Take in a dose of arts and culture while at home by “visiting” these stellar art spaces that showcase works from around the world and provide a bit of escape from your living room couch. Don’t forget to visit all of them when they reopen and show your support, too!
Chazen Museum of Art
Home to more than 20,000 works of art, the Chazen is a must-visit when they reopen their doors. For now, an extensive online collection of their works is available for view, as well as virtual docent tours (complete with details on specific works docents show on their tours and why) information on past exhibitions and catalogues. Fun fact: their online collection has a mind-boggling amount of Salvador Dali works! Check them out here. chazen.wisc.edu
Haggerty Museum of Art
Another campus museum, Marquette University’s arts institution also catalogues their permanent collection online. View works by Marc Chagall, Georges Rouault, Robert Rauschenberg and Alexander Calder. marquette.edu/haggerty
John Michael Kohler Arts Center
This Sheboygan-based arts escape makes art fun and accessible. Take 360-degree tours of their current and past exhibitions, watch virtual dance performances and classes, check out their Social Studio Facebook group and join their Book to Art Club Skype book discussions. The variety of ways you can get involved show the JMKAC’s commitment to keeping their fans involved. jmkac.org
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
The capital city’s dazzling contemporary space houses nearly 6,000 objects and is known for “the nation’s finest collections of Chicago Imagism as well as significant holdings in Mexican Modernist prints, Wisconsin-based artists, and contemporary photography.” You can experience selected artworks and collections virtually here—such as Frida Kahlo’s “Pitahayas” painting or Roy Lichtenstein’s “Foot and Hand” print. Their Chicago Imagists online collection is cool, quirky and offbeat—and features 15 artists and a lengthy explanation of the movement. mmoca.org
Milwaukee Art Museum
The state’s marquee arts institution has plenty of ways you can experience the museum from your own home. Virtual guests can explore over 9,000 of the museum’s works—everything from 16th-century Italian paintings to John James Audubon’s lush animal watercolors and oil paintings to Edmund Charles Tarbell’s Impressionist work of American life at the turn of the 19th century. You can also virtually tour (with audio) the museum’s 19th Century European Academic Gallery, listen to audio guides and podcasts, read their blog and even find activities for kids to do at home. mam.org
Racine Art Museum
Bruce W. Pepich, the Racine Museum of Art’s executive director and curator of collections, is personalizing the RAM’s collections by showcasing 20 women artists in the museum’s collection in short, educational videos on YouTube. According to the museum, “By current count, 40% of the artists in RAM’s collection—the largest collections of contemporary craft in the United State—are women.” (The videos are also in honor of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote.) The museum’s Facebook and Instagram accounts also feature themed posts that give further insight into their collections, and their website offers free, family-friendly art activities to inspire kids. ramart.org
University of Wisconsin-Madison’s MFA Art program
Every year in May, UW-Madison’s MFA students showcase their thought-provoking works in a finale show. This year the show had to go virtual, so explore six artists’ works this year and detailed explanations of what informs their vision and artistic point of view. View paintings, drawings, photography and metalwork. art.wisc.edu/galleries/2020_mfa
Image: The Milwaukee Art Museum, courtesy VISIT Milwaukee
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