Tag Archives: Arts and Culture

See art from the vaults of La Isla del Encanto

Editor’s note: In this guest post, we’ll hear from Carlos R. Ruiz Cortés, Executive Director of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP).

Art can capture both the idiosyncrasies and the national identity of a people. With more than 40,000 artifacts in our National Collection, the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña's mission is to share Puerto Rican culture in its diversity and complexity. Since the closing of our national gallery in 2013, these works have been shared through limited museum loans, institutional exhibitions, educational tours and academic research--but they have lacked a permanent space.

Today, in partnership with Google Arts & Culture and Lin-Manuel Miranda and Luis Miranda Jr., we’re launching the first phase of a project which will bring these works out from behind closed doors. You can now zoom in on the intimate dinner scene of “La Mixta,” and see how the brushwork of Cervoni Brenes Francisco brings to life the workers’ day-to-day, or travel through the 18th-century streets depicted by José Campeche y Jordán in his painting “El Gobernador Don Miguel Antonio de Ustariz.”

We’ve also used Google Arts & Culture’s Art Camera to digitize iconic works from our archives in hyper-detailed resolution. This will allow everyone to explore the images down to brush stroke level and will help us to preserve the works in their current form for future generations.

It has also given our team new insight into the stories these works tell. In “El Gobernador Don Miguel Antonio de Ustariz,” we were able to see José Campeche y Jordán’s miniature style in great detail, illuminating an interaction in the background of women appealing to men of a higher class. For the first time, we found the signature of Consuelo Peralta de Riego Pica on her painting “Visión de San Felipe Benicio,” granting us a better understanding of this pioneering female artist.

Art Camera in the ICP

The Art Camera at work, digitizing “El Gobernador Don Miguel Antonio de Ustariz.”

Hurricane Maria reminded us of the urgency of preservation. It devastated our island and awakened the need to preserve our culture while we restored our home. For us, the Art Camera is more than a piece of technology—it's a symbol of universal access. The technology will make Puerto Rico's art accessible to  millions of people who otherwise wouldn't be able to see it. Looking through the lens of Art Camera as it captures Ramón Frade’s “El Pan Nuestro,” I think of how everybody will now have a new lens through which to see Puerto Rico.

Today, the collection is available through Google Arts & Culture to view online at g.co/puertoricanculture for everyone across the world. There, you can find more work online from the Pre-Raphaelite works of the Museo de Arte de Ponce, the range of modern artists at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, and the plurality of art displayed at the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico. 

  • Goyita by Rafael Tufiño Figueroa - ICP

    One of Rafael Tufiño Figuero’s seminal works, “Goyita” (1953), features the artist’s mother as a model, breaking with the conventions of portraiture to create a dignified depiction of a working class woman.

  • Flaming June by Lord Frederic Leighton - MAP.jpg

    Lord Fredric Leighton’s belief in Aestheticism, or “art for art’s sake,” is clearly reflected in one of his finest works, “Flaming June” (1895).  Though once considered to be an outdated artwork, it has since come to be seen as a superb example of the period’s art.

  • The Daughters of Governor Ramón de Castro by José Campeche y Jordán - MAPR.jpg

    José Campeche y Jordán was the most important painter of portraits and religious imagery in late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century Puerto Rico.

  • Spirit of the Cut by Daniel Lind Ramos - MACPR.jpg

    Experience the vibrant and dynamic contemporary art scene of Puerto Rico through works like “Spirit of  the Cut” (1996) by Daniel-Lind Ramos.

  • 900-50-80 by Olga Albizu - MAPR.jpg

    Olga Albizu (1924 – 2005) developed a singular body of abstract works, beginning in the 1950s. In the sixties, her work became known internationally when it graced many albums by the finest interpreters of the Bossa Nova.

I hope you will visit and see firsthand how our cultural heritage inspires people today, creativity sparking on every corner of San Juan and beyond. It is with joy that we offer this cultural patrimony back to the people of Puerto Rico and celebrate our culture with the world.

See art from the vaults of La Isla del Encanto

Editor’s note: In this guest post, we’ll hear from Carlos R. Ruiz Cortés, Executive Director of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP).

Art can capture both the idiosyncrasies and the national identity of a people. With more than 40,000 artifacts in our National Collection, the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña's mission is to share Puerto Rican culture in its diversity and complexity. Since the closing of our national gallery in 2013, these works have been shared through limited museum loans, institutional exhibitions, educational tours and academic research--but they have lacked a permanent space.

