Traveling the world with Google’s Art Project

First of all, I love art. I may not know the history behind it or the context within which it should be viewed, but I certainly love to look at it. From historical paintings such as Diego Velázquez’ The Surrender of Breda to Salvador Dalí’s surrealist masterpiece The Persistence of Memory, to even those modern works of art that don’t seem to have any real meaning, I find art to be beautiful and intriguing.

Unfortunately, I’ve only been able to visit a limited number of museums in my lifetime, which include those in Boston and Madrid. And yes, I know many people would think it a great privilege to have been able to go to museums in Madrid. But when I think about the sheer number of museums that exist all over the world, I cannot help but wish I could see more.

Visiting the world’s finest art museums – virtually

Given that I have limited funds and am not the world’s biggest globe-trotter, I’ll probably never see many more than the few museums I’ve already visited. That’s why it is so great that Google has just launched their new Google Art Project. It’s meant to both expose and enrich the lives of those who have not had the opportunity to visit the various art museums across the world, as well as entice its viewers to visit the museums that they can.

If you have ever used Google Maps and its brilliant Street View technology, then you already have a good idea of how the Google Art Project works. When you visit the site, you can take a 360° virtual tour of selected galleries from 17 art museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, National Gallery in London, and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

More than just a pretty picture

The project has made available over 1,000 pieces of art, 17 of which are available in high resolution – around 7 billion pixels! You can see every detail that the artists put into their work—something you would not be able to see in a museum. (Even though only 17 paintings are viewable in high resolution, most of the paintings can be seen at a very good resolution and look amazing.) When inside the virtual museums, you can either navigate the interactive floor plans or simply browse through the list of available paintings.

Google’s Art Project even information about about the painting itself, the artist, and the museum. Depending upon how much information the museums shared with Google, you can browse through the viewing notes, which give you some context about the painting and the artist, information about the artist, a list of other work by the artist included in the Art Project, as well as more paintings in that particular museum. You can even go to the Art Project’s YouTube channel to see a variety of videos featuring the project’s works of art.

Create your own art gallery

Another cool feature of the Art Project is that you are able to create your own collection. You pick and choose your favorite works of art and add them to your collection so you never have to go searching for them again. You can keep them all in one place for easier viewing later. You can add comments to each painting and then you can share the entire collection with friends and family.

How great is it that Google has developed this new high-tech art project? Now, everyone with internet access will be able to view and enjoy art from around the globe, opening up a whole new world of intellectual, educational, and entertaining opportunities for those who could previously not afford to visit a museum. What is even wilder is that the techies at Google came up with this idea on their days off as part of Google’s 20% project, which encourages engineers to dedicate their one day off every week to projects that interest them.

Evann McGrory is an intern at Mom Central Consulting.

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