Today is International Museum Day and it's been four years since we launched Google Art Project. Since then we’ve worked closely with hundreds of museums and partners around the world to bring art online while supporting their mission to encourage cultural exchange across the globe.

A great way to celebrate this special day with us is to download the Google Art Project Chrome extension. Launched a few weeks ago, this extension allows you to discover a work of art from our partners each time you open a new browser tab.


Whether browsing from home or the office, you’ll see masterpieces ranging from Van Gogh’s Landscape at Saint-Rémy and João Baptista de Costa’s Gruta Azul, all the way to contemporary works from street artists around the world. With the Google Art Project Chrome extension, you can turn each new tab into a journey through the world’s cultural heritage.


To learn more about the artwork, the artist or the museum showcased in your browser, just click on the lower left hand corner of the image to explore it on the Google Cultural Institute platform. Happy browsing!

Posted by Duncan Osborn, Product Manager, Google Cultural Institute

This week marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. As time passes, and memories fade, it’s important to remember both the sacrifices made and the remarkable stories of the period. That’s why the Google Cultural Institute has partnered with twenty-seven museums and institutions around the world to bring more than 1400 rare and important world war-related artifacts online.

Each of our partner institutions is a custodian of vital national heritage, preserving important stories and artifacts from the war years. Now, using tools provided by the Google Cultural Institute, expert curators have brought to life a wide range of remarkable and inspiring online exhibitions that demonstrate the bravery, ingenuity and sacrifice of those who fought - and those whose lives were changed forever by the war.

The Dutch Nationaal Comité 4 en 5 mei has curated an online exhibition of 100 objects from the War. Among them is a radio, hidden in a briefcase; members of the Dutch resistance used these devices to maintain contact with Britain during the War.
From the US National Archives’ online exhibition, World War II Looted Art: Turning History into Justice, we have rare photographs of the real Monuments Men and the masterpieces they rescued during the War
The Warsaw Rising Museum has created an online exhibition with photographs of the Warsaw Uprising, taken by five photojournalists secretly trained by the Polish Underground State:
The World War II channel on the Cultural Institute includes many more rare images and stories, including German propaganda posters and photographs of the reconstruction of Manila after the War in the Pacific region.

We hope you’ll take a moment to step back in time to discover, learn and #RememberWW2 at google.com/culturalinstitute/project/second-world-war.

Posted by Kate Lauterbach, Google Cultural Institute

For hundreds of years, street art has transformed our public spaces into open-air galleries, adding vibrancy to urban landscapes. But using the city as a canvas often means these artworks are here today, gone tomorrow. With the Google Art Project, we’re working to preserve this ephemeral art form and make it available to fans around the world, anywhere and anytime.

Last June, as a first step, we added more than 5,000 images of street art and around 100 exhibitions, curated by galleries around the world, to the Google Art Project. Today, we’re more than doubling the number of street artworks available in high resolution to over 10.000, working in tandem with 86 art organizations from 34 countries.


New immersive experiences
From stencil to sculpture installations, mosaic and collage, a great variety of styles from around the world are now represented on the Google Art Project.

Are you ready for an urban art safari around the world? Hit the streets with Street View and listen to the stories behind the art: travel from Sweden’s most famous street festival to New York city’s rooftops where you will discover water tanks wrapped with art. Or enjoy a break in Buenos Aires, where abandoned walls in the northern neighborhoods of the city became a source of inspiration for street artists from all over the world.

If you want to know more about local street art scenes, places and practitioners, don't worry - we’ve put 260 digital exhibits online [link] for you to explore and a dozen immersive street view tours! For example you can now take a virtual tour of London’s trendy East End, home to some the world’s finest artworks, enjoy the colourful murals of Los Angeles’ Winston Street (aka Indian Alley), learn more about the longest open air gallery in the world in Berlin and see how street artists get inspired by 17th and 18th century paintings.


When the web and street art meet, the walls can come to life: discover the mesmerizing work of artists like INSA or Checko who painted, photographed, re-painted and then re-photographed a wall to create animated street art: the so-called GIF-iti.


Bringing street art into our daily lives
We're also excited to offer new ways of experiencing street art in your daily life - at home, at work, on the go - with the introduction of street art to Chrome, Chromecast, Android Wear and to your mobile devices.

Turn your TV screen into a vibrant backdrop of street artworks, download new partner apps on your phone or tablet for a tour of Melbourne's famous laneways, an art safari in Portugal, or a glimpse of the multicoloured murals that are covering Delhi, Lima and Honolulu. Finally, turn your smartwatch into a colourful artwork with our new Street Art Watch Faces! And if you want to discover a new artwork every time you open a browser tab in Chrome with the new Google Art Project Chrome extension.

