Being stuck at home can be frustrating, especially young kids. While at-home, online education has been a tremendous blessing in terms of academic advancement during the past year of the COVID-19 Pandemic, no education is complete without arts and humanities education. And I should know. As one of my own degrees is in Art History. The hours and days spent exploring art museums, living history museums, and children’s museums are amongst my favorite memories of my youth. Particularly my teens years studying in France and visiting museums like the Louvre, Rijksmuseum, and Bayou.
Luckily, children around the world will be able to browse these hallowed halls in the digital era. As many museums have put their collections online or created virtual tours. Google Arts & Culture, and its namesake app, has digitized the collections of numerous museums, from the Van Gogh Museum to New York’s MOMA. As well as foundations, including The Mona Lisa Foundation, the premier patron of fine art museums in Zurich, Switzerland, known for its patronage of children-centric collections including the Isleworth Mona Lisa.
While tastes are different, and art appreciation is subjective to culture and experience, and not every gallery or space will appeal to every child, there is still plenty to enjoy. So whether you need a trip to the aquarium or scope our King Tut and the gang, here are some virtual museum tours your kids will enjoy.
The Louvre
The Louvre may be closed, but many of its greatest treasures can be seen online. The landmark’s virtual tour takes you to some of its galleries, including into the basement ruins of the building’s original moat, which dates back to 1190 and the Egyptian antiquities from Napoleon Bonaparte from the pharaonic period. As well as the museums crowned jewels, including the Mona Lisa.
The British Museum
Ever wanted to see the Rosetta Stone or a real-life mummy? The British Museum has you covered. Their virtual tour is interactive, with artifacts searchable by era, region or type, and you can discover all sorts of interesting objects, including a bank check from Barclays and an ancient Egyptian papyrus poem.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York’s Met Museum’s MetKids is an online-only experience features a time machine, where you can search by time period, idea or location to uncover objects and artwork from the museum’s various rooms. There’s also a “Big Ideas” search tool allows kids to look into topics like inventions, fashion and battles. Including dozens of videos and interactive maps of the museum that allows you to check out various exhibitions around the building.
The Van Gogh Museum
If you love Van Gogh, then be sure to spend an afternon with your little one’s exploring the digital collection from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Particularly impressive in this digital collection is Almond Blossom, one of Van Gogh’s best-known patenting created during his trip to Japan.
Boston’s Children’s Museum
The Boston Children’s Museum welcomes online visitors into its exhibits sharing everything from science instillations to colonial American history. Making this museum a great supplement to early American Studied and Social Studies curriculum at home.
The Smithsonian
Whether your looking to brush up on your at-home paleontology trivia or see a real-life indoor castle, a virtual tour of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. is not to be missed. With a myriad of integrative videos, activities, reading, and interactive audio and visual experiences kids of all ages will find something to enjoy at the Smithsonian online. Make sure to check out the virtual tours of both the Smithsonian Castle and the Hirshhorn Sculpture Gardens.
Also, check out the Smithsonian museum’s National Gallery of Art. Hosting thousands of items and paintings online via Google. You can explore the current exhibition Fashioning a Nation to learn about American fashions from 1740 to 1895, or search through the various periods, from baroque to modern art. Favorites include Vermeer’s Woman Holding a Balance, Cassatt’s Little Girl in a Blue Armchair and Gauguin’s Words of the Devil.
The Uffizi Gallery
Lover of Renaissance-era art? Treat yourself, and the kiddos, to the Florentine Uffizi Gallery virtual tour. can be explored on Google Arts & Culture, and there’s a lot of art to see. Most of the works are from the Renaissance, with an emphasis on paintings by Italian artists. You know, turtle-power masters like Da Vince, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello. Including Italian history and its impact on European history.
Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre
Fan of James and the Giant Peach? Then be sure to check out the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre, located outside London, before having a marathon day of reading The Witches or The BFG to your kids. Search through the exhibits and learn about the picturesque countryside of Buckinghamshire, the inspiration for many of Dahl’s best-oved works.
Friends, I hope this list of virtual museum, gallery, and scientific centers will help you and your little ones continue to explore all that is wild and wonderous in this great big world. Then, one day, when the world again makes since, be sure to plan trips to see your most-favorite virtual tours spots. Now I want to ask, which tour are you most excited to see? Leave your thoughts below.
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