Today, in partnership with Google Arts & Culture and Lin-Manuel Miranda and Luis Miranda Jr., we’re launching the first phase of a project which will bring these works out from behind closed doors. You can now zoom in on the intimate dinner scene of “La Mixta,” and see how the brushwork of Cervoni Brenes Francisco brings to life the workers’ day-to-day, or travel through the 18th-century streets depicted by José Campeche y Jordán in his painting “El Gobernador Don Miguel Antonio de Ustariz.”

We’ve also used Google Arts & Culture’s Art Camera to digitize iconic works from our archives in hyper-detailed resolution. This will allow everyone to explore the images down to brush stroke level and will help us to preserve the works in their current form for future generations.

It has also given our team new insight into the stories these works tell. In “El Gobernador Don Miguel Antonio de Ustariz,” we were able to see José Campeche y Jordán’s miniature style in great detail, illuminating an interaction in the background of women appealing to men of a higher class. For the first time, we found the signature of Consuelo Peralta de Riego Pica on her painting “Visión de San Felipe Benicio,” granting us a better understanding of this pioneering female artist.

Art Camera in the ICP

The Art Camera at work, digitizing “El Gobernador Don Miguel Antonio de Ustariz.”

Hurricane Maria reminded us of the urgency of preservation. It devastated our island and awakened the need to preserve our culture while we restored our home. For us, the Art Camera is more than a piece of technology—it's a symbol of universal access. The technology will make Puerto Rico's art accessible to  millions of people who otherwise wouldn't be able to see it. Looking through the lens of Art Camera as it captures Ramón Frade’s “El Pan Nuestro,” I think of how everybody will now have a new lens through which to see Puerto Rico.

Today, the collection is available through Google Arts & Culture to view online at g.co/puertoricanculture for everyone across the world. There, you can find more work online from the Pre-Raphaelite works of the Museo de Arte de Ponce, the range of modern artists at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, and the plurality of art displayed at the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico. 

  • Goyita by Rafael Tufiño Figueroa - ICP

    One of Rafael Tufiño Figuero’s seminal works, “Goyita” (1953), features the artist’s mother as a model, breaking with the conventions of portraiture to create a dignified depiction of a working class woman.

  • Flaming June by Lord Frederic Leighton - MAP.jpg

    Lord Fredric Leighton’s belief in Aestheticism, or “art for art’s sake,” is clearly reflected in one of his finest works, “Flaming June” (1895).  Though once considered to be an outdated artwork, it has since come to be seen as a superb example of the period’s art.

  • The Daughters of Governor Ramón de Castro by José Campeche y Jordán - MAPR.jpg

    José Campeche y Jordán was the most important painter of portraits and religious imagery in late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century Puerto Rico.

  • Spirit of the Cut by Daniel Lind Ramos - MACPR.jpg

    Experience the vibrant and dynamic contemporary art scene of Puerto Rico through works like “Spirit of  the Cut” (1996) by Daniel-Lind Ramos.

  • 900-50-80 by Olga Albizu - MAPR.jpg

    Olga Albizu (1924 – 2005) developed a singular body of abstract works, beginning in the 1950s. In the sixties, her work became known internationally when it graced many albums by the finest interpreters of the Bossa Nova.

I hope you will visit and see firsthand how our cultural heritage inspires people today, creativity sparking on every corner of San Juan and beyond. It is with joy that we offer this cultural patrimony back to the people of Puerto Rico and celebrate our culture with the world.

Preserving stories of Black History in the UK and beyond

In 1981, African-American civil rights leader Queen Mother Moore visited the U.K. on a speaking tour that would have an enduring impact on Black British history. Coming in the wake of London’s Brixton uprisings, her teachings from the movement in the U.S. would go on to inspire the foundation of the Black Cultural Archives (BCA), a living monument to Black history and culture. 

To celebrate Black History Month in the UK this October, Google Arts & Culture partnered with the BCA to bring its unique collection of images, artifacts and artworks together online for the first time. 

Based in London’s Brixton neighborhood, the Black Cultural Archives is the only national heritage center dedicated to collecting, preserving and celebrating the histories of African and Caribbean people in Britain. With this project, Google Arts & Culture has digitized over 4,000 items from the BCA to help inspire and educate. 

