Google Arts and Culture

Google Arts and Culture launched in 2011 as result of a 20% time project from Googler Amit Sood. The idea was to make important cultural materials more available and accessible to people from around the world and to digitally preserve these materials to educate and inspire future generations.

Google originally partnered with 17 museums in 9 countries. Within a year the project expanded to include 150 museums in 40 countries. That number has risen to over 1000 partners!

The original name was the Google Art Project and the idea was pretty simple. Google Streetview technology would be used to capture images inside of museums to create virtual tours where people could walk through different galleries in museums from around the world. Visitors could zoom in on paintings and view a variety of facts about the different works. During the years since its inception, the project has expanded and evolved to include much more than art. During the next week, we will take a look at different aspects of this fantastic project and I will share some ideas for using it with students across grade levels.

Exploring History, Art, and World Wonders Online

The Google Cultural Institute is one of my favorite sites for students in history, geography, and art courses. The online exhibitions in the Google Cultural Institute feature art, videos, audio, and text about significant historical and cultural people, places, museums, and events. Some of the exhibitions like the Eiffel Tower Exhibition incorporate the use of Google Maps Street View imagery too.

The Google Cultural Institute is divided into three main categories; World Wonders, Historic Moments, and Art Project. In all three categories you can compare items using the built-in comparison tools that allow you to select items throughout a collection to view them side-by-side. You can also build galleries of favorite images. (A Google Account is required in order to do those things).


Applications for Education
The Google Cultural Institute is a great site to have students explore to view artwork, find answers to questions, and have new questions and curiosities sparked in their minds.

A fun extension to browsing the Google Art Project is found in Hangout Quest on Google+. Hangout Quest is a game that allows you to go on a virtual scavenger hunt inside the Palace of Versailles. The object of the scavenger hunt is to find artwork and other objects in the palace. If you invite others to your Hangout you can compete against them in a race to find the objects first. Hangout Quest uses the Street View imagery of Google Maps to bring you inside the Palace of Versailles. Another cool piece of technology added to Hangout Quest is facial tracking. The facial tracking technology allows you to move around in the Palace of Versailles by just moving your head instead of clicking around with your mouse.

Check Out the New Look of the Google Art Project

The Google Art Project is one of my favorite offerings from Google that isn't a productivity tool. The Google Art Project features artwork from dozens of famous museums all over the world. The Google Art Project takes inside the museum with Street View imagery. This week the Google Art Project received some updates that make it easier to find works of art. You can now search according to artist, location, and date. Watch the video below for an overview of how to use the site.


Applications for Education
The latest version of the Google Art Project includes an option to compare two works of art. There is still an option to create your own artwork collection while visiting each museum. Have your students combine the use of these tools to compare works of art as part of analysis/ critique assignments.

7 Good Virtual Tours for Students

You might not be able to take your students on field trips to all of the places that they learn about in your classroom, but thanks to the web you can take them on virtual trips to many neat places. Here are some of the virtual tours that I've explored over the years.

It seems like every week Google adds more Street View imagery to Google Maps. Through Street View students can take tours inside the White House, visit research stations in Antarctica, virtually hike the Grand Canyon, or go under water to explore the Great Barrier Reef. Some of these places are featured in the Google World Wonders Project.


View Larger Map

The Google Art Project uses Street View technology to take you inside dozens of famous museums. An extension of this is Hangout Quest on Google+. Hangout Quest is a game that allows you to go on a virtual scavenger hunt inside the Palace of Versailles. The object of the scavenger hunt is to find artwork and other objects in the palace. If you invite others to your Hangout you can compete against them in a race to find the objects first. Hangout Quest uses the Street View imagery of Google Maps to bring you inside the Palace of Versailles. Another cool piece of technology added to Hangout Quest is facial tracking. The facial tracking technology allows you to move around in the Palace of Versailles by just moving your head instead of clicking around with your mouse.

You might not be able to take your students on a field trip to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, but you can take them on a nice virtual tour of the museum. The museum's virtual tours are 3D panoramas of the rooms of the museum. As you go through each room you can click on small camera icons to get a closer look at various museum artifacts.

History Buff is a neat website that teachers of US History should spend some time exploring. One of the best features of History Buff is a set of fifteen narrated panoramic tours of interesting and significant historic sites. Some of the panoramas you will find in the collection include Davy Crockett's childhood home, Appomattox Courthouse, Thomas Edison's birthplace, and Valley Forge.

The Vatican Museums website hosts a fairly detailed virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel. The tour allows visitors to zoom in on small areas and details of the interior of the Sistine Chapel. Visitors on the virtual tour can turn 360 degrees to view the interior of the Sistine Chapel from various angles. In addition to the tour of the Sistine Chapel the Vatican Museums host virtual tours of five other places and exhibits. Those tours are the Gregorian Egyptian Museum, the Gregorian Etruscan Museum, Raphael's Rooms, Pinacoteca, and the Ethnological Missionary Museum.

