Google Arts & Culture

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

Google Arts & Culture
Developer(s)Google Cultural Institute
Google Inc.
Initial releaseFebruary 1, 2011; 13 years ago (2011-02-01)
Websiteartsandculture.google.com Edit this at Wikidata

Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world.

It utilizes high-resolution image technology that enables the viewer to tour partner organization collections and galleries and explore the artworks' physical and contextual information. The platform includes advanced search capabilities and educational tools.[1]

A part of the images are used within Wikimedia, see the category Google Art Project works by collection.

Collections in Wikimedia[edit]

The following list of collections is based on the Wikimedia category Google Art Project works by collection. The "Visit" link redirects to the museum's official page on the Google Arts & Culture platform. See also collections in Google Arts & Culture. The "Assigned works" link redirects to the images of the works shown in this collection available in Wikimedia.

Museum Google
Arts&
Culture
Wikimedia
Commons
Accorsi-Ometto Museum, Turin, Italy Visit Assigned works
Acropolis Museum, Athens, Greece Visit Assigned works
Adachi Museum of Art, Yasugi, Japan Visit Assigned works
Albany Institute of History and Art, New York, United States Visit Assigned works
Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York, United States Visit Assigned works
Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany Visit Assigned works
Altes Museum, Berlin, Germany Visit Assigned works
Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan, Italy Visit Assigned works
Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, United States Visit Assigned works
Art collection of Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Cesena, Italy Visit Assigned works
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia Visit Assigned works
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada Visit Assigned works
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide Visit Assigned works
The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, United States Visit Assigned works
Art collection of Fondazione Cariplo, Milan, Italy Visit Assigned works
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C., United States Visit Assigned works
Ateneum, Helsinki, Finland Visit Assigned works
Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand Visit Assigned works
Griffith University, Queensland, Australia Visit Assigned works
Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland, United States Visit Assigned works
Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna, Austria Visit Assigned works
Benaki Museum of Greek Civilization, Athens, Greece Visit Assigned works
Benaki Museum of Islamic Art, Athens, Greece Visit Assigned works
Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, United States Visit Assigned works
Bibliothèque-Musée de l'Opéra National de Paris, France Visit Assigned works
Sanssouci Picture Gallery, Potsdam, Germany Visit Assigned works
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, England Visit Assigned works
Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, United States Visit Assigned works
Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas, United States Visit Assigned works
Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, Netherlands Visit Assigned works
Bornholms Kunstmuseum, Denmark Visit Assigned works
Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen, Germany Visit Assigned works
Kunsthalle Bremen, Germany Visit Assigned works
Artizon Museum, Tokyo, Japan Visit Assigned works
British Council, Stratford, London Visit Assigned works
British Museum, London, England Visit Assigned works
Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, Romania Visit Assigned works
Legion of Honor, San Francisco, California, United States Visit Assigned works
Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, Portugal Visit Assigned works
Centraal Museum, Utrecht, Netherlands Visit Assigned works
Charles Allis Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States Visit Assigned works
Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland Visit Assigned works
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia Visit Assigned works
Château de Chantilly, France Visit Assigned works
Château de Fontainebleau, France Visit Assigned works
Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio, United States Visit Assigned works
Cincinnati Museum Center, Ohio, United States Visit Assigned works
Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, United States Visit Assigned works
Corning Museum of Glass, New York, United States Visit Assigned works
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California, United States Visit Assigned works
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, United States Visit Assigned works
Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, United States Visit Assigned works
De Young Museum, San Francisco, California, United States Visit Assigned works
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Delaware, United States Visit Assigned works
Denver Art Museum, Colorado, United States Visit Assigned works
Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan, United States Visit Assigned works
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, England Visit Assigned works
English Heritage, Swindon, England Visit Assigned works
Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland Visit Assigned works
Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany Visit Assigned works
Fondation Beyeler, Riehen, Switzerland Visit Assigned works
Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands Visit Assigned works
Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., United States Visit Assigned works
Frick Collection, New York City, United States Visit Assigned works
Fryderyk Chopin Institute, Warsaw, Poland Visit Assigned works
Fundación MAPFRE, Majadahonda, Spain Visit Assigned works
Galerie Neue Meister, Dresden, Germany Visit Assigned works
Kunstmuseum Den Haag, The Hague, Netherlands Visit Assigned works
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Germany Visit Assigned works
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany Visit Assigned works
George Eastman House, Rochester, New York, United States Visit Assigned works
Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, Georgia, United States Visit Assigned works
Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, Germany Visit Assigned works
Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina, United States Visit Assigned works
Archäologisches Museum Hamburg, Germany Visit Assigned works
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, New York, United States Visit Assigned works
Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C, United States Visit Assigned works
Grohmann Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States Visit Assigned works
Green Vault, Dresden, Germany Visit Assigned works
Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty Museum of Art, Wisconsin, United States Visit Assigned works
Hallwyl Museum, Stockholm, Sweden Visit Assigned works
Harvard Art Museums, Massachusetts, United States Visit Assigned works
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, United States Visit Assigned works
Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen, Denmark Visit Assigned works
Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Sha Tin, China Visit Assigned works
Hong Kong Museum of Art, Kowloon, China Visit Assigned works
Hunan Museum, China Visit Assigned works
Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, Hungary Visit Assigned works
Huntington Museum of Art, Virginia. United States Visit Assigned works
Imperial War Museums, London, England Visit Assigned works
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana, United States Visit Assigned works
Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Spain Visit Assigned works
Institute of Russian Realist Art, Moscow, Russia Visit Assigned works
Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, D.C., United States Visit Assigned works
Cantor Arts Center, Stanford, California, United States Visit Assigned works
Israel Museum, Jerusalem Visit Assigned works
Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town Visit Assigned works
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California, United States Visit Assigned works
Jenisch-Haus, Hamburg, Germany Visit Assigned works
Jewish Museum London, England Visit Assigned works
Jewish Museum (Manhattan), Manhattan, New York, United States Visit Assigned works
Imperial Carriage Museum, Vienna, Austria Visit Assigned works
Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, Sakura, Japan Visit Assigned works
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, United States Visit Assigned works
Koper Regional Museum, Primorska, Slovenia. Visit Assigned works
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands Visit Assigned works
Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland Visit Assigned works
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria Visit Assigned works
Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden, Germany Visit Assigned works
Kupferstichkabinett Berlin, Germany Visit Assigned works
Palace of Venaria, Turin, Italy Visit Assigned works
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, England Visit Assigned works
State Museum for Art and Cultural History, Oldenburg, Germany Visit Assigned works
Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga, Latvia Visit Assigned works
Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany Visit Assigned works
Thomas Kaplan#Leiden Collection Visit Assigned works
Leopold Museum, Vienna, Austria Visit Assigned works
Lithuanian National Museum of Art, Vilnius, Lithuania Visit Assigned works
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, United States Visit Assigned works
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, France Visit Assigned works
Lima Art Museum, Peru Visit Assigned works
Malmö Art Museum, Sweden Visit Assigned works
São Paulo Museum of Modern Art, Brazil Visit Assigned works
Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum, University Center, Michigan, United States Visit Assigned works
Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar Visit Assigned works
Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon, Dresden, Germany Visit Assigned works
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, United States Visit Assigned works
James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, United States Visit Assigned works
Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin, United States Visit Assigned works
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota, United States Visit Assigned works
Mint Museum, Charlotte, Carolina Visit Assigned works
MOA Museum of Art, Atami, Japan Visit Assigned works
Museum of Modern Art, Manhattan, New York City, United States Visit Assigned works
Monastery of Saint John the Theologian, Patmos, Greece Visit Assigned works
Moravian Gallery in Brno, Czech Republic Visit Assigned works
Morgan Library & Museum, New York City, United States Visit Assigned works
State Historical Museum, Moscow, Russia Visit Assigned works
Museum of modern art André Malraux - MuMa, Le Havre, France Visit Assigned works
Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway Visit Assigned works
Capitoline Museums, Rome, Italy Visit Assigned works
Musei di Strada Nuova, Genoa, Italy Visit Assigned works
Archaeological Museum of Alicante, Spain Visit Assigned works
Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid, Spain Visit Assigned works
Museo Botero, Bogota, Colombia Visit Assigned works
Casa de Cervantes, Valladolid, Spain Visit Assigned works
Museo Cerralbo, Madrid, Spain Visit Assigned works
Colonial Art Museum of Bogotá, Colombia Visit Assigned works
Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico Visit Assigned works
Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, Santurce, San Juan Visit Assigned works
Museum of Pre-Columbian and Indigenous Art, Montevideo, Uruguay Visit Assigned works
Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, Spain Visit Assigned works