The collection features over 30 online stories, with highlights including the Black Women’s movement in the UK, the evolution of Black British dance and a collection of paintings and ceramics by Jamaican-born artist Rudi Patterson. Thanks to our Art Camera technology, you can now study the intricate details of newly digitized artworks in Gigapixel resolution.

This past summer, Google Arts & Culture also partnered with London’s Somerset House to digitize and share stories from its recent exhibition Get Up, Stand Up Now, which explored the past 50 years of Black creativity in Britain and beyond. The partnership culminated in a new collaboration with Samm Henshaw, recognized by YouTube Music UK as a “One To Watch” emerging artist. Inspired by the generations of creative pioneers featured in the Somerset House exhibition, Samm wrote an original track honoring “the motherland” and invited visual artist Wumi Olaosebikan to contribute a creative response to his song through painting.
Samm Henshaw x Somerset House in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture

The theme of the motherland can also be found in another new exhibition on Google Arts & Culture. Everyone in the world can trace their origins back to East Africa, which is sometimes called the cradle of mankind. We’ve collaborated with the National Museums of Kenya in a new online collection that celebrates the heritage and stories of Kenya’s many communities.

  • Muthoni Drummer Queen

    Muthoni Dummer Queenis an inspirational force in Kenya's music scene. She fuses African drums, hip-hop, reggae/dancehall, and neo-soul/blues to create powerful music that explores her experiences growing up in Nairobi and the spaces that women occupy in the city. (Credit: Margaux Martin)

  • Dancing people at the Turkana festival

    The annual Lake Turkana Cultural Festival: One of Kenya's top tourist attractions is the three-day festival held in June and takes place at Loiyangalani, Marsabit County. This festival features all nomadic communities in Northern Kenya, including the Samburu community. In addition, Tobong'ulore festival is held in Turkana county.


  • A Porridge gourd called Kamba

    The Kamba (also known as Akamba) belong to the Bantu community and lived in the eastern region in Kenya. They speak Kikamba language and are closely related in language and culture to the Kikuyu, Embu, Mbeere and Meru.

  • Isukha musician

    The Isukha(also commonly referred to as Abaisukha) are a sub-community of the larger Luhya (Abaluyia) community in Kenya. They are well known for their traditional Isukuti dance, which is performed by both the Ishukha people and their close relatives the Idakho. It is a rapid dance accompanied by drumming of the isuki drums.

  • A colourful Ornament

    In Africa, body ornamentscommunicate ethnic background, social status, age and beliefs. Traditional ornaments appear in various forms, such as earrings, bracelets, armlets and belts. This bead collar is strung on makonge (sisal) thread and worn by little girls and women during ceremonial occasions.

  • Comic depiction of a African heroine

    Mekatilili Wa Menza is said to be one of the earliestKenya's freedom fighters

This is Google Arts & Culture’s most ambitious project to date in Africa, and lets you explore Kenya across cultures, generations and geography through over 10,500 high resolution photographs, more than 100 expert-curated exhibits and 60 Street Views. 

To explore these remarkable stories in more detail, and to discover collections from more than 2,000 museums around the world, visit the Google Arts & Culture app for free either on the web or on iOS or Android.

What is love? (And five other Google searches.)

What is love? Do I have free will? Is there anybody out there? 

These are some of life’s universal questions—questions that many of us, in fact, may bring to Google Search. And while Search can help us get started, we were curious to see what would happen if we brought in performing and visual artists in the UK.

Google Arts & Culture teamed up with BBC Arts to produce “You Asked, Art Answered,” our first collaboration with the BBC. In an unconventional pairing of Search Trends with art, six UK artists from different fields, including the visual arts, poetry and choreography, chose one question and created an imaginative short film to illustrate their response.

  1. “Is there is anybody out there?” Spoken word artist Salena Godden goes “behind the internet” to give her response.
  2. “What does it mean to be British?” British-Iranian visual artist and provocateur Sarah Maple asked members of the public in the UK, and lip-synced their answers while dressed up as different British icons.
  3. “How do you know you’re in love?” Writer, performer and illustrator Jessie Cave uses her own script and special characters and illustrations to explore possible responses.
  4. “What is love?” Artist Andy Holden’s avatar seeks the answers as he wanders through a cartoon world and recites lyrics to well-known pop songs.
  5. “Do I have free will?” In choreographer and dancer Jamiel Laurence’s energetic piece, two dancers tussle for control over themselves and each other. 
  6. “What if I fall?” In “Sensational Simmy,” writer and filmmaker Runyararo Mapfumo imagines a champion runner who faces challenges on her way home one night.

