But maybe if you’re busy or not up for crowds (I’m still picky about the places I’m willing to bother putting on pants to go to, I get it), today might be a perfect day for a long overdue installment of virtual museum tours.

While Go to an Art Museum Day allows you to be a tourist in your own town, virtual museum tours allow you to explore all sorts of exotic locations without ever having to get on an airplane (and that’s always a win).

Since today is also Kitten Tuesday, I thought it would be appropriate to take this opportunity to explore a few of the numerous cat museums around the world.

Numerous? Yes, I was surprised too.

The Cat Museum of San Francisco

When I was doing research for International Cat Day, I came across the Cat Museum of San Francisco. What!?!?!  Why hadn’t I heard of this wonderful place before? Mom, sister, and I used to regularly make our ballet season weekends a cultural extravaganza with a visit to one of San Francisco’s great museums included in our itinerary of shopping, fine dining, and performing arts. Why had we never visited the Cat Museum?

It turns out that the Cat Museum of San Francisco is not a place, but an idea.

While I have to admit that I am disappointed to learn that there is not an actual, physical, cat museum in San Francisco, I am beyond delighted at the fact that this is a museum of the mind and of the heart.

Cat Museums Around the World

It turns out that San Francisco is not the only city with a dedicated cat museum. There are actually quite a few cat museums around the world.

The Maneki Neko Art Museum in Okayama, Japan is dedicated to the Japanese Lucky Cat and boasts over 700 examples. The figure, which originated in the 19^th century, can be portrayed with either the right paw (to attract more visitors) or left paw (to attract more money) raised or both.

In Montenegro, the Cats Museum of Kotor has an extensive collection of vintage cat memorabilia – cigar rings, books (even a lace bookmark with cats), art depicting cats in human clothes/situations, the list goes on. This museum has a few video/slideshows of various works from the collection, like this 2-minute option.

The Kattenkabenet in Amsterdam has its entire collection available to view online. The collection is organized by type of work (sculpture, painting, posters, etc.) and you can click on any piece you find interesting to get more information about it. There is also a page with biographical information about artists who painted cats as their subject. Unfortunately, its virtual tours are presented in Adobe Flash Player which is an outdated format that I don’t recommend installing.

Although not technically a cat museum, the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West, Florida does boast having approximately 60 six-toed cats living on the premises.

Outside of Asheville, North Carolina is the American Museum of the House Cat, which was founded by Dr. Harold Sims (aka Cat Man 2) to showcase his collection of cat memorabilia as well as raise money for a local cat shelter. One way to experience the American Museum of the House Cat is through this 12-minute documentary.

Other ways to celebrate Go to an Art Museum Day

If cat museums aren’t your thing, you can still participate in Go to an Art Museum Day from home. Why not try:

• Looking up a subject, artist, or museum that you have always wanted to know more about (I’d love to hear what you decide to look up).
• Pick up a book about art.
• Make some art yourself, even if it’s just one inch.

Of course, if you are fortunate enough to have cats at home, you can just take the opportunity today to appreciate them like the great masterpieces they are!

The post Go to an Art Museum Day, Virtually appeared first on Cynthia Gellis.

Back in the old days (before March 2020) I liked to find a reason for a museum visit at least a couple of times a year. For me, it was a great way to break out of my routine and get a different perspective on things.  If there wasn’t an exhibit that I was particularly interested in, the people watching alone was usually well worth the price of admission.

Some museums are beginning to open with restrictions. When I think about recent museum visits, a social-distanced museum experience sounds delightful. But I’m probably not going to make a point of going to a museum anytime soon.

Recently, I saw a teaser on the internet about virtual museum tours and thought what a great topic for a blog post! Most of us still aren’t traveling anyway, why not check out some of the great museums of the world from home?

I thought that it would be easy to pull together a list of museums and link to their virtual tours and we would be on our way.

Once I started digging in, the first thing that became clear is that not all virtual museum tours are created equal. The second thing was that trying to wander around a museum virtually is not as easy or as much fun as one would hope.

Like most things on the internet, it is better to have an idea about what you are looking for before you begin. Whereas back in the old days, you could decide to go to a museum and just wander around for a few hours, the navigation of even the most user-friendly virtual museum tour is broken down into layers and layers of sub-menus. There are so many decisions to make before you get near any art.

Some virtual museum tours try to make it seem like you are walking through the galleries. I found these tricky to navigate and started to get frustrated. Some are more like online photo albums – it’s really more of a slide show than a virtual tour.

I realized that what I really wanted was some sort of video where someone would take me through a gallery, give me a good look at the work, and tell me about it. I started to find some videos on YouTube, but there is a lot of variation with these as well. So, what I’ve decided to do is start a series here where I will create a curated virtual museum visit for various places. These may include videos, virtual tours, selections from a collection, and articles about the institution, a particular collection, exhibit, or work.

This will give me an excuse to snoop around and see what I can find with a clear goal in mind: providing you, with a manageable, curated experience. I envision it being the kind of thing that you can just read the post and go on with your life or you can take a little time to click through the various resources I’ll link to and have your own little virtual field trip.

Some of the places that I have started exploring for us include:

• The Louvre
• The Victoria and Albert Museum
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Saint Peter’s Basilica
• The National Gallery
• The Smithsonian

On the one hand, it’s never going to be the same as being there in person. On the other hand, doesn’t it sound fun is it to get to poke around from the comfort of your own home?

I’m going to try to post at least one a month and we’ll see how it goes. If you have any tips for navigating virtual museum experiences or suggestions for particular things that you would like to see, let me know!

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