Museum of Fine Arts of Seville, Spain Visit Assigned works
Zaragoza Museum, Spain Visit Assigned works
El Greco Museum, Toledo, Spain Visit Assigned works
Gold Museum, Bogotá, Colombia Visit Assigned works
Museum of Romanticism (Madrid), Spain Visit Assigned works
Ca' Rezzonico, Venice, Italy Visit Assigned works
Museo Dolores Olmedo, Mexico City, Mexico Visit Assigned works
Museo Frida Kahlo, Mexico City, Mexico Visit Assigned works
Museo Larco, Lima, Peru Visit Assigned works
Lázaro Galdiano Museum, Madrid, Spain Visit Assigned works
Museo Nacional de Antropología (Madrid), Spain Visit Assigned works
National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico), Mexico City Visit Assigned works
Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico City, Mexico Visit Assigned works
National Museum of Roman Art, Mérida, Spain Visit Assigned works
Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas, Madrid, Spain Visit Assigned works
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Buenos Aires), Argentina Visit Assigned works
González Martí National Museum of Ceramics and Decorative Arts, Valencia, Spain Visit Assigned works
Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid, Spain Visit Assigned works
Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci, Milan, Italy Visit Assigned works
Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan, Italy Visit Assigned works
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain Visit Assigned works
Museum of Santa Cruz, Toledo. Spain Visit Assigned works
Sephardic Museum, Toledo, Spain Visit Assigned works
Sorolla Museum, Madrid, Spain Visit Assigned works
Museo Soumaya, Mexico City, Mexico Visit Assigned works
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain Visit Assigned works
Berardo Collection Museum, Lisbon, Portugal Visit Assigned works
São Paulo Museum of Art, São Paulo, Brazil Visit Assigned works
Imperial Museum of Brazil, Petrópolis, Brazil Visit Assigned works
Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Milan, Italy Visit Assigned works
Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Visit Assigned works
Soares dos Reis National Museum, Porto, Portugal Visit Assigned works
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands Visit Assigned works
Museum for Hamburg History, Germany Visit Assigned works
Museum Kampa, Prague, Czech Republic Visit Assigned works
Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Germany Visit Assigned works
National Museum of Indonesia, Jakarta Visit Assigned works
Museum of Applied Arts (Budapest), Hungary Visit Assigned works
Museum of Arts and Sciences (Daytona Beach), Florida, United States Visit Assigned works
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney Visit Assigned works
Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, Greece Visit Assigned works
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, United States Visit Assigned works
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary Visit Assigned works
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, United Status Visit Assigned works
Art Museum Riga Bourse, Latvia Visit Assigned works
Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar Visit Assigned works
Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, California, United States Visit Assigned works
Museum of London, England Visit Assigned works
Museums Victoria, Australia Visit Assigned works
Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, France Visit Assigned works
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Quimper, France Visit Assigned works
Musée du quai Branly, Paris, France Visit Assigned works
Mougins Museum of Classical Art, Mougins, France Visit Assigned works
Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France Visit Assigned works
Palace of Versailles, France Visit Assigned works
Museum of Art in Łódź, Poland Visit Assigned works
Münzkabinett, Dresden, Germany Visit Assigned works
National Academy Museum, New York City, United States Visit Assigned works
National and University Library of Slovenia, Ljubljana Visit Assigned works
National Archaeological Museum of Ferrara, Florence, Italy Visit Assigned works
National Art Gallery, Bulgaria, Sofia Visit Assigned works
National Arts Club, New York City, United States Visit Assigned works
National Ballet of Canada, Toronto, Ontario Visit Assigned works
Ivan Honchar Museum, Kyiv, Ukraine Visit Assigned works
National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh Visit Assigned works
National Gallery in Prague, Czech Republic Visit Assigned works
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., United States Visit Assigned works
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Visit Assigned works
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario Visit Assigned works
National Gallery of Modern Art, Rajpath, New Delhi, India Visit Assigned works
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia Visit Assigned works
National Gallery Singapore Visit Assigned works
National Gallery, London, England Visit Assigned works
National Heritage Board (Singapore) Visit Assigned works
National Museum, Warsaw, Poland Visit Assigned works
National Museum, Kraków, Poland Visit Assigned works
National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway Visit Assigned works
National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen Visit Assigned works
National Museum of Korea, Seoul, South Korea Visit Assigned works
National Museum of Slovenia, Ljubljana Visit Assigned works
National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Japan Visit Assigned works
National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., United States Visit Assigned works
National Museum, New Delhi, India Visit Assigned works
Museum of World Culture, Gothenburg, Sweden Visit Assigned works
National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan Visit Assigned works
National Portrait Gallery (United States), Washington, D.C. Visit Assigned works
Nationalmuseum Stockholm, Sweden Visit Assigned works
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, United States Visit Assigned works
New Chambers (Sanssouci), Potsdam, Germany Visit Assigned works
New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana, United States Visit Assigned works
The Newark Museum of Art, New Jersey, United States Visit Assigned works
Nordic Museum, Stockholm, Sweden Visit Assigned works
Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, United States Visit Assigned works
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh Visit Assigned works
Numismatic Museum of Athens, Greece Visit Assigned works
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark Visit Assigned works
Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki, Japan Visit Assigned works
Olympic Museum, Lausanne, Switzerland Visit Assigned works
Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts, Japan Visit Assigned works
Palazzo Madama, Turin, Italy Visit Assigned works
Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy Visit Assigned works
Panhandle–Plains Historical Museum, Texas, United States Visit Assigned works
São Paulo Museum of Art, Brazil Visit Assigned works
Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, Novi Sad, Serbia Visit Assigned works
Pavle Beljanski Memorial Collection, Istanbul, Turkey Visit Assigned works
Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey Visit Assigned works
Pergamon Museum, Berlin, Germany Visit Assigned works
Petőfi Literary Museum, Budapest, Hungary Visit Assigned works
Philadelphia Museum of Art, United States Visit Assigned works
Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States Visit Assigned works
The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., United States Visit Assigned works
Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil Visit Assigned works
Pio Monte della Misericordia, Campania, Italy Visit Assigned works
Pointe-à-Callière Museum, Quebec, Canada Visit Assigned works
Pomeranian State Museum, Greifswald, Germany Visit Assigned works
Dresden Porcelain Collection, Germany Visit Assigned works
Poster Museum, Wilanów, Warsaw, Poland Visit Assigned works
Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia Visit Assigned works
Reading Public Museum, West Reading, Pennsylvania, United States Visit Assigned works
Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid, Spain Visit Assigned works
Residenzgalerie, Salzburg, Austria Visit Assigned works
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands Visit Assigned works
Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden, Netherlands Visit Assigned works
University of the Witwatersrand#Rock art, Johannesburg, South Africa Visit Assigned works
Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Devon, England Visit Assigned works
Livrustkammaren, Stockholm, Sweden Visit Assigned works
Royal Castle, Warsaw, Poland Visit Assigned works
Royal College of Music, Kensington and Chelsea, United Kingdom Visit Assigned works
Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, Belgium Visit Assigned works
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, Belgium Visit Assigned works
Royal Palace of Amsterdam, Netherlands Visit Assigned works
Rubin Museum of Art, New York City, United States Visit Assigned works
Dresden Armoury, Germany Visit Assigned works
Dar al Athar al Islamiyyah, Kuwait Visit Assigned works
Sadberk Hanım Museum, Istanbul, Turkey Visit Assigned works
Sakıp Sabancı Museum, Istanbul, Turkey Visit Assigned works
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California, United States Visit Assigned works
Sanssouci, Potsdam, Germany Visit Assigned works
SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia, United States Visit Assigned works
Skagens Museum, Skagen, Denmark Visit Assigned works
Skokloster Castle, Stockholm, Sweden Visit Assigned works
Skulpturensammlung, Dresden, Germany Visit Assigned works
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., United States Visit Assigned works
Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas, United States Visit Assigned works
Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv, Ukraine Visit Assigned works
Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Germany Visit Assigned works
Staatliches Museum Schwerin, Germany Visit Assigned works
Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany Visit Assigned works
Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia Visit Assigned works
Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia Visit Assigned works
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia Visit Assigned works
National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen Visit Assigned works
Städel, Frankfurt, Germany Visit Assigned works
Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan Visit Assigned works
Tallinn City Museum, Estonia Visit Assigned works
Tate Britain, London, England Visit Assigned works
Te Papa, Wellington, New Zealand Visit Assigned works
Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark Visit Assigned works
Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, Japan Visit Assigned works
Tokyo National Museum, Japan Visit Assigned works
Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, United States Visit Assigned works
Uffizi, Florence, Italy Visit Assigned works
University of Michigan Museum of Art, United States Visit Assigned works
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands Visit Assigned works
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England Visit Assigned works
State Library Victoria, Melbourne, Australia Visit Assigned works
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, United States Visit Assigned works
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, England Visit Assigned works
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, United States Visit Assigned works
White House, Washington, D.C., United States Visit Assigned works
Whitney Museum, New York City, United States Visit Assigned works
Vienna Museum, Austria Visit Assigned works
King John III Palace Museum, Wilanów, Warsaw, Poland Visit Assigned works
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, United States Visit Assigned works
Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States Visit Assigned works
Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria Visit Assigned works

