Art In The Time Of COVID-19

July 28, 2020Source
Herald tribune

Can’t get to the art? Cutting-edge art spaces bring the art to you online.

Visual art brings people together. For thousands of years, it’s been a human thing, a social thing, not a solitary pleasure.

That suddenly changed when the global pandemic forced most public art spaces to shut their doors. Now that virtual visits are the only option, museums and galleries around the planet have beefed up their online presence.

The new wave of digital art includes YouTube videos, virtual reality tours, slideshows, and instructional content. The wealth of online material is amazing — though it’s not all user-friendly.

My hunch? Before the pandemic, gallery owners and museum directors didn’t want to create virtual substitutes for actually visiting their art spaces. Now that real world visits are impossible, they’re beefing up their online presence as fast as they can with limited staffs. Most of these digital art spaces are still under construction — but it’s the state-of-the-art now. It takes patience to experience it. But now that you’ve got plenty of time on your hands, here’s some of the art you’ll find online:

Close to home

The Ringling has uploaded the bulk of its art to its online EMuseum. (emuseum/ringling/org/emusuem/collections) The pieces are arranged by collection and relatively easy to navigate. The museum is also expanding its online content for parents, kids and educators. “Learn from Home” programming is available at: ringling.org/learnfromhome. Social media: facebook.com/TheRingling or instagram.com/TheRingling.

Art Center Sarasota currently offers a video walk-though of “Javo: Javier Rodriguez,” and an online gallery of its “Off-the-Web” benefit exhibition of postcard created by local artists. Videos of its other current exhibitions will be uploaded shortly. Visit: artsarasota.org/currentexhibitions. Social media: facebook.com/ArtCenterSarasota or instagram.com/ArtCenterSarasota.

The Ringling College of Art and Design puts most of its digital eggs in the basket of social media. Visit facebook.com/RcadGallery or instagram.com/explore/tags/RinglingCollegeGalleries for links to photos, videos, gallery pages, and educational material. To connect to Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College, visit facebook.com/SarasotaArtMuseum or instagram.com/sarasotaartmuseum. To feast your eyes on more interesting content, sign up for the museum’s email list at SarasotaArtMuseum.org

The Dali Museum’s robust website offers a 360° tour of its galleries, with high-res close-ups and notes of select artworks. “Dreams of Dali” takes you inside a 3-D recreation of Dali’s unearthly “Archaeological Reminiscence of Millet’s Angelus.” This virtual reality experience lets you change you point of view as the video unfolds. The Dali Museum App also lets you take a walk on the surreal side via smartphone. Digital resources portal: thedali.org/the-dali-on-line. Social Media: facebook.com/theDaliMuseum or instagram.com/DaliMuseum.

National and international

Google Arts & Culture offers a portal to the collections of more than 2,500 global art spaces. The experience includes “street-view” walk-throughs and abundant collateral information (artsandculture.google.com). If that seems like too much information, don’t worry. Google’s website also narrows it down to their top 10 favorites. Here are ours:

Museum of Modern Art, New York City: artsandculture.google.com/partner/moma-the-museum-of-modern-art

The Art Institute of Chicagoartsandculture.google.com/partner/the-art-institute-of-chicago

National Gallery of Art, Washington DC: artsandculture.google.com/partner/national-gallery-of-art-washington-dc

The Louvre, Paris: louvre.fr/en/visites-en-ligne

Musée d’Orsay, Paris: artsandculture.google.com/partner/musee-dorsay-paris

Pergamon Museum, Berlin: artsandculture.google.com/entity/pergamon

The J. Paul Getty Museum, New York City: artsandculture.google.com/partner/the-j-paul-getty-museum

Uffizi Gallery, Florence: artsandculture.google.com/partner/uffizi-gallery

Guggenheim Museum, New York City: artsandculture.google.com/partner/solomon-r-guggenheim-museum

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam: artsandculture.google.com/partner/van-gogh-museum

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