The Virtual JFK Museum Tour takes you to view exhibits and artifacts in the museum. The tour is narrated and in some cases you hear Kennedy's voice. The tour is divided into major themes and events of Kennedy's presidency including his campaign, the Peace Corps, and the Space Race. The tour also includes some information about Bobby Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy.

Darwin, A Naturalist's Voyage is an outstanding virtual tour of Charles Darwin's nearly five year journey on the Beagle. Darwin, A Naturalist's Voyage has fourteen segments chronicling Darwin's voyage from start to finish. Throughout the tour viewers will see sketches from the journey, hear readings from Darwin's journals, and learn about the journey as a whole. The virtual tour is not limited to just Darwin's work as a naturalist. Darwin, A Naturalist's Voyage explores social issues of the time such as slavery.

Teaching Art Online and Other Art Talks on Google+

When Google launched the the Google Art Project in 2011 I said that it was a "must bookmark" for art teachers. Then in 2012 it improved again by adding Street View imagery for dozens of museums featured in the project. Today, Google announced another offering through the Google Art Project. Google is now offering Art Talks on Google+. The talks will be held as Google+ Hangouts On Air.

The first talk in the Art Talks on Google+ series is happening on this Wednesday, March 6 at 8pm ET. The talk will be held with the Museum of Modern Art and the topic is teaching art online. Anyone can join the Hangout. If you have a question that you would like to ask in advance, you can submit it here.

Applications for Education
One the best parts of the Art Project powered by Google is the option to create your own artwork collection while visiting each museum. As you're touring a museum click on the "+" symbol on any work of art see it in greater detail, to add it to your collection, and to open background information about that work of art. You could have your students go on an art scavenger hunt to create collections of art according to a theme, time period, or artist.

Collaboratively Create Animations on This Exquisite Forest

This Exquisite Forest is an online art project developed by Tate Modern and Google. This Exquisite Forest is a site for collaboratively creating animated stories. The stories are called trees and the story starters are called seeds. There are ten public trees that you can make contributions to. You can also create your own seeds and invite others to grow a tree with you. To create your own seeds you do have to contribute to an existing tree first.

Applications for Education
This Exquisite Forest could be a good site for students to use to work together to create animated stories. If you have students who don't fancy themselves as artists you might have students work in groups in which some students write and outline of the story and others do the drawing of the story.

To use This Exquisite Forest you will need to be using an updated modern browser like Chrome or the latest version of Firefox. 

Go On a Virtual Art Scavenger Hunt in the Google Art Project

One of the most exciting things released by Google in 2011 was the Google Art Project. Yesterday, Google announced a huge expansion of the collections that visitors can view in the Google Art Project. The Google Art Project now contains more than 30,000 images from 151 museums in 40 countries. Of those 151 museums there is now Street View imagery for 46 museums.

For the museums that have Street View imagery just look for the Pegman and drag it to the museum in order to virtually tour it using the same interface style you experience in Google Maps Streetview. Inside the museum just double click to zoom to a location. You can also open a floor plan overview and click on a room to navigate to that part of the museum.

Learn how to navigate the Google Art Project in the video below.


Applications for Education
One of the best parts of the Art Project powered by Google is the option to create your own artwork collection while visiting each museum. As you're touring a museum click on the "pencil and clipboard" icon on any work of art to add it to your collection. To create a collection you must be signed into your Google account. You could have your students go on an art scavenger hunt to create collections of art according to a theme, time period, or artist.

Art Teachers, You Have to See This!

Art Project powered by Google is a site that I learned about from Larry Ferlazzo. If you're an art teacher, you have to go check it out! The Art Project powered by Google features interior tours of seventeen world famous art museums.

Select a museum from the list on the homepage and you can virtually tour it using the same interface style you experience in Google Maps Streetview. Inside the museum just double click to zoom to a location. You can also open a floor plan overview and click on a room to navigate to that part of the museum.

The best part of the Art Project powered by Google is the option to create your own artwork collection while visiting each museum. As you're touring a museum click on the "+" symbol on any work of art see it in greater detail, to add it to your collection, and to open background information about that work of art. To create a collection you must be signed into your Google account.

Watch the video below to learn more about the Art Project powered by Google.


Applications for Education
The Art Project powered by Google looks to be a fantastic reference for students and teachers of art. When I was a middle school student I remember having to endure looking at art and listening to my teacher lecture about artwork that was of no interest to me. If I had been given the opportunity to explore a reference like the Art Project powered by Google, I may have been a little interested in the class and perhaps have learned something about the art I discovered on my own.