Painters in Wikimedia[edit]

The following alphabetically ordered list of painters with hierarchically assigned works is available within Wikimedia.

Paintings in Wikimedia[edit]

The following list of paintings is available within Wikimedia.

Files in Wikimedia[edit]

The following files created by the project are available within Wikimedia.

Gigapixel images in Wikimedia[edit]

The following gigapixel images created by the project are available within Wikimedia.

Features (first version)[edit]

Virtual Gallery Tour[edit]

Through the Virtual Gallery Tour (also known as Gallery View) users can virtually 'walk through' the galleries of each partner cultural organization, using the same controls as Google Street View or by clicking on the gallery's floorplan.

Artwork View[edit]

From the Gallery View (also known as Microscope View), users can zoom in on a particular artwork to view the picture in greater detail. As of April 2012, over 32,000 high-quality images were available.[citation needed] The Microscope view provides a dynamic image of an artwork and scholarly and contextual information to enhance their understanding of the work. When examining an artwork, users could also access information on the item's physical characteristics (e.g. size, material(s), artist). Additional options were Viewing Notes, History of the Artwork, and Artist Information, which users can easily access from the microscope view interface. Each cultural organization was allowed to include as much material as they wanted to contribute, so the level of information varied.[2]

Create an Artwork Collection[edit]

Users can compile any number of images from the partner organizations and save specific views of artworks to create a personalized virtual exhibition. Using Google's link abbreviator (Goo.gl), users could share their artwork collection with others through social media and conventional online communication mechanisms. This feature was so successful upon the platform's launch that Google had to dedicate additional servers to support it.[3]

Features (second version)[edit]

Explore and Discover[edit]

In the second launch of the platform, Google updated the platform's search capabilities so that users could more easily and intuitively find artworks. Users could find art by filtering their search with several categories, including artist, museum, type of work, date and country. The search results were displayed in a slideshow format.[1] This new function enabled site users to more easily search across numerous collections.

Video and Audio Content[edit]

Several partner cultural organizations opted to include guided tours or welcome videos of their galleries. This provided users the option to virtually walk through a museum and listen to an audio guide for certain artworks, or to follow a video tour that guided them through a gallery. For example, Michelle Obama filmed a welcome video for the White House gallery page,[4] and Israel's Holocaust Museum Yad Vashem launched a YouTube channel with 400 hours of original video footage from the trial of Adolf Eichmann which users could access through the museum's Arts & Culture exhibits.[5]

Education[edit]

Google Arts & Culture includes several educational tools and resources for teachers and students, such as educational videos, art history timelines, art toolkits, and comparative teaching resources.[6] Two features, called "Look Like an Expert" and "DIY", provide activities similar to those often found in art galleries. For example, one quiz asks site visitors to match a painting to a particular style; another asks visitors to find a symbol within a specified painting that represents a provided story.

