#StayHome #iorestoacasa #Quedateacasa - virtual tours of museums, online performances, webcams and more
Many of us are confined at home #StayHome during the COVID-19 pandemic. Across Europe and Asia, masses of arts events have sadly been cancelled – festivals, conferences, performances, exhibitions, biennales and more – with serious ongoing challenges for audiences and organisations to plan ahead.
In response, the arts, culture and heritage sector has stepped up to engage with their audiences and now offer many new resources free online. You can travel virtually to visit a museum or a biennale, watch opera and ballet, catch up on box sets, tour a historic garden, join a virtual choir, see contemporary theatre … as well as many co-creation projects you can join.
Check out this starter kit of arts and culture resources in Asia and Europe available online and please do send us your suggestions – this list will be regularly updated.
Australia: The Biennale of Sydney has become the first major biennial exhibition to move into the virtual realm as its physical exhibition has been forced to shutter just 10 days after it opened to the public on March 14. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/the-biennale-of-sydney-is-moving-online-1811871
Austria: The renowned Wiener Staatsoper has opened its livestream archives, so that music lovers all over the world will still be able to enjoy opera and ballet. Daily evening ‘performances’ take place with broadcast recordings of previous opera and ballet performances via its streaming platform www.staatsoperlive.com – worldwide and free of charge. https://www.wiener-staatsoper.at/en/staatsoper/news/detail/news/the-wiener-staatsoper-is-closed-but-continues-to-play-daily-online/
France: visit Claude Monet’s garden at Giverny – virtual tour of the garden and house (as well as tours of other historic gardens in the UK and beyond) https://www.housebeautiful.com/lifestyle/gardening/g31746949/gardens-you-can-virtually-tour/ At the Louvre Museum you can take a virtual tour of the empty galleries, zooming in on artworks as you go. https://www.louvre.fr/en And, mostly in French but some other languages also, here is a great round up of the culture online offer in France from museums, performance venues and more, selection researched by Institut Francais https://www.institutfrancais.com/fr/zoom/offres-culturelles-en-ligne
Greece: visit the Benaki Museum online. Take a virtual wander through ancient Greece with the Benaki Museum’s 360-degree tour. It’s easy to get lost in their unrivalled collection of artefacts – from ancient fertility statues to gilded Byzantine paintings – with some dating back as far as 6500BC.https://www.benaki.org/index.php?lang=en
Ireland: Sing Ireland has launched a call to participants in Ireland to join a Virtual Choir. It is collaborating with friends in wind and concert bands all around Ireland to provide the backing music and anyone in Ireland can send their video participation for the song to be recorded - Ireland's Call. https://www.singireland.ie/news/sing-ireland-virtual-choir-1
The Chester Beatty Museum has created new ways to make those virtual meetings more exciting. If you are tired of having to tidy up before your conference calls, why not download its packs of free Virtual Meeting Backgrounds, taken from the Chester Beatty collections, complete with instructions on how to install. https://chesterbeatty.ie/exhibitions/chester-beatty-online/
Italy: every evening a film is streamed free in MyMovies. Recent festival films are on the programme from the Udine Far East Film Festival, featuring films from Japan, China, Korea, Netherlands, Spain and many more countries, as well as from the Torino Underground Cinefest. You have to book your place. Over 25,000 free places for the programme so far. https://www.mymovies.it/iorestoacasa/
Japan: visit the Mori Art Museum while it is closed: https://www.mori.art.museum/en/ At the time of publication, life goes on in Tokyo and people are out on the streets so those who are confined at home in various European countries can take a look at the webcam streams around the city: https://www.webcamtaxi.com/en/japan/tokyo.html
Korea: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art has several sites: the main gallery in Gwacheon and branches in Deoksugung, Seoul and Cheongju. The virtual tours explore an inspiring mix of print, design, sculpture, photography, new media and other large-scale installations. From Joseph Beuys to Warhol and Nam June Paik, the collection includes an international lineup of established artists, contemporary Korean artworks and emerging names. https://www.mmca.go.kr/eng/ And if you fancy a break after your tour, listen to this coffeeshop Korean playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROSLuZTWCRY
The Korean Government has also announced a COVID-19 Rescue Package, providing general and special support for the Arts sector in Korea: https://www.theapro.kr:441/eng/now/now_view.asp?idx=1312
Netherlands: Take a virtual interactive tour of the Rijksmuseum. This grand museum has a vast collection of art and historical objects across 80 galleries. A 10-year renovation project was completed in 2013, transforming the space and combining elements of 19th-century grandeur with modern lighting and a new glass-roofed atrium. The interactive tour helps viewers get up close to every brush stroke by Vermeer, Rembrandt and other Dutch masters while exploring the Great Hall and beyond. https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/rijksmuseum
Nordic countries: explore music from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland - enjoy this Nordic playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/nordicplaylist
Spain: Let art inspire you at the Guggenheim Bilbao. Discover the Museum exhibitions through the videos and other online exhibition resources. https://www.guggenheim-bilbao.eus/en The Picasso Museum in Barcelona is also offering virtual tours: http://www.museupicasso.bcn.cat/
United Kingdom: many performances in different venues are available online. Launching on 27 March, Sadler’s Wells Digital Stage offers a programme of full-length dance performances and workshops online (including workshops for young children and the 60s+ Company of Elders). https://www.sadlerswells.com/whats-on/2020/digital-stage/ Links and recommendations for many more performances (Royal Opera House, Royal Court ++): https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/mar/17/hottest-front-room-seats-the-best-theatre-and-dance-to-watch-online Museums links for British Museum and National Gallery: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/mar/23/10-of-the-worlds-best-virtual-museum-and-art-gallery-tours And, as in Ireland, a virtual choir project is in preparation for amateur and professional singers to join the Great British Home Chorus https://decca.com/greatbritishhomechorus/
BBC - Culture in Quarantine series: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/45gMYKsDtlRx1WdTCZh3q2b/culture-in-quarantine-tv-radio-and-digital-schedule
And some other ideas covering multiple countries round the world:
#STAYARTHOMEPEJAC campaign - Pejac, an artist based in Spain, is inviting the worldwide audience to grab their pens, brushes, papers, and scissors, and join him in building a monumental opus of urban art from home. As a way of going through lockdown in Madrid, Pejac recently revived his old concept of miniature window drawings interacting with the life outside. Moved by the fact that half of the world is also confined to their living space, he decided to launch an initiative on his social media. Through the #STAYARTHOMEPEJAC campaign, he is inviting people to join, explore their creativity, and make urban art from the safety of their homes by using the life outside as a source of inspiration and rich backdrop for the work. After only a few days the response of the public has been overwhelming with literally hundreds of submissions being sent in from more than 50 countries worldwide and counting. Reaching places all over Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Turkey, USA, Vietnam, Iran, India, Brazil, etc, the initiative is poetically standing up to the spreading of the virus. https://www.pejac.es/
Webcams continue to livestream daily life in countries around the world, whether people are out or not. Take a look, visit some places you have been to and those you plan to visit in the future – there are some beautiful beaches and natural sites, as well as different cities and visitor attractions: https://www.webcamtaxi.com/en/
Sounds from the global COVID-19 lockdown: With countless communities and countries around the world entering lockdown and social distancing to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, the world is at present a very different place. This Cities and Memories global, collaborative sound art and mapping project invites anyone around the world to send a sound recording. On the website, you can pan around the map of the world and hear what places sound like now: https://citiesandmemory.com/covid19-sounds/
