Google Arts and Culture is a massive collection of videos and images of cultural artifacts from over 2,000 museums around the world. But virtually visiting art exhibits is just one of the many things you can do with Google Arts and Culture. From virtually displaying life-sized art inside your house to playing in a blob opera, Google Arts and Culture runs an impressive gamut of ways to explore cultural from your own home or classroom.
The Google Arts and Culture App
Looking for some fun offline art adventure activities?
Google Arts and Culture partnered with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam to bring you a downloadable activity book filled with coloring games, connect the dots and mazes.
Here are 10 things you didn't know you could do with Google Arts and Culture.
1. Take a talking tour
Experience a personalized, AI-powered audio guide as you virtually wander through world-famous landmarks in Street View. Simply select a location like the Taj Mahal or Machu Picchu, and Google AI will narrate your journey and answer your specific questions about what you're seeing in real-time.
2. Say what you see
Master the art of image prompting by describing what you see in AI-generated artwork to reach a "visual threshold." As the levels get harder, you'll learn how to use more precise language to communicate with AI and improve your visual literacy.
3. Learn everything!
Turn any photo of a common object into a springboard for learning complex academic subjects. Using Google AI, this experiment uses your picture as a visual metaphor to explain topics like quantum mechanics or biology in a fun, relatable way.
4. Explore art from all angles
Step inside the action with immersive virtual reality tours of the world’s most iconic landmarks and museums. From walking through a space shuttle to standing in the middle of a world-class opera, these videos offer a front-row seat to global culture.
5. Play Geo Artwork
Think you know where the world’s most famous treasures come from? This global guessing game tests your knowledge by asking you to pin the original locations of famous paintings, artifacts, and landmarks on a map.
6. Learn about Mayan Culture with a video game & podcast
Embark on an interactive adventure back to ancient Mesoamerica to recover a stolen artifact. This "Zelda-style" educational game lets you explore historical landscapes and learn about Mayan and Aztec cultures while completing quests. Pair this game with The Mayan Crystal podcast from GZM Media for a full experience.
7. Go on a global adventure
Follow Hopper the Penguin on an AI-illustrated travel adventure across Europe’s most famous landmarks. This whimsical experiment uses generative AI to create a unique visual journey while teaching you about the geography and culture of each stop.
8. Watch historic photos come to life
Watch static history come to life as archival photography from the Harley-Davidson Museum is animated using AI video technology. The experiment pairs these moving images with vintage-style radio broadcasts to tell the story of American motorcycling.
9. Create a One Minute Guide
Get a crash course on art movements tailored specifically to your personal interests, like "Impressionism for foodies." These AI-generated guides summarize complex art history into quick, digestible bites that take just sixty seconds to read.
10. Guess the Odd One Out
Sharpen your eye in this fast-paced game where you must spot the "imposter" among a gallery of masterpieces. You have limited time to distinguish authentic historical artworks from those generated by Google AI.
11. Explore pocket galleries
With the Google Arts and Culture app, you can explore some of the world's best art right from your own home or classroom. Pocket galleries use augmented reality to allow you to wander through a virtual art exhibit. Learn how to discover a virtual gallery in your pocket.
12. Color famous artwork
One of the fun Google Arts and Culture experiments is the Art Coloring Book. Choose from many famous images to color. You can download and print the image to color or paint offline or you can color the image digitally using the creative canvas. You can share your finished artwork on social media or directly to Google Classroom.
13. Take an art selfie
Have you ever wondered which artwork looks like you? Well you can find out with the Art Selfie interactive experience in the Google Arts and Culture app. Just install the app, take a selfie and you will search through thousands of pieces of art to see if any look like you.
14. Play in a blob opera
A ridiculously fun machine learning experiment by David Li, the blob opera lets you create, record and share your own opera song. Absolutely no music experience required!
Pair this with a tour of 11 dramatic stages around the world for an opera-inspired activity for tomorrow.
15. Go on a Google Expedition
Google Expeditions aren't gone! They have just been moved to Google Arts and Culture. You can explore by subject or location, search for answers, explore art or architecture from around the world and more. The best part? You can now take an expedition using ANY device! Learn more with this How to use Expeditions on Google Arts and Culture guide.
16. Do the cultural 5
Get a daily dose of creativity with the Cultural 5 from Christopher Bailey, Arts & Health Lead at the World Health Organization. Watch this video to learn more about the role the arts play in health and wellness.
17. Take an (augmented) reality check
Augmented Reality lets you project 3D models of animals, artwork, artifacts, dinosaurs and more using your camera phone and the Arts and Culture App. Try projecting a piece of artwork on your wall, bring a deer into your garden, put a crustacean in your bathtub, and more!
18. Zoom in on art
With the Art Zoom project in Google Arts and Culture you can break a piece of art down to individual brushstrokes. You can also listen to some of the biggest names in music narrate some of the most famous artworks in the world in the Art Zoom series.
19. Grab a lesson plan
Google Arts and Culture Project Learn has a ton, and we mean a TON, of awesome lesson plans and resources for the classroom. Check out lesson plans like Scientific Superpowers, History of Magic, Extreme Planet and more!
20. Try a crossword puzzle
Another one of Google's experiments, these crossword puzzles allow you to test your cultural knowledge or discover art through unexpected pairings.
What are some of your favorite parts of Google Arts and culture? Please share them in the comments!
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I really loved all the google Arts and Culture information. I did run into some problems that I wonder if you can solve. As I wandered the art museums (fashion) I quickly came across naked female figures. So I switched to the activities. When I went to share them, I found to my delight that you can link them to google class. The problem is that it assigns all the kids on the same activity. So, for example, the kids are all on the same puzzle at the same time resulting in instant mayhem. I there a way to solve this? Your coloring book did solve the problem for that activity.
Thank you for any advice you may be able to give!