Art Selfie[edit]

Google Arts & Culture allows people to find their fine art likeness by snapping a selfie. The app matches the user's face to old art museum portraits from Google's database. The app topped the download charts in January 2018.[7] The feature was initially created by Cyril Diagne.[8][9]

Development[edit]

Video showing the technology and processes used to capture images of the White House for the Google Arts & Culture

The platform emerged as a result of Google's "20-percent time" policy, by which employees were encouraged to spend 20% of their time working on an innovative project of interest.[10] A small team of employees created the concept for the platform after a discussion on how to use the firm's technology to make museum' artwork more accessible.[11] The platform concept fit the firm's mission "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."[12] Accordingly, in mid-2009, Google executives agreed to support the project, and they engaged online curators of numerous museums to commit to the initiative.[13]

The platform was launched on February 1, 2011, by the Google Cultural Institute with contributions from international museums, including the Tate Gallery, London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York City; and the Uffizi, Florence.[14] On April 3, 2012, Google announced a major expansion, with more than 34,000 artworks from 151 museums and arts organizations from 40 countries, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the White House, the Australian Rock Art Gallery at Griffith University, the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, and the Hong Kong Museum of Art.[15]

Technology used[edit]

The Google Street View Camera captures 360 degree images as it moves through the location. Usually, the camera sits atop a car to capture Street View images, but the platform camera was installed on an indoor trolley.

The team leveraged existing technologies, including Google Street View and Picasa, and built new tools specifically for the platform.

They created an indoor-version of the camera system to capture gallery images by pushing the camera 'trolley' through a museum. It also used professional panoramic heads Clauss RODEON VR Head Hd And Clauss VR Head ST to take high-resolution photos of the artworks within a gallery. This technology allowed excellent attention to detail and the highest image resolution. Each partner museum selected one artwork to be captured at ultra-high resolution with approximately 1,000 times more detail than the average digital camera.[2] The largest image, Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov's The Apparition of Christ to the People, is over 12 gigapixels. To maximize image quality, the team coordinated with partner museums' lighting technicians and photography teams. For example, at Tate Britain, they collaborated to capture a gigapixel image of No Woman No Cry in both natural light and in the dark. Tate suggested this method to capture the painting's hidden phosphorescent image, which glows in the dark. The Google camera team had to adapt their method and keep the camera shutter open for 8 seconds in the dark to capture a distinct enough image. Now, unlike at Tate, from the site, one can view the painting in both light settings.[16]

Once the images were captured, the team used Google Street View software and GPS data to seamlessly stitch the images and connect them to museum floor plans. Each image was mapped according to longitude and latitude, so that users can seamlessly transition to it from Google Maps, looking inside the partner museums' galleries. Street View was also integrated with Picasa, for a seamless transition from gallery view to microscope view.[11]

The user interface lets site visitors virtually 'walk through' galleries with Google Street View, and look at artworks with Picasa, which provides the microscope view to zoom in to images for greater detail than is visible to the naked eye.[2] Additionally, the microscope view of artworks incorporates other resources—including Google Scholar, Google Docs and YouTube—so users can link to external content to learn more about the work.[17] Finally, the platform incorporates Google's URL compacter (Goo.gl), so that users can save and easily share their personal collections.[17]

The resulting platform is a Java-based Google App Engine Web application, which exists on Google's infrastructure.[17]

Technology limitations[edit]

Hans Holbein the Younger's The Ambassadors

Luc Vincent, director of engineering at Google and head of the team responsible for Street View for the platform, expressed concern over the quality of panorama cameras his team used to capture gallery and artwork images. In particular, he believes that improved aperture control would enable more consistent quality of gallery images.[2]

Some artworks were particularly difficult to capture and re-present accurately as virtual, two-dimensional images. For example, Google described the inclusion of Hans Holbein the Younger's The Ambassadors as "tough". This was due to the anamorphic techniques distorting the image of a skull in the foreground of the painting. When looking at the original painting at the National Gallery in London, the depiction of the skull appears distorted until the viewer physically steps to the side of the painting. Once the viewer is looking at the shape from the intended vantage point, the lifelike depiction of the skull materializes. The effect is still apparent in the gigapixel version of the painting but was less pronounced in the "walk-through" function.[18]

As New York Times art reviewer Roberta Smith said: "[Google Arts & Culture] is very much a work in progress, full of bugs and information gaps, and sometimes blurry, careering virtual tours."[2] Though the second-generation platform solved some technological issues, the firm plans to continue developing additional enhancements for the site. Future improvements currently under consideration include: upgrading panorama cameras, more detailed web metrics, and improved searchability through meta-tagging and user-generated meta-tagging.[3] The firm is also considering the addition of an experimental page to the platform, to highlight emerging technologies that artists are using to showcase their works.[19]

Institutions and works[edit]

Seventeen partner museums were included in the launch of the project. The original 1,061 high-resolution images (by 486 different artists) are shown in 385 virtual gallery rooms, with 6,000 Street View–style panoramas.[18][20]

List of the initial 17 partner museums[edit]

Below is a list of the original seventeen partner museums at the time of the platform's launch. All images shown are actual images from Google Arts & Culture:

Partner Museum Gigapixel artwork Title Artist Date
Alte Nationalgalerie
Berlin, Germany
In the Conservatory Édouard Manet 1878–1879
Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian
Washington, DC, US
The Princess from the Land of Porcelain James McNeill Whistler 1863–1865
Frick Collection
New York, US
St Francis in the Desert Giovanni Bellini c. 1480
Gemäldegalerie
Berlin, Germany
The Merchant Georg Gisze Hans Holbein the Younger 1497–1562
Museum Kampa
Prague, Czech Republic
The Cathedral (Katedrála) František Kupka 1912–1913
Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York, US
The Harvesters Pieter Bruegel the Elder 1565
Museum of Modern Art
New York, US
The Starry Night Vincent van Gogh 1889
Museo Reina Sofia
Madrid, Spain
The Bottle of Anís del Mono Juan Gris 1914
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
Madrid, Spain
Young Knight in a Landscape Vittore Carpaccio 1510
National Gallery
London, UK
The Ambassadors Hans Holbein the Younger 1533
Palace of Versailles
Versailles, France
Marie-Antoinette de Lorraine-Habsbourg, Queen of France, and her children Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun 1787
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Night Watch Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn 1642
State Hermitage Museum
St. Petersburg, Russia
The Return of the Prodigal Son Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn 1663–1665
State Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia
The Appearance of Christ Before the People Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov 1837–1857
Tate Britain
London, UK
No Woman No Cry Chris Ofili 1998
Uffizi
Florence, Italy
The Birth of Venus Sandro Botticelli 1483–1485
Capitoline Museums
Rome, Italy
Capitoline Wolf 500 BC–480 BC
Van Gogh Museum
Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Bedroom Vincent van Gogh 1888

On April 3, 2012, Google announced the expansion of the platform to include 151 cultural organizations, with new partners contributing a gigapixel image of one of their works.[1]

Partial list of Google Cultural Institute partners[edit]