So much goes into making a piece of street art. Yet its transient nature puts it at risk of being scrubbed out and lost forever. The Google Art Project allows these works of art to transcend the walls, be transported to your screen and live on. Visit the Google Cultural Institute and follow @googleart to discover more.

Posted by Lucy Schwartz, Program Manager, Google Cultural Institute

Wondering how to share your love tomorrow, on Valentine’s Day? Sometimes an image speaks louder than a thousand words...

To celebrate Valentine’s Day this weekend, the Google Cultural Institute team have gathered dozens of masterpieces on the theme of love and romance in a unique collection. Join us as we journey across countries, cultures and time and through love’s many manifestations, and share your favourite pieces with your loved ones. From Banksy to Van Gogh to Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, you’ll see a wide range of artwork in our collection.

For this special day, we’ve even digitised in ultra-high resolution one of the most famous kisses in the history of art: Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss. The two figures are are on a flower-strewn meadow, gently ascending from the abyss and protected by a halo of shimmering gold. Now, you can zoom in to brushstroke level and discover the painting’s delicate layers of gold leaf and the details of the meadow.
For other smooching styles, take a minute to enjoy Renoir’s Country Dance, or kisses by Anh Chang Hong, Edvard Munch and Giovanni Giuliani!
Explore the collection to find the masterpiece that best expresses your mood. Why not invite your love for a walk in the fields or an afternoon in the park, or to share a meal? Don’t just stand there day-dreaming or writing love letters - let your hair down at a wedding or a party! And if you are looking for a nice topic of conversation for dinner, explore how people have sent Valentines wishes over the years, from handwritten letters to telegrams to Twitter and Instagram.
Still not had your fix of romance? Escape to The Museum of Innocence in Turkey to discover the deeply moving love story of Kémal and Füsun. Orhan Pamuk conceived The Museum of Innocence, a love story set between 1974 and the early 2000s, as both a book and a museum. Combined, the two paint a picture of life in Istanbul through the memories and flashbacks of two families.
And there are plenty more masterpieces that could help you express your feelings. Explore the thousands of documents and artworks put online by our 600 global Cultural Institute partners.

In the words of Leo Tolstoy: "There are as many kinds of love as there are hearts”. So enjoy the visit and spread the love… and the art at google.com/culturalinstitute/project/love

Posted by Amit Sood, Head of the Google Cultural Institute

Enter the Museum of Arts et Métiers in Paris and one of the first things on view is a strange looking plane perched over a historic staircase. Wonder what it is? From today, click on a mobile app based on Google Cultural Institute platform and learn about Clement Adler’s 120-year old rival to the Wright Brothers.

The platform allows museums to create a simple but powerful mobile app, based on Google's technology including Street View and YouTube. Without resorting to expensive technical help, museums now can tell their stories. Interested institutions should sign up here.

Eleven museums and cultural institutions in Italy, France, the Netherlands and Nigeria, have worked with our engineers on this pilot project. Their apps are available for free on the Google Play store.

In Turin, discover the riches of the near and far East at MAO, wonder at the surprising artworks at GAM, and go instantly from the Middle Ages to contemporary photography at Palazzo Madama. Or discover the international street artworks and their authors,brought together by the Emergence Festival. Finally, stroll through MAGA to find out more about the Italian contemporary art scene.

In France, enter Marie Curie’s office and relive the discovery of radioactivity at the Musee Curie. Drive hrough the impressionist collection of the Museum of Le Havre (MuMa) with six audio thematic tours, and the Monnaie de Paris offers a guid through contemporary artist Paul McCarthy's Chocolate Factory.

In the Netherlands, visit the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden. Its app explores archaeological treasures from Egypt, Rome, and the Netherlands. Curious about the history of Nigeria?  Discover the story of the Amalgamation of the Southern and Northern Protectorate 100 years ago thanks to the Pan-Atlantic University app.

Particularly enjoy an artwork or love the story behind an object? These mobile apps allow easy sharing with friends. Because Internet access can be a challenge when traveling abroad, we made sure these apps will work when you're offline.

The Internet no longer plays just a minor role in diffusing museum knowledge. It has become a major force, allowing museums to expand and strengthen their reach. We look forward to deepening our partnership with museums that see digital media as core to their mission of education and inspiring people about art and culture.

Posted by Robert Tansley, Product Manager, Google Cultural Institute.