Cool cultural offerings during this pandemic?

August 13, 2020 4:34 PM

I'm looking for a 90th birthday gift for my grandma. She's a huge history buff and also normally a frequent patron of art museums. I remember hearing some news stories in passing a couple months ago about creative ways that artists/musicians/museums/etc were reaching out to people virtually, but I'm not turning up much with google (maybe bad search terms). Any recommendations for something like this? I'm vaguely imagining like a virtual performance or some kind of online special museum access (or maybe something totally different).
posted by Gravel to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

Best answer: Airbnb online experiences are fantastic. There are many art, history and cultural experiences to choose from. You can book the entire date and host a party or join as individuals.
posted by jennstra at 4:55 PM on August 13, 2020

Where is she? In my city numerous arts organizations are doing porch/neighborhood concerts, depending on budget perhaps you could book one.
posted by stray at 5:11 PM on August 13, 2020 [2 favorites]

They vary in price, but she might appreciate a birthday Cameo from a favorite musician or performer! This is what I remember hearing about in the news, maybe you had something else in mind.
posted by stellaluna at 5:24 PM on August 13, 2020 [2 favorites]

A friend was just wistfully posting about not being able to visit Italy; she's doing a $10 online (live, with an archaeologist guide) tour of Pompeii. Here's a link. (They have other tours too.)
posted by purpleclover at 8:32 PM on August 13, 2020 [4 favorites]

Best answer: The Smithsonian Associates is offering a live one hour zoom tour of the Barnes Foundation on August 20th: "High-definition Deep Zoom technology offers closeup looks at the canvases that reveal their surfaces and details in ways that bring the art and the artists to vivid life. The tour also focuses on the history of the collection, including the unique approach to displaying artworks and objects in groupings created by founder Albert Barnes."
posted by gudrun at 8:43 PM on August 13, 2020 [3 favorites]

https://www.balletx.org/ is doing a virtual subscription this fall if she enjoys contemporary ballet. I think they've posted a lot of video clips if you wanted to get a sense of their style.
posted by sepviva at 3:38 AM on August 14, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks I love all of these ideas! Now I have the opposite problem where I don't know what to choose.
posted by Gravel at 10:32 AM on August 14, 2020