The museum image redirects to the museum's official page on the Google Arts & Culture platform, the Google Street View logo indicates that the museum has an adapted version of Street View

Country / Territory Museums
United States United States
Canada Canada
Mexico Mexico
Peru Peru
Puerto Rico Puerto Rico
Colombia Colombia
Venezuela Venezuela
  • Centro Cultural UCAB
Guatemala Guatemala
Argentina Argentina
Ecuador Ecuador
Chile Chile
Brazil Brazil

Influences[edit]

The Google Art Project was a development of the virtual museum projects of the 1990s and 2000s, following the first appearance of online exhibitions with high-resolution images of artworks in 1995. In the late 1980s, art museum personnel began to consider how they could exploit the internet to achieve their institutions' missions through online platforms. For example, in 1994 Elizabeth Broun, Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, spoke to the Smithsonian Commission on the future of art, stating: "We need to put our institutional energy behind the idea of getting the Smithsonian hooked up to the people and schools of America." She then outlined the museum's objective to conserve, protect, present, and interpret exhibits, explaining how electronic media could help achieve these goals.[21] The expansion of internet programs and resources has shaped the development of the platform.[18][22]

Copyright issues[edit]

Google Books affected the development of the platform from a non-technological perspective. Google faced a six-year-long court case relating to several issues with copyright infringement. Google Books cataloged full digital copies of texts, including those still protected by copyright, though Google claimed it was permissible under the fair use clause. Google ended up paying $125 million to copyright-holders of the protected books, though the settlement agreement was modified and debated several times before it was ultimately rejected by federal courts. In his decision, Judge Denny Chin stated the settlement agreement would "give Google a significant advantage over competitors, rewarding it for engaging in wholesale copying of copyrighted works without permission," and could lead to antitrust issues. Judge Chin said in future open-access initiatives, Google should use an "opt-in" method, rather than providing copyright owners the option to "opt-out" of an arrangement.[23]

After this controversy, Google took a different approach to intellectual property rights for the Google Arts & Culture. The platform's intellectual property policy is:

The high-resolution imagery of artworks featured on the platform site is owned by the museums, and these images may be subject to copyright laws around the world. The Street View imagery is owned by Google. All of the imagery on this site is provided for the sole purpose of enabling you to use and enjoy the benefit of the platform site, in the manner permitted by Google's Terms of Service. The normal Google Terms of Service apply to your use of the entire site.[19]

The partner museum staff were able now to ask Google to blur out the images of certain works, which are still protected by copyrights. In a few cases, museums wanted to include artworks by modern and contemporary artists, many of whom still hold the copyright to their works. For example, Tate Britain approached Chris Ofili to get his permission to capture and reproduce his works on the platform.[16] But the Toledo Museum of Art asked Google to remove 21 artworks from the website, including works by Henri Matisse and other modern artists.[24]

Praise[edit]

  • Increases access to art. So long as one has internet access, anyone, anywhere, at any time can visit the Google Arts & Culture, enabling audiences who otherwise would be unlikely to visit these museums to see their works. "Armchair tourists" are now able to tour some of the world's greatest art exhibits without leaving their seats.[25] Professors and students can go on virtual field trips without the usual associated costs, and have a remote conversation with an expert from a museum or other institution.[26]
  • Better visitor experience. Users can avoid constraints of time, money and physical difficulty. They need not plan a restrictive one-time visit to a collection, or arrive to find out work is not on view. They are not bothered by other visitors.
  • Triggers new visitors Many art historians and scholars have posited that online exhibitions would drive more people to the gallery, and the Google Arts & Culture has supported this theory. The research established that there is a statistically significant relationship between those who visit the platform and those who are inspired to go on a real tour of a museum.[27] In further support of this concept, within two weeks of the launch of the platform, MoMA saw its website's traffic increase by about 7%.[13] It is, however, unclear how many physical visitors came to MoMA as a result of the platform.
  • Complements real visits to a gallery. While there has been some skepticism that the Google Arts & Culture seeks to replace real-time visits to art galleries, many have suggested that the virtual tours actually complement real-time visits. Research shows that people are more likely to enjoy their real-time visit to a museum after participating in a virtual tour.[27] Several museum personnel have supported this concept anecdotally. Julian Raby, director of the Freer Gallery of Art stated: "The gigapixel experience brings us very close to the essence of the artist through detail that simply can't be seen in the gallery itself. Far from eliminating the necessity of seeing artworks in person, [Arts & Culture] deepens our desire to go in search of the real thing."[28] This view was shared by Brian Kennedy, director of the Toledo Museum of Art, who believed that academics would still want to view artwork in three dimensions, even if the gigapixel images provided better clarity than viewing the artwork in the gallery. Similarly, Amit Sood—the Google project leader—said that "nothing beats the first-person experience".[18]
  • Has future development potential. Some scholars and art critics believe the Google Arts & Culture will change how museums use the web. For instance, Nancy Proctor—Head of Mobile Strategy & Initiatives at the Smithsonian—suggested that museums may eventually utilize the platform to provide museum maps and gallery information instead of printed materials. It might become possible for museum visitors to hold up their smartphone in front of an artwork, and the platform could overlay information. the platform could also provide a seamless transition from a Google Map to an inside gallery map, avoiding the need for printed collateral.[3]
  • Democratization of culture. With the rapid increase of information that is available online, we are in a period of democratization of knowledge. An elite group of professionals and experts are no longer the only people with the ability to distribute respected information. Rather, through web-based initiatives like Wikipedia, anyone with web access can contribute to and help shape public knowledge.[29]
  • Democratizing Art. The Google Arts & Culture is, according to some, a democratic initiative.[30] It aims to give more people access to art by removing barriers like cost and location. Some art or cultural exhibits have been limited to a small group of viewers (e.g. PhD students, academic researchers) due to deteriorating conditions of work, lack of available wall space in a museum, or other similar factors. Digitized reproductions, however, can be accessible to anyone from any location. This type of online resource can transform research and academia by opening access to previously exclusive artworks, enabling multidisciplinary and multi-institutional learning.[31] It provides people the opportunity to experience art individually, and a platform to become involved in the conversation.[3] For example, the platform now lets users contribute their own content, adding their insight to the public collection of knowledge.
  • Shift away from the canon of high art. Many scholars have argued that we are experiencing a breakdown of the canon of high art,[21] and the Google Arts & Culture is beginning to reflect this. When it just included the Grand Masters of Western Art, the project faced strong criticism. As a result of this outburst, the website now includes some indigenous and graffiti artworks. This platform also provides a new context through which people encounter art, ultimately reflecting this shift away from the canon of high art.[3]

Criticism[edit]

