In this post I will give you 5 incredible online art galleries to explore.

Regardless if you want your child or a teen to be entertained or you want to get some solid art history experience and lessons.

I’m not going to hide the fact that I am an Art History graduate. And this is the main reason why you find a lot about art on my blog. Not only I explore the word of art in real life, but also virtually like online art galleries and museums. So, I put together this short list of most inspirational, fun, educative and informative online art galleries for you to discover.

Keep reading.

Art heritage is now made so easy to access. Online art galleries are for everybody. It’s almost hard to believe that thousands of art pieces is there available for you for free!

For college students, art teachers and educators. Art aficionado or designer. It’s there for you, ready to discover. 

Let’s explore:

1.Google Arts & Culture. So much more than an online art gallery.

https://artsandculture.google.com

Description of Google Arts & Culture Project

For almost a decade Google works on publishing the art online. Formerly known as the Google Art Project, now Google Arts & Culture publish online art gallery of word’s heritage. And it’s not only art that is exhibited. Also photography archives, folk craft and high fashion clothes.

And even footwear, toys and action figures are now part of this online gallery collection. And the list continues and is counted in millions….In other words, Google created a kind of a ‘memory box’ of our civilization.

NUMBERS: over 6 mlns*

CONTENT: paintings, graphics, photography, sculptures, craft, fashion

FORMAT: HD images, videos, street view tours

PROFILE: Educational, Entertaining, Experimenting, Fun

FOR: students, teachers, instructors, facilitators, kids and adults, art maniacs and art ignorant

Features. What to expect and discover? Limitless combinations of online art galleries to explore.

Virtual Gallery View

You can take a walk along the most famous museums like The Uffizi. This Virtual Gallery View can finally lead you to particular art piece hang on the wall.

Art Zoom

Finally, Google photographed artworks inch by inch, you can have a closer look at it. there you are, this Microscopic View is pretty impressive. Certainly, it changes the way we can absorb and discover art. And I mean, it is much more available and open to anybody interested in broadening their horizons. I wouldn’t hesitate to describe it as a goldmine for historical, cultural, sociological information

Art and Culture Experiments

Available: desktop and mobile version

Why to Explore: For fun, education, design research and knowledge

Google knows that learning these days must be attractive and immersive. That is why they developed The Experiments with Google. And it is exactly what it says on the tin – a serious of experiments online and virtual. You are invited to explore art, design and the creative thought behind it.

Let’s take example of The Runway Palette or The Art Palette , two super fun to explore.

Art Palette

How it works?

First, you upload a photo of your choice or select a ‘surprise me’ option.

Then, the algorithm finds, let’s say, art pieces with similar colour palette used. You have to check it yourself, to discover that the search engine and the matching results are impressive.

I’m not sure what is the practical use of it but for academic and entertainment purposes it works brilliantly. Check it out.

X Degrees of Separation

Available: desktop

Why to Explore: For fun, education, design research and knowledge

I want to highlight this app. Personally, I find it the most intriguing and literally mind-blowing experiment. And here it is how it works.

Second, you wait for the matching results.

Then, you can check how the algorithms created this match. And the matching comes from analysing the composition lines, colours, shades etc.

You have to do it, it’s super fun!

Art Selfie. Find your art twin from another century.

Available: IOS (Itunes) and Android (Google Play) app 

Why to Explore: For fun and knowledge

You probably heard about this one, as it went viral some time ago. This fancy app matches your face features with the art image from the online collections.

Art Selfie

How it works?

Just upload your picture and wait for the results.

You never know, this could be a potential life discovery for you. 

2. The SmARThistory. The Art History online.

www.smarthistory.org

Description

You must know that this platform is tailored for academic use. Because SmARThistory is an official provider for an Art History classes for the Khan Academy (online course provider).

CONTENT: paintings, graphics, photography, articles and bibliography

FORMAT: HD images, videos, guided videos

PROFILE: Educational, Informational

FOR: students, teachers, instructors, facilitators, teenagers and adults, art enthusiasts, art industry

Features – easy journey through the art history.

Maybe you think that the academic profile makes it a bit too difficult. As a matter of fact, it is a very easy journey through the art history. For instance, they focus on art history in a broad perspective. Like how to understand it in the cultural, religious and historical context.

What is more, it gives thorough introduction to the art students beginners and they do it in a really interesting way. The format of a casual chat in the art gallery space or a museum is far from the conventional art lecture. And SmARThistory video lectures are just like that – light conversations between historians full of anecdotical facts as well as the core a subject information.

Short courses about artists, themes, art genres. Anything and everything. Like this one – How to paint like Picasso.

SmART Commons.

Available: desktop

Why to explore? For education, academic research and knowledge

If you ever wondered ‘What is the benefit of learning art online?’ or about ‘The technology in the art history’ you found the perfect place to explore it. Yes, this section is rather targeted at the specific audience. It will interest all academics as well as technology researchers.

Life webinars on selected subjects. Like this one – Girl with Unicorn by Rafael.

3. Getty Centre

https://primo.getty.edu

Description.

