17 virtual museums and concerts you can now see online

Dreaming about travels far, far away? NASA recently partnered with YouTube to help you tour the Hubble Space Telescope Center while safely quarantined at home. Though the Space Telescope Operations Control Center at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is not technically a museum, this virtual outing is fun and educational for family members of all ages. The 360-degree tour includes the lobby, Missions Operations Room, and a hallway full of hardware that survived its journey aboard Hubble. Note that you will need an updated browser to take the full tour.

Los Angeles isn’t open to non-essential visitors right now, but its Getty Museum is still welcoming digital travellers from across the globe. Enjoy stunning works from the 8th to the 21st centuries in a 3D virtual tour of the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Centre. One of the best parts is that you won’t need to time your free reserved ticket like you would for an in-person visit. Show up online anytime to view gorgeous classics like Rembrandt’s Rembrandt Laughing, Renoir’s La Promenade, and Van Gogh’s Irises.

Unfortunately, Italians know all too well that social distancing and lockdowns can be emotionally and mentally exhausting. That’s why the Regio in Turin, Italy, began opening virtual shows to the public, calling it #operaonthesofa. The theatre’s website calls it ‘a unique opportunity to see dress rehearsals of prestigious productions of the current season and of the past ones, which will be available, act by act, thanks to unpublished footage.’ Grab a glass of your favourite Italian red, cosy up on the sofa in your robe or Sunday best – the dress code is up to you – and enjoy daily performances of classic Italian operas and ballets.

Is a trip to India on your bucket list? Settle in for a virtual tour of The National Museum in New Delhi. This museum has been open since 1949, and the decades of collections span about 5000 years of history. Though the entire collection isn’t on display in the virtual tour, you can still explore more than 600 artefacts, from paintings and decorative arts to jewellry and armour. Don’t miss the explanations behind colourful favourites such as “Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan” and “Mughal Emperor Shahjahan” (artists unknown).

Hit the virtual streets of Amsterdam for an eclectic tour of modern graffiti art. The Street Art Museum is constantly evolving with new public art from artists around the world; according to the museum, it is the only recognised street art museum in the Netherlands. While it might seem difficult to fully experience street art from the confines of your house or apartment, Google Arts and Culture does a wonderful job bringing this experience to life. Each art piece is accompanied by a full explanation of the work.

London’s Wigmore Hall is closed to the public until at least April 14. Fortunately for us, the world-class concert venue has opened its archive of past live streams so that we can all enjoy soothing classical music in our homes. The videos open with a brief look around Wigmore Hall itself, then settle on the stage for close-up views of the performers. From Beethoven to Schubert, the classic melodies are a comforting reminder of how beautiful music transcends time and world crises.

Before you even (virtually) enter the doors of Mexico City’s National Museum of Anthropology, you will notice the calm of its indoor-outdoor spaces. Inside, you can explore artefacts arranged by material: rock, clay, limestone, and basalt. While this virtual tour does not offer 360-degree views or a virtual reality setup, you will still enjoy immersion in thousands of years of history, as the tour is a compression of so many regions, cultures, and timelines across Mexico.

Your stuck-at-home student of world culture will appreciate the free digital museum archive of Chicago’s National Hellenic Museum, which features more than 20,000 Greek-American artefacts, including religious objects, furniture, textiles, paintings, and more. Per its website, the museum is ‘dedicated to preserving and protecting the Greek American experience and Hellenic Legacy,’ and also includes a collection of photos, historic newspapers, books, and more than 450 recorded oral histories.

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Source: RD.com