  • Eurocentrism: During its initial launch, many critics argued that Google Arts & Culture provided a Western-biased representation of art. Most museums included in the first phase of the Project were from Western Europe, Washington, D.C., and New York, N.Y.[32] According to Diana Skaar, head of partnerships for the platform, Google responded: "After the launch of round one, we got an overwhelming response from museums worldwide. So for round two, we really wanted to balance regional museums with those that are more nationally or globally recognized."[33] Now, the platform's expanded repository includes graffiti works, dot paintings, rock art, and indigenous artworks.[34]
  • Selection of content: Although the Google Arts & Culture now partners with 134 new museums, some critics believe it still may present a skewed representation of art and art history. Google and the partner museums are able to decide what information to include, and what artworks they will make available (and at what level of quality); some believe this is counter-intuitive to the website's seemingly democratic objective.[35] For example, in the White House virtual collection, one photo of a former First Lady does not include a key piece of information to understand the context of the image. Grace Coolidge often wore brightly colored clothes. In her White House portrait, she was dressed in a red sleeveless flapper dress and stood next to a large white dog. There are two versions of this picture: one showing Coolidge on a white background with softer lines, and one showing her on the White House lawn. The Google Arts & Culture description leaves out the reason for why there are two images. President Coolidge preferred his wife to wear a white dress. The artist, however, wanted the dress to contrast with the white dog. President Coolidge then retorted, "Dye the dog!"[4] While perhaps not crucial to understanding the exhibit, this and other examples show that Google Arts & Culture and partner museums are in a position of power to curate the content and educational information of the virtual exhibition.[35]
  • Audience: Some critics have expressed concern over the intended audience of the platform, as this should shape the type of content available through the platform. For example, Director of the Center for the Future of Museums, Elizabeth Merritt, described the project as an "interesting experiment" but was skeptical as to its intended audience.[18]
  • Possible security risks: Some critics have raised the question of how Arts & Culture visitors might maliciously use the Street View images. For example, using highly detailed images of galleries, people could use this platform to map out museum security systems, and then be able to circumvent these protective measures during a break-in.[36]

Timeline of introductions[edit]

All of these museums have an adapted version of Google Street View designed to photograph building interiors.

2011[edit]

Release date Major locations added
February 1[37] United States Freer Gallery of Art, Frick Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA
Russia Tretyakov Gallery, Hermitage Museum
Germany Alte Nationalgalerie, Gemäldegalerie
Spain Museo Reina Sofia, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
Czech Republic Museum Kampa
United Kingdom National Gallery, Tate Britain
France Palace of Versailles
Italy Uffizi Gallery
Netherlands Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
August 16 Iraq National Museum of Iraq[38]

2012[edit]

Release date Major locations added
March 22 Russia State Russian Museum[39]
April 3 Israel The Israel Museum[40]
United States J. Paul Getty Museum[41]
United States Museum of Fine Arts, Houston[42]
Sweden Nationalmuseum[43]
April 4 United States Museum of Fine Arts[44]
United States De Young Museum[45]
United States The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art[46]
April 6 Russia Pushkin Museum[47]
April 7 United States Indianapolis Museum of Art[48]
May 29 Denmark National Gallery of Denmark[49]
June 23 United States Computer History Museum[50]
December 17 Finland Ateneum[51]

2013[edit]

Release date Major locations added
March 27 Hungary Museum of Applied Arts[52]
April 4 Luxembourg Mudam[53]
April 8 United States Corning Museum of Glass[54]
April 29 Peru Larco Museum[55]
May 20 Switzerland Beyeler Foundation[56]
May 21 Norway The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design[57]
Denmark Thorvaldsen Museum[58]
May 22 Austria Kunsthistorisches Museum[59]
October 7 South Korea National Museum of Korea[60]
October 21 Qatar Museum of Islamic Art[61]
October 31 Republic of Ireland National Library of Ireland[62]
December 6 Brazil Inhotim, Iberê Camargo Foundation, Instituto Moreira Salles, Museu da Imagem e do Som[63]

2014[edit]

Release date Major locations added
January 30 Colombia Museum of Contemporary Art of Bogotá[64]
June 23 Slovakia Slovak National Gallery[65]
Slovakia Ernest Zmeták Art Gallery[65]
Slovakia Stredoslovenská galéria[66]
August 20 Canada The Royal Ontario Museum[67]
September 16 United States Pueblo Grande Museum[68]
September 29 Germany Deutsches Museum[69]
October 27[70] Japan National Museum of Western Art
Japan National Museum of Modern Art
Japan Ohara Museum of Art
Japan Kobe City Museum
Japan Kobe Fashion Museum
Japan Saitama Prefectural Museum of the Sakitama Ancient Burial Mounds
Japan Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art
Japan Shizuoka City Tokaido Hiroshige Museum
Japan Shohaku Art Museum
November 25 Romania Brukenthal National Museum[71]

2015[edit]

Release date Major locations added
January 28 Canada The Vancouver Art Gallery[72]
February 15 Slovakia Liptovská galéria Petra Michala Bohúňa[73]
March 2[74] Australia Queensland Museum
Australia Australian War Memorial
Australia National Museum of Australia
Australia National Portrait Gallery
Australia Powerhouse Museum, Australian Centre for the Moving Image
Australia Public Record Office Victoria
March 3 Indonesia National Museum of Indonesia[75]
March 21 United Arab Emirates The Barjeel Art Foundation[76]
April 24 South Africa Robben Island Museum[77]
May 21[78] Hong Kong Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences

Hong Kong Hong Kong Maritime Museum

June 18 South Korea National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art
July 6 United States National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum[79]
July 14 Mexico Museo Dolores Olmedo[80]
September 19 China Hubei Provincial Museum[81]
November 12 United Kingdom The British Museum[82]

2016[edit]

Release date Major locations added
January 21 Brazil Museu Afro Brasil[83]
India Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum[84]
February 11 Croatia Museum of Arts and Crafts[85]
February 12 United States Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts[86]
March 10 United States The Frick Pittsburgh[87]
April 26 Australia Sydney Opera House[88]
May 3 South Korea Silhak Museum[89]
May 20 France Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon[90]
July 19 United Kingdom Dulwich Picture Gallery[91]
July 20 Mongolia The National Museum of Mongolia[92]
July 22[93] India Indian Museum
India Salar Jung Museum
India Nehru Memorial Museum & Library
India National Gallery of Moden Art
August 25[94] China China Paper Cutting Museum

China Hangzhou Arts and Crafts Museum

September 13 Russia State Darwin Museum[95]
September 19 South Korea Gwacheon National Science Museum[96]
October 7 South Korea Seodaemun Museum of Natural History[97]
October 26 Estonia Tallinn City Museum[98]
November 3[99] Mexico Museo Nacional de la Muerte
Mexico Museo Mexicano de Diseño
Mexico Museo de Arte Popular
November 21 France Cinémathèque Française[100]
December 12 China The Geyuan Garden[101]
China The He Garden[101]
China The Museum of the Tomb of Han Guangling King[101]
December 15 United States New Orleans Museum of Art[102]

2017[edit]

