Here are some concerts you can watch and museums you can visit from home during the coronavirus outbreak
With many practicing social distancing in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, a number of musicians and arts institutions are getting creative in an effort to lift people’s spirits.
Artists including John Legend and Keith Urban have been hosting concerts via Instagram livestreams, while Coldplay frontman Chris Martin has launched a series of 'Solidarity Sessions'.
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Hide AdOn Monday evening (16 March), Martin performed on Instagram Live, playing a number of his band’s own hits, as well as covers by the likes of David Bowie. He also took time to answer fan questions.
The concerts were launched as part of the Sessions: Together, At Home series - an initiative dreamed up by Global Citizen Festival (of which Martin is a curator) and the World Health Organisation.
The next musician to perform is yet to be confirmed, although Legend asked his followers on Twitter to let him know which musicians he should "pass the torch to”.
Classical music
According to the Independent, for classical music fans, the Berlin Philharmonic has opened up its digital concert hall for the next month, giving free access to hundreds of past concerts in its famous Berlin venue, and the chance to watch forthcoming events, which will now be performed behind closed doors. Fans must register and redeem their vouchers before 31 March.
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Hide AdSimilarly, New York’s Metropolitan Opera will stream titles from its Live in HD series through its website until 22 March. Productions will be available from 11:30pm GMT for 20 hours.
Vienna State Opera has also opened its archives, to offer fans a different opera to watch each day for free, via its streaming platform. Wigmore Hall has an array of chamber music concerts free to watch, as does the London Symphony Orchestra.
Virtual museum tours
According to Fast Company, Google Arts & Culture has teamed up with over 2,500 museums and galleries to bring anyone and everyone virtual tours and online exhibits of some of the most famous landmarks around the world.
The British Museum of London allows virtual visitors to tour the Great Court and discover the ancient Rosetta Stone and Egyptian mummies. You can also find hundreds of artefacts on the museum’s virtual tour.
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Hide AdGoogle’s Street View feature lets visitors tour the New York’s Guggenheim museum’s famous spiral staircase without ever leaving home. From there, you can discover incredible works of art from the Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary eras.
One of Korea’s popular museums, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul can be accessed from anywhere around the world. Google’s virtual tour takes you through six floors of Contemporary art from Korea and all over the globe.
You can also virtually walk through Musée d’Orsay in Paris, which houses dozens of famous works from French artists who worked and lived between 1848 and 1914. Get a peek at artworks from Monet, Cézanne, and Gauguin, among others.
To see more of Google Arts & Culture’s collection of museums, visit the collection’s website.