Virtual Gallery Visits Guideline
(Modified to include a virtual tour of a museum for the second part of this assignment.
Please read this guideline carefully before you start your project)
The paper should be clearly written (reduce grammatical and spelling errors) and organized
according to the following guideline. Four pages (minimum) to six pages and double spaced with
a 12 font are required. Margin should be set at default. Word document is preferred.
PART ONE:
Explore an official website of an existing museum, such as the official site (ending with .edu
or .org) of the National Gallery of Art in D.C. (www.nga.org), the Louvre in Paris or Vatican
Museum in Rome, etc. You are at liberty to choose which official site you would like to explore,
however not duplicating with your fellow classmates. The museum of your choice must house in
their permanent collection at least one art work (painting or sculpture) discussed or included in
your textbook. You can refer the image label (below or next the image) to locate the name of the
museum which holds this particular art work in their collection. Let’s see, you can start with your
favorite painting for which you always want to find out which museum or gallery owes it (just a
suggestion for a start).
*A sign-up thread is posted in our discussion board where you can post your choice of the
museum and its site link. Your choice is determined based on “first-chosen and first-taken” rule.
For example, if your classmate first chooses the official site of a museum, you coming after him
or her cannot choose the same site, in this way, we will avoid the situation many students decide
to choose the same museum. Please make sure you sign up early. When you post your
choice, indicate the name of the museum and the official website address (e.g. The Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York City; www.metmuseum.org).
** Your choice has to be the official website of a physically existing public or private museum;
it cannot be a web gallery (those that compile art images from different sources without a
physical location of a gallery or museum, such as “web-gallery of art”
https://www.wga.hu/index1.html – which is unacceptable)
On our home page, I have a module of Museum Links, clink there, you will find sites of
museums worldwide that contain works cited in our textbook. Or more extensively, you can
search Google Arts and Culture site, there are 2500 museums worldwide listed
https://artsandculture.google.com/partner?hl=en&tab=pop
***You can also choose the same museum for Part II of this paper, a virtual “real-time” tour of
the museum only if the museum of your choice offers a “real-time” virtual. Please check the
museum site first. “Real-time” means you can follow a cursor or an arrow (provided by the
museum) to move within the museum from one gallery to another.
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Museums in nearby cities (For your reference)
WASHINGTON D.C.:
National Gallery Art: http://www.nga.gov/
Freer and Sackler Galleries of Asian Art: http://www.asia.si.edu/
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden: http://hirshhorn.si.edu/
Smithsonian American Art Museum: http://americanart.si.edu
The National Portrait Gallery: http://www.npg.si.edu/
THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION: http://www.phillipscollection.org/
National Museum of African Art / Smithsonian Institution: http://www.nmafa.si.edu
NEW YORK CITY:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: http://www.metmuseum.org/home.asp
Guggenheim Museum: http://www.guggenheim.org/
MoMA | The Museum of Modern Art: http://www.moma.org/
The Frick Collection: http://www.frick.org/
Whitney Museum of American Art: http://whitney.org/
BALTIMORE
Baltimore Museum of Art: http://artbma.org/home.html
The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore: http://www.thewalters.org/
PHILADELPHIA
Philadelphia Museum of Art: http://www.philamuseum.org/
The Rodin Museum in Philadelphia: http://www.rodinmuseum.org/
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts: http://www.pafa.org/splashHtml.jsp
The Barnes Foundation: http://www.barnesfoundation.org/
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The Brandywine Museum: http://www.brandywinemuseum.org/
PART ONE QUESTIONS after exploring the site of your choice, please address the following
points in your written paper):
1. Include the website address and access date and briefly explain and describe the
organization and the content of the site. (e.g. organized by collection or historical
periods) with specific examples related to the organization.
2. Comment on whether it is easy to explore the museum’s official website, why or why not
(provide specific evidence). Can you easily locate or search the particular art work
included in our textbook, under which category is the art work listed and explain how you
have done to locate the art work?
