World Heritage sites. 

Archive Exhibitions (also known as Historic Moments) are virtual exhibitions put together by museums to showcase related items in their collections or to tell an important story. "A Stampmaker Rescuing Lives" tells the story of a Jewish family in Budapest during World War II. Through text, pictures, and documents, you learn about the Arrow Cross rule, the importance of documents in everyday life, and the plight of the Jews, as well as the story of a man who saved lives through forgery. 

Each entry offers background information, including history, location, medium, and other applicable information. You can search by topic or location (there's a map showing the locations of all the museums or world heritage sites). Be sure to look for the links to more from the same museum or artist or of the same type. Anywhere you see a yellow pegperson there's something to see with Street View. You can build your own gallery, share links with others, compare two works of art side-by-side, or see similar works. You can also see other user's galleries.

This is a site you could happily (and profitably!) spend hours on, getting lost in art and history. Definitely another reason to cultivate a good relationship with your technology!