Ganas de Biblioteca IIE – Library recommendations for digital resources on art

Through the #AtHomeWithIIE initiative of the International Institute, our library intends to maintain its cultural and educational work in this stage of confinement. With this goal in mind, we share a first selection of cultural resources that can be consulted for free on the Internet. The chosen resources are for children and adults, both Spanish and American, thinking of serving as a bridge between the two cultures that are part of our community.

In this first compilation we will focus on North American museums and art spaces that offer virtual resources of interest. Art is one of the specialties of the library's paper collection, which supports both university art courses in Spain for American students, as well as ACS courses for Spaniards who want to learn more about American art.

These days, many American museums have expanded or highlighted the online content offered from their institutional pages. Virtual tours of the rooms, virtual exhibitions, resources for research with online publications and digitized books are the initiatives they have to bring their collections closer, enjoy art and publicize the works they exhibit. This time we offer a tour of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Guggenheim, the Art Institute (Chicago), the J.Paul Getty Museum and the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

From the capital of the country, this museum gives virtual access to video-exhibitions of painting, photography, documentaries and interviews with different artists.

Includes interesting videos such as the documentary In the Tower: Mark Rothko or the filming on the work of Edward Hopper: Edward Hopper's New York y Edward HopperFilm. Also of great interest are audios that offer a tour of outstanding pieces of the collection, some of which can be found en español.

One of the attractions of the virtual museum is its educational resources for the youngest. It has different Children's Video Tours; a selection of 50 video tours to take a closer look at amazing paintings, people, places and scenes. It also offers An Eye for Art: Focusing on Great Artists and Their Work with information from more than 50 artists and family-oriented activities. complements you look together, a resource for sharing observations and making comparisons of works of art, and NGAkids App for iPad with eight interactive activities based on works from the Gallery's collection. A part of the resources is specifically oriented to teachers, dividing the contents by education courses: Pre-K and Kindergarten Lessons and Activities, Grades 1 and 2 Lessons and Activities, Grades 3 to 5 Lessons and Activities. Also for primary and secondary educators they have created Uncovering America, with works that reflect the richness and diversity of the people, places and cultures of the United States.

METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, MET (NEW YORK)

Home to the largest collection in the United States with more than two million works of art from around the world, this outstanding museum offers virtual tours of the museum's facilities and the works in the collection. In addition to activities for families, it has 582 full text publications to read online or downloadable in PDF in addition to their online publications.

We highlight the project Connections in which Museum staff are invited to offer their personal perspectives on the works of art in the collection. It consists of 100 episodes and we find it inspiring as a new way of approaching art.

THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, MOMA (NEW YORK)

The sanctuary of modern art in New York produces the magazine  Explore Magazine, among whose articles we highlight a collection of activities for children from six years on drawing, collage, audio and movement inspired by the MoMA collection. The museum also offers interesting specialized courses and programs taught by some of its professionals.

GUGGENHEIM  

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, commonly known as The Guggenheim, another of New York's great art spaces, offers a audio tour of the building, Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece, which complements well the tour of Google Arts & Culture. All of your programming it is currently online, which may be an opportunity to participate and be part of the institution in another way. It also has a wide and varied video selection in relation to his works and his cultural work.

MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

This Boston museum contains the second largest permanent collection in the country and offers in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture sixteen visual reports as an exhibition that allow the viewing of its collections. Complementing this virtual content, the Museum offers an interesting video-library which includes, among others, virtual tours, interviews with artists and mini documentaries about the work in the museum. Especially curious we find the videos in which a musician is invited to play some of his ancient musical instruments. Their YouTube channel completes the stupendous visual offer offered by the museum.

ART INSTITUTE CHICAGO

This museum and art school is considered one of the most important in the world and one of the main ones in the United States. Has a featured virtual section which allows you to visit it from a distance. They highlight the exhibition of El Greek and its online publications  about artists and works of art in the collection. But above all, we recommend their interactive catalogs, which allow us to approach works of art and their creation process in a different way.

PAUL GETTY MUSEUM LOS ANGELES

The Getty is one of the most visited museums in the United States and has created for these days a compilation of digital content to explore the museum while it is closed. Includes more than 350 art books downloadable, online exhibitions, podcast and videos. It also gives access to digitized art history publications and rare books available from the Getty Research Portal and a specific platform with educational resources.

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WOMEN IN THE ARTS

We close our selection with a private museum in Washington, smaller than the previous ones but which seems very relevant to us because of its objective and because of the interest that the International Institute has in making visible the contribution of women to the public sphere. Gives access to works of the collection and has some of its exhibitions online.