3. Has the site or what are included in the site raised your interest to learn more about their
collection and eventually to visit there in person? Why yes or why not? Give two reasons
why you are or are not interested in visiting this museum.
4. What have you viewed in addition to the art works discussed in our study guidelines and
textbook? What are some other works the gallery/museum held in their permanent
collection? List the title, period (century), and artist of the FIVE paintings or sculptures
or any genres of art works (e.g., textile, ceramics… ) related to the historical period we
have discussed in our class (e.g. 15th. Century Early Renaissance, 16th. Century High
Renaissance, the 16th. Century Northern Renaissance, the 17th. century Dutch, or
Classical Greek, 18th. century Rococo, 18th. century Neoclassical, 19th. century
Romanticism, or 19th. century Impressionism, Post Impressionism or 20th. century
Cubism, Surrealism, Dada, Pop etc..)
5. Comment on the strength or the concentration of its permanent collection of this
particular museum, (e.g. European art or European decorative art or Asian art…), give
some supporting evidences (e.g. numbers of works or concentration).
6. What have you learned about this museum, its history (e.g. when it started, who were the
major donors of its collection); cite special supporting evidence to show you have gained
some knowledge of this museum by exploring its official site? And what is happening
right now in the museum, any recent or current exhibitions (might be listed or cancelled
due to current pandemic). Give two special examples of the current featured exhibition,
e.g. the title of the exhibition, the dates and the major focus and theme.
7. Comment on the main building of the museum, include a picture of the museum (the
frontal façade of the museum should do) if you could download an image from their
official website. What is the style of the building, the classical style or the neo-Gothic
style or a more contemporary style? What stylistic features you have recognized in the
building that have made you determine its architectural style? Use the knowledge you
have learned from this class to cite the special features.
PART TWO of this report requires you to visit an existing art museum virtually. Take a “realtime” Virtual Tour of one of the following museums of your choice (links included here) and
answer the following 8 to 12 questions. I have also included here the link that feature 12
museums that offer a “real-time” virtual tour.
https://www.travelandleisure.com/attractions/museums-galleries/museums-with-virtual-tours
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***“Real-time” means you can follow a cursor or an arrow (provided by the museum) to move
within the museum from one gallery to another.
Vatican Museums
Sistine Chapel
British Museum, London
Guggenheim Museum, New York
Frick Collection
Louvre, Paris
Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Pergamon Museum, Berlin
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Uffizi Gallery, Florence
MASP, São Paulo
National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City
Museo Frida Kahlo
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul
National Palace Museum, Taiwan
The National Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
Schönbrunn Palace (Vienna)
Belvedere (Vienna)
Versailles (France)
Rubin Museum’s Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room
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Rembrandt and Amsterdam Portraiture exhibition
PART TWO QUESTIONS:
8. Describe the layout of the museum or the exhibition after your virtual tour. Explain the
strengths and weaknesses of this virtual site (at least two points of strength and weakness
respectively). Is it easy to navigate the virtual museum? Explain your reasons for yes or
no.
9. What have you discovered in this virtual tour that has astonished or frustrated you? Give
at least two examples respectively.
10. Cite one piece of art work you have discovered in this virtual tour that has impressed you.
Give a clear label of the art work (if possible, take a screen shot and attach it to your
paper), the date of its creation, the artist (if indicated), the scale, the medium (material).
Explain why you have found this art work impressive.
11. Comment on the advantages and disadvantages of visiting a museum via a virtual tour.
Are viewing art works firsthand and up-close in a museum/gallery still important or
relevant in our age of “social distancing”? Have visiting art museums or historical sites
become outdated in our virtual world? Why or why not?
12. Do you think you are going to include visiting gallery or museum as one of your future
cultural activities when this “social distancing” is lifted? Why or why not?
**Please note plagiarism and any kind of academic dishonesty will result in a grade of zero for
this assignment as well as for the final grade for this class.
The post Virtual Gallery Visits Guideline
(Modified to include a virtual tour of a museum appeared first on Skilled Papers.
