Did you know that you can access art museum virtual field trips, tours, and resources from around the world for free? Why not take your students on virtual museum tours to the lavish Louvre in Paris? Or the majestic Metropolitan Museum of Art? Or any one of these historic art museums from around the world? Check out the list below to get started!
1. Benaki Museum
Located in Greece, the Benaki Museum features European and Asian pieces of artwork dating all the way back to prehistoric ages. In addition to having a massive collection of art you can explore virtually, the Benaki also offers audio tours for several of their larger exhibits. Our favorites include Chinese and Korean Art, Historic Heirlooms, and Childhood, Toys, and Games.
2. The Frick Collection
Frick, yeah! Click your way through this interactive map for a tour of the beautiful building and collections of art from the likes of Bellini, Rembrandt, Vermeer, and more.
3. The J. Paul Getty Museum
Explore thousands of items in the Getty’s collection with help from Google Arts & Culture. The J. Paul Getty Museum specifically has several interactive options for exploring their collection: a “museum view” virtual tour, three ebook-style online exhibits, and the library of over 15,000 collected pieces of art.
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4. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
The largest art museum in the western United States is offering art museum virtual field trips. Watch videos and museum walkthroughs, listen to soundtracks and live recordings, learn with online teaching resources and courses, browse their art collection, and more on LACMA’s redesigned website.
5. The Louvre
One of our favorite art museum virtual field trips—and the world’s large museum—is the Louvre with options for some of their best exhibition rooms and galleries. Explore rare Egyptian artifacts, iconic paintings, the beautiful structure of the building, and much more through their 360-degree viewing feature.
(NOTE: Several of these virtual tours require Flash Player.)
6. Metropolitan Museum of Art’s #MetKids
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (aka the Met) developed #MetKids for, with, and by kids—but we think parents and teachers will have just as much fun using it. Our favorite features include a fun and highly interactive map, a “time machine” search function, informational and how-to videos, and so much more.
7. Musée d’Orsay
Instantly transport to the middle of Paris with the Musée d’Orsay and their online tours and art collection. Here you can explore art history with the largest collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces from renowned artists such as Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, and many more.
8. Museo Frida Kahlo
Also known as La Casa Azúl (the Blue House), this historic art museum was developed where renowned artist Frida Kahlo lived and created masterpieces. While there, you can learn about her life, her art, and more as you take a virtual tour through her former residence.
9. The Museum of the World
The British Museum and Google Cultural Institute teamed up to create one of our favorite interactive projects: The Museum of the World. The British Museum’s digital art collection lets users travel through time—starting with 2,000,000 BC—while seeing how each historical piece in their collection connects with others. Wow!
10. The National Gallery
Click and scroll your way around the National Gallery in London with their three interactive virtual tour options. The National Gallery has hundreds of paintings in its collection ready to be viewed online, many of which are from the Renaissance period.
11. The National Gallery of Art
Washington D.C.’s National Gallery of Art has a wide variety of great educational resources, including video tours of their exhibitions, in-depth looks at the best pieces of their collection, downloadable learning resources and exercises, pre-recorded lectures by artists and curators, and more.
12. Pergamon Museum
One of Germany’s largest museums, Pergamon is home to a variety of ancient artifacts, including the Ishtar Gate of Babylon and the Pergamon Altar.
13. Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum is the museum of the Netherlands and contains an online collection of well over 160,000 items. Not only is their digital collection incredibly stocked, but it’s also one of the more immersive collections online today. In addition, we highly recommend you try their “stories” feature (shown above), which walks users through the story and emotions behind the artwork created.
14. San Diego Museum of Art
Step inside the San Diego Museum of Art from anywhere! Enjoy 360-degree scans of your favorite galleries, zoom in to see art details, and read full label text in both English and Spanish, all from the comfort of home.
15. San Francisco Museum of Modern Arts
The San Francisco MoMA offers exclusive content featuring artists and their work online. Watch videos, read articles, and more right on their website.
16. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation has several art museums around the world, which means more history to absorb virtually! Their Collection Online has over 1,700 diverse artworks by over renowned 600 artists—and it is definitely worth checking out as one of our top art museum virtual field trips!
17. Tate Modern: Andy Warhol Exhibit
The Tate Modern put together this video tour of their famous Andy Warhol exhibit. Museum curators Gregor Muir and Fiontán Moran talk in-depth about Andy Warhol and his work through the lens of the immigrant story, his LGBTQ identity, and more.
18. Uffizi Gallery
Here you’ll find the art collection of one of Florence, Italy’s most famous families, the de’Medicis. Wander the halls from any classroom!
19. The Van Gogh Museum
With an obvious focus on Vincent van Gogh, the Van Gogh Museum is home to the largest collection of van Gogh pieces in the world. The museum, virtual tours, ebook “stories,” and online collection dive into the life of van Gogh and the inspiration behind his art. Moreover, we think teachers everywhere will appreciate how big a fan he was of reading books!
20. The Vatican Museums
You can finally say you’ve seen the Sistine Chapel thanks to this online program! And, you can also virtually visit the Raphael Rooms, the Chiaramonti Museum, and more historic sites through these virtual tours by the Vatican Museums.
Did we miss one of your favorite art museum virtual field trips? Share them with us, and we might just add it to this list!
Also, check out the Best Field Trip Ideas for Every Age and Interest (Virtual Options Too!)