  • Jamiel Laurence.jpg

    Jamiel Laurence ponders, “Do I have free will?”

  • Sarah Maple.jpg

    Sarah Maple’s question: What does it mean to be British?

  • Jessie Cave.jpg

    Jessie Cave asked, “How do You know You Are in Love?”

  • Andy Holden

    Andy Holden meditates on, “What is love?”

  • Salena Godden.jpg

    Salena Godden would like to know: “ Is there is anybody out there?”

  • Runyararo Mapfumo.jpg

    Runyararo Mapfumo wonders, “What if I fall?”

The artists also delved into our partners’ virtual collections on Google Arts & Culture and, using our search tools like Themes, Mediums and Historical Figures, each choose six artworks that correspond to their question. With images ranging from Picasso to Daffy Duck, Andy Holden hopes we might learn something new about the meaning of love. Sarah Maple, enlightening us about British identity, opted for a photo of the Queen laughing and Sarah Lucas’s “Self Portrait with Fried Eggs.” You can explore their selections, and read exclusive interviews with each artist, on our website. Watch the full films on BBC Arts.

Jacquard and Google Arts and Culture weave tech into art

Words that appear out of white tapestries. Music that streams out of black fabric. A mysterious blue cloth-draped spiral that guides you with light and sound.

It may sound like a fantasy novel, but these are real works of art made possible with Jacquard by Google. Combining advanced hardware and software technology with textile and manufacturing know-how, Jacquard helps designers make digital experiences out of everyday objects. An ordinary denim jacket or a backpack transforms into something that answers calls, plays music and takes photos. 

In March, Jacquard (part of Google ATAP) and Google Arts & Culture created an artists in residency program to bring together technology, art and fashion. It was a unique opportunity for creative communities to enhance their work digitally—by weaving Jacquard technology into physical installations—while remaining focused on their original design.

We received more than 200 fascinating project ideas from artists, collectives and technologists all over the world. Chloé Bensahel, Amor Muñoz and OMA Space were selected to turn their proposals into monumental installations. Over the past six months, they collaborated with Google ATAP and Google Arts & Culture Lab engineers to deploy Jacquard technology within the hallowed exhibition rooms of Paris’s Mobilier national, a historic mainstay of furniture and textile manufacturing. Two of the installations were even produced in collaboration with the Mobilier national’s own weaving and pleating experts.

The result is “Please Touch the Thread,” a multisensory exhibition that triggers sounds and light effects when you touch the art. “Tree of Light” by OMA Space is a ten-meter-wide meditative walk. Bensahel’s “Words Wear Worlds” is an ensemble of seven tapestries that took 840 hours of weaving to create. Muñoz’s “Notes & Folds” is a tribute to the works of mathematician Ada Lovelace and composer Conlon Nancarrow. 

  • OMA Space’s “Tree of Light”

    OMA Space’s “Tree of Light”

  • Chloé Bensahel’s “Words Weave Worlds”

    Chloé Bensahel’s “Words Weave Worlds”

  • Amor Muñoz’s “Notes and Folds”

    Amor Muñoz’s “Notes and Folds

  • Behind the scenes with OMA Space

    Behind the scenes with OMA Space


  • “Notes and Folds” installation

    Muñoz prototyping  “Notes and Folds” installation.

  • The making of Bensahel’s installation

    The making of Bensahel’s installation at Google Arts & Culture Lab in Paris.

  • OMA Space

    OMA Space, Muñoz and Bensahel with the exhibition’s curator, Pamela Golbin & mentor artist Memo Atken.

  • testing light

    Daniel Kapelian (from OMA Space) testing light effect on a scale model of Tree of Light installation, Seoul (South Korea)

  • Chloe Bensahe

    Chloe Bensahel weaving Words Weave Worlds tapestries at Mobilier national, Paris (France).

