Google Arts & Culture – Art and Culture from Around the World at Your Fingertips
Google Arts & Culture is a free application that allows you to explore art and culture from around the world. It is available for Android and iOS mobile platforms, as well as a website. The app has been downloaded by millions of people so far.
Google Arts & Culture offers the opportunity to explore over 2,000 cultural institutions in more than 80 countries worldwide. With this app, you can access art from prehistoric times to the present day. You can study artworks from around the world, virtually visit major galleries, and view numerous art exhibitions.
The Collections feature provides a list of world museums from which you can choose. You can search for museums by name or use Google Maps to find art locations near you. Google Arts & Culture allows searching for artworks based on different artistic styles, artist names, art movements, or materials used (such as canvas, ceramics, paper, metal, glass, wood, etc.). You can also explore historical periods like World Wars, the Cold War, or events like the 1968 protests. The app also offers the option to study the lives of historical figures.
Google Arts & Culture includes an artwork recognition feature. If you are virtually exploring a museum and take a photo or simply point your phone or tablet at an artwork, the app will recognize which artwork it is and who created it. If you are on a tourist trip somewhere new, you can use the “Nearby” option to see all nearby art locations on Google Maps.
In addition to providing information about artworks in museums and galleries using Google Street View technology, Google Arts & Culture allows you to learn about architectural structures or monuments visible at specific locations. By viewing photos in 360 degrees and moving through virtual space with Street View technology, you can identify architectural landmarks. Translated text buttons allow reading about famous exhibitions in your language. The museum tours and gallery visits curated by institution professionals are of high quality.
Besides educating yourself about art through this platform, Google Arts & Culture also offers entertainment features such as taking selfies or uploading photos that are matched with portraits in historical artworks similar to your selfie. You can insert your selfie into an image as well. Another option provided by the app is an Art Camera that enables studying artworks down to minute details with high-resolution zooming capabilities—an opportunity to explore techniques employed by artists or notice details not visible at first glance but potentially defining characteristics of a work.
Google Arts & Culture provides opportunities for education expansion while informing users about various aspects of culture and art while also delivering entertainment value. The application is user-friendly with a clear interface that covers everything comprehensively. Its availability on multiple widely-used platforms makes it convenient especially when used as a supplementary educational resource when surrounded by actual works of art. Finally, it’s worth noting that this application requires an internet connection, and preferably one with high-speed capabilities.
If there ever needs to be found a good reason for why internet should exist, the existence of such applications would be one!
The Download button provides you with a link to install the Android version of Google Arts & Culture. For the iOS version, click HERE.
Platform:
Android and iOS