Release date Major locations added
February 15 New Zealand Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki[103]
March 25 Japan Art Research Center in the Ritsumeikan University[104]
June 5 Malta National Museum of Archaeology[105]
June 6 Brazil Museu Nacional de Belas Artes[106]
June 8 Guatemala Ixchel Museum[107]
June 12 Brazil Imperial Museum of Brazil[108]
Spain Museo del Traje[109]
Spain Design Museum of Barcelona[109]
Spain Museum of Arts and Popular Customs of Seville[109]
June 13 United Kingdom The Hepworth Wakefield Museum[110]
June 14 Belgium ModeMuseum Antwerpen[111]
July 8 Philippines Malacañang Museum[112]
July 20 Japan Bunka Gakuen University[113]
September 20 France Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations[114]
October 24 United States Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum[115]
November 13 Spain Gran Teatre del Liceu[116]
November 24 India Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya[117]
December 30 India Partition Museum[118]

2018[edit]

Release date Major locations added
January 5 Mexico Papalote Museo del Niño[119]
February 27 France Musée des Confluences[120]
March 7 Brazil São Paulo Art Biennial[121]
March 13 Brazil Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil São Paulo[122]
South Korea Korea International Cooperation Agency[123]
United Kingdom The National Museum of Scotland[124]
March 22 South Korea Korea National Maritime Museum[125]
May 23 Lithuania Lithuanian National Museum of Art[126]
May 27 Mexico Frida Kahlo Museum[127]
June 21 China China National Silk Museum[128]
South Korea Gyeongju National Museum[129]
South Korea Sookmyung Women's University Museum[129]
South Korea National Palace Museum of Korea[129]
July 23 Costa Rica Centro Costarricense de Ciencia y Cultura[130]
Costa Rica Museo del Jade[130]
September Lebanon American University of Beirut[131]
October 2 Italy Biblioteca Sormani[132]
Italy Museo delle Culture[132]
Italy Museo del Novecento[132]
Italy Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano[132]
October 10 Poland National Museum of Kraków[133]
November 13 United Kingdom Dumfries House[134]
December 3 Netherlands Mauritshuis[135]

2019[edit]

Release date Major locations added
January 15 Portugal National Museum of Ancient Art[136]
Portugal Museu de Arte Popular[137]
Portugal National Museum of Ethnology[137]
Portugal Grão Vasco National Museum[137]
Portugal National Archaeology Museum[137]
January 17 Portugal Museu Nacional da Música[138]
February 26 France Monnaie de Paris[139]
March 4 France Musée Pasteur[140]
March 6 Germany Röntgen-Gedächtnisstätte[141]
Spain Real Academia Nacional de Medicina de España[142]
Spain Museo Naval de Madrid[143]
March 9 Germany Museums for Communication in Berlin, Frankfurt & Nuremberg[144]
March 14 Germany Deutsches Röntgen-Museum[145]
April 18 Republic of Ireland The Royal Irish Academy[146]
June 12 Netherlands Anne Frank House[147]
June 17 France Musée des Beaux-Arts de Quimper[148]
June 18 France Le Carton voyageur[149]
June 20 China Power Station of Art[150]
June 24 India Blades of Glory Cricket Museum[151]
July 9 South Korea Appenzeller Noble Memorial Museum[152]
July 10 Mexico Museo Soumaya[153]
July 30 Thailand Thai Film Archive[154]
August 19 Australia Gallery of Modern Art[155]
August 21 Australia National Motor Museum[156]
September 17 Thailand The Front Palace[157]
September 18 Thailand Thai Flag Museum[158]
October 31 Kenya Nairobi National Museum[159]
November 12 Taiwan National Palace Museum[160]

2020[edit]

Release date Major locations added
January 24 Spain Museo Parroquial de Tapices de Pastrana[161]
February 6 Czech Republic The National Museum of Prague[162]
February 28 United Kingdom The Tank Museum[163]
March 4 Taiwan Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum[164]
March 17 Austria The Leopold Museum[165]
March 18 Sweden The Museum of World Culture[166]
United States National Portrait Gallery[167]
March 19 Sweden Livrustkammaren[168]
March 20 Austria Österreichische Galerie Belvedere[169]
March 22 China Insect Museum of West China[170]
March 25 United Kingdom Garden Museum[171]
April 6 Germany Alte Pinakothek[172]
April 17 India Royal Opera House of Mumbai[173]
April 21 Mexico Cineteca Nacional de México[174]
April 27 Mexico Foto Museo Cuatro Caminos[175]
April 29 Japan Nakamura Keith Haring Collection[176]
May 1 Japan Wajima Museum of Urushi Art[177]
May 7 Italy La Scala[178]
May 13 Spain Museo de la Guardia Civil[179]
May 18 Argentina Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes[180]
Germany The Ludwig Roselius Museum[181]
Germany The Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum[181]
Italy Casa Buonarroti[182]
Italy Science and Technology Foundation Museum[it][183]
Italy Città della Scienza[184]
May 19 Japan The Meiji Shrine[185]
Japan The Sezon Museum of Modern Art[185]
May 20 Italy The Museum of Radiology[it][186]
United Kingdom The Foundling Museum[187]
France Musée des impressionnismes Giverny[188]
June 17 Germany Leipzig Bach Archive[189]
June 18 United Kingdom Royal Academy of Arts[190]
July 14 South Korea Lee Ungno Museum[191]
July 30 United States Grohmann Museum[192]
United States Milwaukee Public Museum[192]
August 12 United States Levine Museum of the New South[193]
September 7 Germany The Hamburg Port Museum[de][194]
September 17 Germany The Museum of Man and Nature[195][196]
France Mobilier National[197]
October 6 Taiwan The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts[198]
November 14 China Only a few museums around Shenzhen only.[199][200]
November 17 Brazil Museu de Arte da Bahia[201]
November 20 France The Electropolis Museum[202]
November 25 Germany The Folkwang Museum[203]
December 3 Germany Beethoven House[204]
December 11 South Korea Gwangju Biennale[205]
December 30 South Korea Yoon Dongju Memorial Hall in Yonsei University[206]

2021[edit]

Release date Major locations added
February 21 Portugal Museu do Douro[207]
March 10 Germany Berlin Musical Instrument Museum[208]
March 11 France École Polytechnique[209]
March 26 China Song Art Museum[210]
March 29 United States Gloria Steinem's Historic Manhattan Apartment[211]
April 26 Brazil São Paulo Metro[212]
April 28[213] Nigeria African Artists' Foundation
Nigeria Rele Art Gallery
Nigeria Terra Kulture
May 18 Australia Sydney Jewish Museum[214]
June 18 Brazil Villa-Lobos Museum[215]
July 12 Germany Bayerische Staatsoper
July 23 Italy Palazzo del Giardino[216]
Italy Castello dei Burattini - Museo Giordano Ferrari[216]
Italy Sala Baganza Wine Museum[216]
Italy Casa della Musica (Parma)[216]
Italy Fondazione Museo Glauco Lombardi[216]
Italy Museum of Parmigiano Reggiano[216]
Italy Museo Ettore Guatelli[216]
Thailand The Office of Arts and Culture in Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University[217]
August 22 Switzerland Tonhalle Zürich[218]
September 19 Mexico MUCHO Museo del Chocolate[219]
September 28[220] United States Mattress Factory
United States The Clemente Museum
United States Pittsburgh Glass Center
October 6 South Africa Wits University Origins Centre[221]
October 8 Nigeria Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art[222]
October 14 China Simatai Great Wall Tourist Area[223]
October 20[224] Poland Royal Łazienki Museum
Poland Museum of Folk Musical Instruments in Szydlowiec
Poland Fryderyk Chopin Institute
October 21 Slovakia Bratislava Theatre Institute[225]
November 11 Brazil Supreme Federal Court[226]
November 22 Italy Quirinal Palace[227]
December 3 Slovenia National and University Library of Slovenia[228]
Slovenia Beekeeping Museum in Radovljica[228]
Slovenia Posavje Museum Brežice[228]