Touching, tapping or skimming the art corresponds to hundreds of different combinations, and each visitor has a different experience of the exhibit. Press one letter of Bensahel's tapestry, and you’ll hear that letter being sung. Swipe over a word, and you’ll hear that instead. The volume goes up or down depending on the strength of your touch.

The exhibition is open to the public from October 16th to 20th, during the International Contemporary Art Fair (FIAC), but will also live on digitally on Google Arts & Culture. Online visitors can navigate through 3D models of the installations and dig deeper into each artist’s creative process through exclusive video content.

Explore the Maya world with the British Museum

At first glance, the British Museum and Google may not seem like natural partners. One is a 266-year-old institution venerated as the first national public museum in the world. The other is a 21-year-old former startup and now the world’s largest digital company. 

But if you take a closer look, you’ll see some strong ties. The British Museum was created to host the knowledge of the world in objects and to unlock their stories. Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. So when we discovered an opportunity to work together with Google Arts & Culture, it turned out to be a natural fit.

Exploring the Maya World is a bold project to bring a rarely seen collection out of the British Museum repository and into the world. By harnessing the power of new technology to capture and communicate stories about the collections, the project helps bring important stories to a global audience.

This project has fully digitized the remarkable collection of ancient Maya art and architecture gathered by Alfred Maudslay in the late 19th century. Maudslay used the latest technology of his time to record the stories of ancient Maya cities in Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. He developed the first dry glass plate photographs of iconic sites like Palenque, Chichen Itza and Tikal, spending years living and working throughout the region. He also created more than 400 large plaster cast replicas of building facades and monuments, which have been stored in the British Museum for more than 100 years. 

This collection represents some of the best preserved records of ancient Maya writing. By working closely with our colleagues in Mexico and Guatemala, we’ve made this entire collection available online for anyone to enjoy and research themselves. The incredible stories that have emerged during this project have also been put online for people to enjoy in Spanish, Portuguese and English anywhere in the world.

The power of this project has been its exceptionally collaborative approach: We’ve brought together curators, indigenous communities, scholars and technology specialists across Mexico, Guatemala, the U.K., Denmark, France and the U.S. Everyone has been united by a common mission to communicate the true value of conserving shared cultural heritage. By working together, I think we’ve achieved that goal. Exploring the Maya World brings to life the energy and dynamism of culture in a way that can be hard to generate within a physical environment. The voices in this project are vibrant and full of color. They tell their own stories and the stories of those that have lived before.

The British Museum already enjoys welcoming more than 6 million visitors to our galleries every year. But we have the potential to reach millions more by bringing our museum to the world virtually. Only a few years ago it would have seemed unrealistic to create a catalog of 3D objects viewable from anywhere in the world, let alone walk around ancient Maya cities while sitting in your living room. These journeys of discovery are critical to help engage all communities with the value and wonder of cultural heritage.  

I believe that these are exactly the kinds of research projects that international museums need to take on. Only by taking risks and pushing the boundaries of what is possible can we begin to expand the reach and role of the 21st-century global museum. This project has inspired me to think differently about the future, and I am excited to see where this technology of imagination will take us next.

You can discover these stories by visiting Exploring the Maya World.

Discover India through its crafts

Crafts are an essential part of India’s rural economy and also play an important role in India’s history and communities across the country today. Expanding our partnership with India’s Ministry of Tourism, we’re launching “Crafted in India” on Google Arts & Culture, so more people from around the world can discover the beauty and heritage of crafts from all 29 states of India. We spoke to Jaya Jaitly, the President of our partner institution Dastkari Haat Samiti, who traveled around the country for two years to document and preserve the items in the exhibition.

Tell us a bit more about yourself and your work in India.
I spent some years of my childhood in Japan, where I became a lover of art, crafts and textiles. I also have a passion for social activism, so it was a natural fit to explore the traditions of my home country India through these guiding principles—showcasing not just the crafts themselves, but how they lift up the economic and social status of the craft-makers. By documenting their work I strive to promote their culture and show how their designs and skills suit a contemporary and ever-changing world.

Why a project about crafts from India?
I was very excited when we got an opportunity to use the platform that Google Arts & Culture has created to show the world our craft creators. They have amazing skills, great resilience and work closely with their communities and environment. There is so much to discover, like how you can craft paper from the most unexpected materials, like pineapple fibres, old currency, or animal dung.

