Museums and arts and cultural organizations across the country have shut their physical doors to the public, but have opened virtual windows for people to see what’s inside from the comfort of their homes.
Here are the places offering virtual Museum tours both in Massachusetts and around the U.S. If you know of a Museum offering this that isn’t listed here, let us know in the comments!
North Shore and Boston Virtual Museums
- Peabody Essex Museum
The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts has been operating since the 1800’s and has been bringing residents and visitors unique exhibits and pieces the entire time. Including works and pieces from all around the world, the Peabody Essex Museum has a wide sampler of their collections of paintings and pieces to view on their website.
- Salem Witch Museum
The Salem Witch Museum’s website offers a virtual tour of key locations in Essex and Middlesex counties during the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692. The major locations in Salem, Boston, Danvers and more are all included and presented with enough reading to keep you entertained for hours. - Museum of Fine Arts Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts Boston Youtube channel offers hours upon hours of content, ranging from talks about specific works, various movements, conservation efforts, exhibits and more. You can also view the museum’s large collection via the official website.
Google Arts and Culture “Street Views”
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 1200 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world’s treasures online.
- Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum – Boston
- Museum of Fine Arts – Boston
Across the U.S
- National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Partnering with Google Arts & Culture, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC has uploaded a massive collection of over 40,000 works. Enjoy works by the old masters, modern artists such as Monet and explore current exhibitions on vintage fashion, and the works and influence of Johannes Vermeer.
- Guggenheim
The Guggenheim Museum offers online tours, artist profiles and interviews with museum staff about various works and exhibitions. You can view an abridged online collection of over 1,000 works by over 600 artists, including pieces by Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso and more.
- Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian)
The Museum of Natural History in the Smithsonian offers free virtual tours of their current exhibitions, ranging from geology, ancient Egypt, the currently topical epidemics and many more.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
The MET offers free tours and a massive online collection of artwork. Featuring over 5000 years of art, over 200,000 works and 28 exhibitions, you can get lost for hours exploring and reading as if you were actually there.
- The Art Institute of Chicago
You can take an online tour of the Art Institute of Chicago and view iconic works by Georges Seurat, photographs and paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe, and over 260,000 other works by countless artists from every era. Whether you fancy old religious renaissance works by El Greco or the dreamy impressionism of Manet, the Art Institute of Chicago will keep you plenty busy.
International Museum Experiences
- Uffizi Gallery: Florence, Italy
The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, offers a virtual tour, as well as a digital version of their entire collection. While famous for displaying legendary Italian renaissance and baroque paintings, the Uffizi Gallery offers a wide variety of other European works, as well as some virtual exhibitions.
- Musée d’Orsay, Paris
The Musée d’Orsay in Paris has a lovely collection of primarily French art dating from 1848 to 1914. Hosting the largest collection of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings in the world as well as countless other important works, the Musée d’Orsay is a museum you shouldn’t miss out on.
- The State Hermitage Museum, Sankt-Peterburg, Russia
The State Hermitage Museum in Russia has a massive collection of over 3 million exhibits, ranging from paintings, sculptures, crafts and more. It’s the second largest art museum in the world, and with that many works to enjoy and explore, there’ll always be something for you to enjoy.
- National Gallery of Victoria, Australia
You can take a virtual tour of some of the current displays at the National Gallery of Victoria in Australia, or check out their expanded collection on their website. They have approximately 75,000 pieces from all around the world, offering photography, painting, contemporary art and more.
- Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam houses a massive collection of 80 galleries and 8,000 objects, though it has over a million objects in its collection. Check out masterpieces by Rembrandt, Vermeer and countless other Dutch masters, or get lost in the thousands of images they’ve uploaded online.
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