Virtual museums and their place in a pandemic.

Like many of you, my life has been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Museums have closed around the world. As I have a degree in Museum Studies and volunteer at several museums, I feel this change very strongly.

Museums are historically buildings that people visit to explore culture and history on their own terms through interactive exhibits, information panels, and material objects.

The onset of the pandemic has caused the development of a new form of cultural exploration- Virtual museums. If you look on twitter you will notice that a trending topic is #museumfromhome

 The tag “museumfromhome is interesting because there are so many interpretations of what a museum can be. You will see posts from famous institutions such as the Van Gogh Museum and the National Gallery of Art to Botanical Gardens posting history about plants. Many people have adapted to sharing “information bites” in a short format so it can fit in the twitter word count. All these interpretations are the same in that they make history available to the public and connect that history to something visual.

I looked for a definition of virtual museum online, and every definition says the same thing: 

a digital entity that draws on the characteristics of a museum, in order to complement, enhance, or augment the museum experience through personalization, interactivity and richness of content.

I think in this time we are all looking for some sense of normalcy, so I’m going to talk about how exploring these museums virtually is similar to physically viewing them. For one thing, the historical information that you crave from museums is the same in terms of content.

Also, when you visit a museum visitors can also be secure in the knowledge that they can “choose their own adventure” so-to-speak. Often you can ask for a guide, download an app to guide your experience, rent audio accompaniments, or simply explore the museum in silence. Personally I am one of those people that reads every information panel, but I know others that find other ways of exploring a museum just as enriching. The main point is that you take what you want out of the exhibit, which is exactly what virtual museums offer. All the information is there for consumption if you so desire. 

I would personally recommend any exhibit hosted by Google Arts and Culture. An example is the Musee D’Orsay in Paris. There is a short description of the history of the museum, and an online exhibit. Looking at museums through exhibits is one way of exploration, and certainly what you would expect in a physical museum. Another way of exploring is through type of art (modern art, oil paint, etc), or by choosing a specific colour. If you have a specific preference for the colour blue, then you can simply look at paintings and objects of that colour. Usually one cannot explore a museum in those ways physically, unless the museum was specifically set up that way. Google Arts and Culture also hosts that immensely popular app that allows you to take a photo of yourself and find paintings that resemble your face. Apps are usually an accompaniment to a physical museum and offer fun ways of exploration.

Another virtual museum I would recommend is the British Museum. The layout of this virtual museum is quite similar to the physical museum. I recall being there last year and having to wait in a line to go through security before I entered the building. Clearly this is not something you have to do if you visit the museum virtually. Additionally, the virtual museum is laid out in a similar way as the physical museum. Their online format is laid out as a tour around the world: Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, Oceania. You can specify a certain time period or theme as well. I would say that the British Museum offers the conventional way of presenting history. You will see that the most recent collections fall under the art and design theme.

What is missing from these exhibits is the physical aspect, which is certainly something we are all missing in this time. Looking at a museum object online is not the same as viewing a museum object in person. At a museum, there is often only a sheet of protective glass separating you from material culture.  You may not be able to touch it but it’s there in front of you.

Museums in this time have definitely gone out of their way to replace the missing physical aspect though. For example, some museums are extraordinary for their physical structure, but have made that available in virtual format as well. My last recommendation for now is the Goggenheim Museum, which has an online format that still allows visitors to experience its spiral staircase in a Google street view format. You can choose an object and see your position to the staircase in relation to that object

The desire to experience culture and be with people is in our bones. Nothing can replace that. I will be with every single one of you waiting for the museums and cultural centers to open again. But until then, be comforted in the fact that everything you want from museums is still there. It is just a matter of expanding your mind and exploring in a different format, which is really all that museums ask from you anyway.

Websites mentioned

Musee D'Orsay: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/musee-dorsay-paris
British Museum: https://britishmuseum.withgoogle.com/
Guggenheim Museum: https://artsandculture.google.com/streetview/solomon-r-guggenheim-museum-interior-streetview/jAHfbv3JGM2KaQ?sv_lng=-73.95902634325634&sv_lat=40.78285751667664&sv_h=11&sv_p=0&sv_pid=MfnUmHRyOSzMtY3vtYU05g&sv_z=1
Other photos taken from twitter. Credit goes to them.