What aspect of Indian crafts did you capture and discover?
I hope we have captured the fantastic diversity of India’s crafts. Our stories show many different lifestyles, languages, communities, identities, styles of dress and traditions that India has nurtured over centuries. I am especially proud of the stories in the exhibition that show the strong role of women.

  • Miniature Metal Craft Miniature metallic animals and insects, made by Rajasthan's Gadiya Lohar community.jpg

    Metal forms of animals and insects are  made by Rajasthan's Gadiya Lohar community. They believe their ancestors used to make weapons for the royalty in 16th Century.

  • Kauna Grass Craft - Women selling Kauna Basket at Ima Market.jpg

    Kauna Grass Craft at Ima Market . Women control the marketing of crafts and agricultural produce in most of the north-eastern states of India.

  • Bell Metal Casting - Crucible with molten metal inside.jpg

    Bell Metal Casting is first crafted by hand onto wax, which is covered by clay and the wax melted out to create a mould. Molten metal, around 1100 degrees celcius, is poured into that clay mold.

  • Bagh Weaving and Printing.jpg

    In Bagh weaving and printing, the black color is made by fermenting iron with jaggery. Once prints are dry, it is washed in the river and beaten to remove excess color.

  • Mata ni Pachedi- A screen printed Mata ni Pachedi textile.jpg

    Mata ni Pachedi. The ‘Mata’, or the Mother Goddess shrine cloth, is most in demand during Navratri, the festival spanning nine days when incarnations of Goddess.

  • Channapatna Toys - Traditionally known as Keel Kudure.jpg

    Channapatna Toys. Traditionally known as Keel Kudure, meaning horse on false legs, is inspired from a folk dance of Karnataka.

  • Zari Zardozi.jpg

    Zari Zardozi is a style of metallic thread embroidery done with a hooked awl kind of needle called Aari. Many different kinds of needles are used depending on the design.

Working on the project, is there anything in particular that surprised you?
Living in urban India and familiar with many kinds of lifestyles all over the world, I was fascinated to discover how many of our craftspeople hold on to old practices and techniques despite the laborious processes involved. Their versatility in adapting to new materials, audiences and customers showed their sense of pride in their heritage.

How do crafts define the people and the culture of India? What can you learn about India through its crafts?
India is now prominent on all sorts of platforms across the world. And craft, in all its varieties, is one of the strongest crucibles of India’s culture. It can be at the center of developing our rural economy, sustaining our planet and promoting our diverse people and livelihoods. I also hope it will encourage people who enjoy the exhibition to come to India and engage with it more closely—this is just a small peek at the vast treasure chest on offer.

Make the Palace of Versailles yours on Google Arts & Culture

One of the first things I saw when I arrived at the Palace of Versailles in 2011 was a construction site. In partnership with Google, we were building the History Gallery, an exhibit that brought together our art collections and digital reconstructions of the palace in 3D. The History Gallery gave people a better understanding of Versailles, and eight years later, the partnership between the Palace of Versailles and Google Arts & Culture continues to give everyone access to this cultural treasure through technology. Today, we’re launching a new online exhibition for everyone who can’t make it to Paris or who wants to explore this majestic place in a new way: Versailles: The Palace is Yours.

Our new app VersaillesVR—a technological first in the cultural world—takes visitors on a virtual reality tour of the Royal Grand Apartments, the Chapel and the Opera. To capture the imagery, we used photogrammetry—a technology that reconstructs three-dimensional models of objects and landmarks from two-dimensional photographs. It’s an invitation to discover the secrets of Versailles, and a magnificent sneak peek for those who might plan to visit in person. Though nothing will ever replace the emotion of actually stepping into the Palace, we hope this visual immersion might inspire you to do just that.

  • ©THOMAS GARNIER_DSC00404.jpg

    View of the Palace of Versailles ©THOMAS GARNIER

  • Screenshot 2019-09-24 at 19.05.08.png

    Explore 24 rooms and 150 objects in the Palace of Versailles  through a new VR app available on HTC vive and Oculus Rift

  • Versailles 23_09_2019 17_38_15.png

    Inside the VR experience (here the famous Hall of Mirrors)

  • Royal Opera - Opéra Royal.png

    3D model of the Royal Opera House

  • Art Camera at Versailles.jpg

    Behind the scene of a high resolution Art Camera capture

  • Marie-Antoinette with the Rose - Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun - 1783 © EPV -Jean-Marc Manaï 1.jpg

    Portrait of Marie Antoinette by Elisabeth Vigée Lebrun

  • A place at the Royal table 1.png

    Come and take a seat at the King’s table and learn about delicacies served in the royal dining room

There are also 18 new online exhibitions featuring 340 artworks—including portraits of the royal family digitized in ultra high resolution and archival photos of Versailles dating from the 19th century—as well as 18 never-before-seen 3D models of iconic rooms and objects. Explore the 73-meter long Hall of Mirrors,  the King’s Bed or Marie-Antoinette’s jewelry cabinet.

