In March and April 2020, the Italian Government has promoted #Istayathome/#Cultureneverstops, a social information campaign in the midst of coronavirus emergency, to which Minister Dario Franceschini joined with MiBACT. Museums, temporary exhibitions, theaters, galleries have offered virtual tours, conferences, shows, lectures, podcasts, etc. through their sites and social channels. Minister Dario Franceschini, given the success of the initiative, has decided to continue in this direction by proposing a “culture Netflix,” a paid streaming platform to save the culture sector from the economic crisis born of the coronavirus. It is an initiative that, according to Franceschini, could continue after the emergency.
In recent weeks I have followed many of these initiatives for the US-Italy Global Affairs Forum and have recommended them on our social channels. This is the first of a series of blog posts in which I will be sharing the most interesting of these. Contributing posts about museums in the US will be Karen Jackson, a podcast producer and host of “A Long Look: Slow Art at the National Gallery.”
Before starting, take a look at these 3 platforms
On the GOOGLE ART AND CULTURE platform you can spend a day exploring several museums’s virtual tours. You can download a free app for Android or iOS or visit their site. They feature 79.000 sites in Italy and 1.300.000 in United States as well as 2000 virtual tours.
Take your time to visit virtually Castello Sforzesco of Milan: its secret routes and discover masterpieces of the civic collections preserved in its rooms. You will find 8 thematic stories and 288 insights on individual artworks written by Castle experts, 12 virtual tours that will allow you to preview the Castle and better plan your visit. Each element is indexed, providing links to other works and museums.
ITALYART is a platform where you can explore the Italian artistic and cultural heritage to 360°: Churches, Castles, Monuments and Museums such as the National Archeologic Museum of Venezia, or Museo of the 900 in Milano, Royal Castel of Racconigi, Trevi Fountain etc.
You can check out many other museums (just as mighty) on YOUTUBE Channel. Videos made in the past have been living a new age. Now are shared everywhere: on social media, on sites, by whats app, messenger, email ecc.
These YouTube channels provide a relaxing break where you can discover the best of Italian museums. For example, watch the Rick Steves’s videos about the Borghese Gallery in Rome or Pompei (Steves is America’s most respected authority on European travel).
Explore Royal Palace of Caserta, Galleria degli Uffizi in Florenze, Peggy Guggenheim Museum-Collection in Venice. Take some time to get to know Cerruti Villa, one of the most important collections in Europe: a new expansion of the contemporary art museum Castello di Rivoli near Torino. The collection features masterpieces by Sassetta, Bernardo Daddi and Pontormo, Renoir, Modigliani, Kandinsky, Klee, Boccioni, Balla and Magritte, Bacon, Burri, Warhol, De Dominicis and Paolini.
Check out on youtube masterpieces as Apollo e Daphne by Lorenzo Bernini atthe Galleria Borgese in Rome or the Raphael Rooms at the Vatican Museums.
The museums’s online offerings are boundless, therefore it is easy to lose yourself in these virtual explorations!
So let’s keep in touch, soon Karen and I will give you news from Museums
Thanks for the images in the poster @unspalsh
Museum Gipsoteca Antonio Canova, Treviso, Italy ©Matteo Maretto
Vatican Museum, Rome, Italy @AlessioLin
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, USA @MickHaupt
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The United States @Tommi Selander
National Gallery of Art, Washington, United States @RyanSpencer