2022[edit]

Release date Major locations added

2023[edit]

Release date Major locations added
March 30 Poland Museum Tripods for Google Arts and Culture in Lesser Poland Voivodeship including Żupny Castle, Szołayski House National Museum, Zbaraski Palace[229]
April 16 South Korea Daegu Concert House in Daegu[230]
Italy Ca' Granda at University of Milan[231]
June 17 United States Tripods in San Antonio, Texas including Casa Navarro, Ruby City, Briscoe Western Art Museum, Witte Museum[232]

2024[edit]

Release date Major locations added

Similar initiatives[edit]

Banner for Wiki Loves Art Nouveau[233] Exhibition on Europeana.

Many museums and arts organizations have created their own online data and virtual exhibitions. Some offer virtual 3-D tours similar to the Google Arts & Culture's gallery view, whereas others simply reproduce images from their collection on the institution's web page. Some museums have collections that exist solely in cyberspace and are known as virtual museums.

  • Bucharest Natural History Museum[234] and the Museum of the Romanian Peasant[235] offer virtual tours of two of Romania's larger historical/anthropological museums.
  • Europeana is a virtual repository of artworks, literature, cultural objects, relics, and musical recordings/writings from over 2000 European institutions.[236]
  • Public Catalogue Foundation has digitized all the circa 210,000 oil paintings in public ownership in the United Kingdom, and made the paintings viewable by the public through a series of affordable catalogs and, in partnership with the BBC, the "Your Paintings" website.[237] Works by some 40,000 painters are included.
  • Khan Academy's smARThistory is a multimedia resource with videos, audio guides, mobile applications and commentary from art historians.
  • The Prado launched a virtual collection, in collaboration with Google Earth, in January 2009. The website contained photos of 14 Prado paintings, each with up to 14 gigapixels.
  • The Virtual Museum of Canada is a virtual collection containing exhibits from thousand of Canadian local, provincial and national museums.
  • Wikipedia GLAM ("galleries, libraries, archives, and museums", also including botanic and zoological gardens) helps cultural institutions share their resources with the world through collaborative projects with experienced Wikipedia editors.

Footnotes[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Valvo, Michael. "Google Goes Global with Expanded Art Project" (Press release). Google Art Project. Archived from the original on March 4, 2013. Retrieved April 6, 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d e Pack, Thomas (May 2011). "The Google Art Project is a Sight to Behold". Information Today. Vol. 28, no. 5.
  3. ^ a b c d e Proctor, Nancy (April 2011). "The Google Art Project: A new Generation of Museums on the Web?". Curator: The Museum Journal. 52 (2).
  4. ^ a b Keyes, Alexa (April 3, 2012). "Google Art Project and White House Launch 360 Tour of 'People's House'". ABC News. Retrieved April 6, 2012.
  5. ^ Heller, Aron (April 3, 2012). "Israel Museum showcased in Google Art Project". Gainesville Times/Associated Press. Retrieved April 6, 2012.
  6. ^ "Education". Google Art Project. Retrieved April 6, 2012.
  7. ^ "Art Selfie". Google's art app is now top of iOS and Android download charts. January 17, 2018.
  8. ^ "Art Selfie". Out How to Make People Care About Art. January 22, 2018.
  9. ^ "Art Selfie". Votre selfie est une œuvre d'art mais vous ne le savez pas encore. March 7, 2018.
  10. ^ Knowles, Jemillah (April 3, 2012). "Google's Art Project grows larger with 151 museums online across 140 countries". TNW Google Blog. The Next Web. Retrieved April 6, 2012.
  11. ^ a b Sood, Amit. "Explore museums and great works of art in the Google Art Project". Google Official Blog. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  12. ^ "About Google". Retrieved March 25, 2012.
  13. ^ a b Berwick, Carly (April 2011). "Up Close and Personal with Google Art Project". Art in America. Vol. 99, no. 4.
  14. ^ Waters, Florence (February 1, 2011). "The best online culture archives". The Telegraph. Retrieved February 2, 2011.
  15. ^ Ngak, Chenda. "Google Art Project features White House, the Met, National Gallery". CBS News. Retrieved April 15, 2012.
  16. ^ a b Davis, James. "Google Art Project: Behind the Scenes". Tate Blogs. Tate Britain. Archived from the original on December 24, 2012. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
  17. ^ a b c Mediati, Nick (April 2011). "An extension of Google Street View enables interactive, Web-based virtual museum tours". PC World. Vol. 29, no. 4.
  18. ^ a b c d e Kennicott, Philip (February 1, 2011). "National Treasures: Google Art Project unlocks riches of world's galleries". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 2, 2011.
  19. ^ a b "FAQs". Google Art Project. Retrieved April 10, 2012.
  20. ^ "Google and museums of the world unveil Art Project" (Press release). Google Art Project. Archived from the original on March 4, 2013. Retrieved February 1, 2011.
  21. ^ a b Broun, Elizabeth (Summer 1994). "The Future of Art at the Smithsonian". American Art. 8 (3/4): 2–7. doi:10.1086/424219. JSTOR 3109168. S2CID 191616693.(registration required)
  22. ^ Proctor, N (2011). "The Google Art Project: A New Generation of Museums on the Web?". Curator: The Museum Journal. 54 (2): 215–221. doi:10.1111/j.2151-6952.2011.00083.x.[permanent dead link]
  23. ^ Efrati, Amir. "Judge Rejects Google Books Settlement". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved April 9, 2012.
  24. ^ Cohen, Patricia (April 24, 2012). "Art is Long; Copyrights Can Be Even Longer". The New York Times. Retrieved April 26, 2012.
  25. ^ Ionescu, Daniel. "Google's Art Project Extended Worldwide". PC World Blogs. PC World. Archived from the original on November 4, 2013. Retrieved April 6, 2012.
  26. ^ Stanislawski, Piotr (April 3, 2012). "Polska Sztuka w Google Art Project". Gazeta. Retrieved April 8, 2012.
  27. ^ a b Bararia, Khushboo. "Promotion of Virtual Tourism through Google Art Projects". Masters Thesis. Christ University. Archived from