Versailles has always been an incredible place to visit. Today, opening the doors of Versailles to the world means opening them virtually, too.

Japanese food and flavors come to Google Arts & Culture

The Japanese word “meshiagare” means “enjoy your meal.” And don’t we all enjoy our food more when we know its story? “Meshiagare! Flavors of Japan” is a new online exhibition designed to help us do just that.  Presented by Google Arts & Culture and 20 partners, including the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, it brings together thousands of photos and videos exploring the people, places and traditions that make Japanese cuisine so special.  


Walk with us through Golden Gai, a street lined with nearly 300 tiny bars, where food, culture and the arts have collided for generations. Taste (well, almost) street food in Osaka and travel with us to the future to learn how you can have authentic Japanese food in space.


As well as the sights and sounds of Japan’s food scene, there are insights on how some of your favorite Japanese dishes and ingredients came to be. Did you know that soba was first consumed as dumplings? Or that one way of making udon involves stomping on the dough with your feet to make sure it’s the right consistency?
  • Kazuko Ishigaki

    Ms. Kazuko Ishigaki, president of “Cheerful Mother’s Shop” encourages local female farmers.

  • Toyosu

    Step inside Toyosu Fish Market, the biggest market in the world. 

  • Wagashi

    Wagashi are special sweets that reflect the season.

  • Chopsticks

    Wakasa are decorated, lacquered chopsticks.

  • Umami

    Umami is the fifth taste, joining sweet, sour, salty and bitter.

  • Manga

    Many Manga stories are based on food.

With more than 100 online exhibitions and more than 3,000 high-quality images, videos and stories, brought together in one place for the first time, “Meshiagare! Flavors of Japan” is a journey deep into Japanese gastronomy.  It's the second major Google Arts & Culture exhibition focused on Japanese culture after “Made in Japan,” which highlighted local craftsmanship. 


Craving more? Download the app, join the conversation using the hashtag #Meshiagare, or explore more than 90 smaller collections dedicated to Japanese culture on the Google Arts & Culture website.

“Great Sporting Land” tours Australia’s sports-mad history

Australians have a passion for sports—so much that it was perfectly normal for the Prime Minister to give the entire country the day off when they won a boat race back in 1983. Over generations, Australia’s favorite pastimes have shaped the country’s identity, values and culture. Along with the Melbourne Cricket Club, Australian Football League, National Portrait Gallery and the North Bondi Surf Lifesaving Club, Google Arts & Culture is showcasing the people, moments and places that led Australia to become the “Great Sporting Land” it is today. 

The exhibition features over 11,000 archived images and videos, and more than 100 original stories from more than 30 partners. To do so, Google’s Art Camera technology has been on a marathon between sporting institutions across the country to capture over 200 pieces of art, archival materials and artifacts in high resolution gigapixel quality.

Join cricket legend Steve Waugh who will take you on a tour of the archives of the world-famous Bradman Museumwhere you can zoom in to the hand-etched scores on the back of Don Bradman’s first bat. Or take a trip to a changing room at The Sydney Cricket Ground, where visiting players have drawn their standout batting and bowling figures on the changing room door. You can also follow Steve Waugh through a video seriesthat offers never-before-seen insight into his work and memories of the sport. 

Then put on your cossies or your togs (swimwear) to feel the vibes of a trip into Summers Past from the National Archives of Australia —an exhibition celebrating the golden days in the Australian sunshine. The surf’s up when you Watch the Waves, a selection of photographs by the National Archives, or explore the North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club in Google Street View.


For Australians, sports are a part of national identity, pride and belonging, whether played by everyday people or world known icons. To discover more moments from Australia’s sporting history by visiting g.co/GreatSportingLand, or download the Google Arts & Culture app on iOS or Android.