To start, let’s mention that the Getty Trust is one of the wealthiest art institution at present. And thanks to J. Paul Getty, an American oil tycoon whose art collection started the Getty Collection. Half a century later, The Trust’s activity spreads over the Conservation Institute, Research Institute, Library Resources. I mentioned it all to illustrate the range of information available freely online.

NUMBERS: over 6 mlns*

CONTENT: paintings, graphics, photography, sculptures, craft, fashion

FORMAT: HD images, videos, podcast 

PROFILE: Educational, Informational

FOR: students, teachers, instructors, facilitators, teenagers, art enthusiasts

Features – online art galleries (temporary and permanent exhibitions) and tones of solid knowledge.

The Getty Centre offers impressive materials online to promote visual arts and create the knowledge. Videos, publications and podcast about the art, artists and art movements are easily designed to help you jumping from one topic to another.

Online Art Gallery Exhibitions – tones of solid knowledge

Available: desktop

Why to Explore ? For education. As a complementary online gallery to the exhibition in the Museum. Also practical for tourists.

Yes, Getty runs an online exhibitions. One of them is the story of Bauhaus, the German design school. Really, really worth your time. Excellent educational material, no doubts.

Yes, Getty runs an online exhibitions. One of them is the story of Bauhaus, the German design school. Really, really worth your time. Excellent educational material, no doubts.

Have a look over there as the story takes you from school’s activity from Weimar to Dessau and Berlin. Then, you explore the main artists, and principles with interactive exercise to follow.

 Cool Interactive Exercise – Match the colour to the shape

How it works?

So, to get involved in the Bauhaus subject, you can try this interactive activity. In few seconds, and without any additional apps you can check how you match color with shape  and then compare it Kandisnky’s form and colour theory.

4. Europeana Collections

https://www.europeana.eu/portal/en

Description.

In the case of this collection, dozens of European Museum came together and shared their collections online. As well as art pieces, the online gallery expands to the industrial heritage, archaeology, crafts and furniture.

NUMBERS: nearly 60 millions

CONTENT: artworks, artefacts, books, films, music

FORMAT: HD images, videos

PROFILE: Educational, Informational

FOR: students, teachers, instructors, facilitators, museums and galleries, kids and adults, art maniacs and art ignorants

Features of European art collection

Overall, this web site gives you plenty of educational content sorted in a different categories. Let’s take example of art, you can follow the art genre, artists or particular collections. Besides the visual content, there is much more to discover. For instance, like the back scenes how the collection is being created digitally (Europeana Pro) and educational games like Art Stories app or Gif IT Up. See the examples below.

GIF It Up

Available: desktop

Why to Explore ? For fun and education. Especially kids

Interesting fact is that some of the images from the Europeana Collections are copyrights free. For this reason, you are can legally experiment with available art pieces, photographs etc. to create your own masterpiece.

How it works?

And with Giphy application you can transform the existing image into the GIF format. It means, you are in fact creating an animated and altered format of the original image. Some of the examples are seriously crafty and creative and you can check them on the GIF It UP website.

I think it is super great idea to involve kids to have fun and learn about the heritage.

5. Paris Museum Collections

http://parismuseescollections.paris.fr/en

Description.

Now, this online gallery is the real ‘fresh out of the press’. And because it it was launched only in January 2020. Among twelve different museums that collaborated in this project you won’t find the giants like The Louvre or Musee d’Orsay. But you will find different smaller museums that range from the modern art through the literature to the Catacombs. You can explore more than 3 millions of different works: paintings or drawings but also photography, crafts, fashion and archived documents.

NUMBERS: over 3 millions

CONTENT: paintings, graphics, photography, sculptures, craft, fashionartworks, artefacts, artisanal

FORMAT: 2D and HD images, videos

FOR: tourists, francophiles, students, teachers, educators

Features

Important to mention that, the majority of the content is available in French, English and Spanish. Some of the videos may be available only in French.

Good to know that the majority of the collection’s images presented are under the (CC0) Creative Commons Zero licence. So if you see icons CC and 0 next to the image, it means that they can be downloaded in a HD format and used legally (mention museum’s credit).

See the example of this poster from the French Cabaret Folies Bergere you can even print, frame and hang in the living room.

Online Art Gallery Exhibition

Available: desktop

Why to Explore ? For education. Also practical for tourists.

There are few interesting online exhibitions to discover. Let’s see the example of the The Focus on Paris 1900.

It is truly the presentation of Paris at its best. Its is an amazing story about the French capital of 1900, the year of Exhibition Universal.

An international expo, that showcased Art Nouveau, stain glass design, jewellery and paintings of all new ‘isms’ and ‘innovations of the century’.

Well, yes there are few more interesting online exhibition to explore. You can follow an online exhibition of ‘Light and Shade’, the story of the workshop graphics. Or you can choose to a masterpiece in a minute like this Claude Monet Winter landscape video from Petit Palais Collection.

In most cases video material is usually in French. But still, I think it’s useful to get to know what’s interesting to see if you plan to visit Paris. Or if you’re simply mad about this place.

I hope you find something interesting for you in this article. Share your favourite online galleries or tell me if you find another one.

Thanks for reading.

Gosia