Google Arts & Culture

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By Tracey Brown, Teacher Specialist, Office of Instructional Technology


In 2018 Google Arts and Culture was trending across all of social media for its Art Selfie feature that allowed a user to capture a selfie and be matched with famous artwork. When contacted for comment on the sudden interest in their app, Google reps admitted, “It Took us by Surprise!”

Many people probably uninstalled the Google Arts & Culture app immediately after sharing their selfie match across their preferred social platforms, but for educators and students GA&C is so much more than just the Art Selfie tool.

“Google Arts & Culture is a non-profit initiative. We work with cultural institutions and artists around the world. Together, our mission is to preserve and bring the world’s art and culture online so it’s accessible to anyone, anywhere.”

If you have visited Google Arts & Culture and clicked around a little, you might be thinking, “Wow, there is so much here. Where do I even start?” Here are some of our favorite places to get started in this fabulous rabbit hole:

Zoom Views technology

There are 1,845 pieces of art captured with high definition photography. This allows you to zoom into unimaginable levels of detail. Someone viewing artwork on Google Arts & Culture can get closer, and see more detail than someone actually seeing the art in person.

This artwork is called Wedding Supper by Martin van Meytens. You start with a birds eye view of a whole room, but with zoom views you can look a guest right in the eye! This is a great way to introduce main idea or point of view. You can even combine your GA&C artwork with Discovery Ed’s Spotlight on Strategy activities on Half the Story or Multiple Perspectives.

Themes

Themes begin with an idea. WHAT or WHERE do you want to explore? The answers might include
diverse species of the ocean, women in history, augmented reality, or a continent, a country or a city. There are hundreds of themes that can be explored under the “hamburger” menu in the upper left of GA&C, or by using the Search feature in the upper right.

Some of our favorite themes include: Once Upon a Try - A Journey of invention and discovery with CERN, NASA, and more than 100 museums around the world. This theme starts with the big bang, fast forwards to how we have learned about the world around us and then pivots into inventions and inventors (including all little boys favorite topic: who invented the toilet).

Expeditions - The well-known virtual field trip experience once only for handheld mobile devices is now accessible through GA&C. Students can experience 360 images, videos and valuable information cards during a whole group or small group lesson with any web-enabled device. Want additional ideas for virtual field trips? OIT has created slide decks full of experiences on our Digital Take Out website. Visit the Virtual Field Trip pages.


Learn with GA&C - Learn includes everything from quick tips on how to use various resources in the classroom to full lesson plans for educators to use with students or for students to use to guide their own learning. You can search by subject, experience type, lesson plans and more. Check out Beyond the Computer, Extreme Planet, or Black Pop Culture just to name a few.

There is SO much more we could cover, but hopefully this is enough to get you exploring this invaluable engaging instructional tool.

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