(Updated November 2024)
There are now many online Arts and Heritage related activities available to view from the comfort of your home on-line: from museums and galleries to theatres and opera houses. Scroll down to find links to: Talks, Exhibitions, Virtual Tours of Museums and Galleries, Performing Arts, Garden Tours, Members’ Recommendations. There’s even a Quiz Corner for you to test your knowledge.
Visit also our Resources page for quick links to a whole range of websites of arts institutions
THE national ARTS SOCIETY has its own website, Facebook and Instagram pages. It’s also set up a special website CULTUR.ART with short films and articles designed to encourage people to engae with a wide range of the arts.
TALKS 
Sian Walters, an Arts Society accredited lecturer, has Cultural Travels From Home, offering courses, talks and virtual tours, with local guides. Click here
Stella Grace Lyons, also an Arts Society lecturer, has an excellent series of on-line talks as well as courses – see her website here.
HENI Talks These are short talks that are free to view on the internet. HENI is an international art services business working with leading artists and estates across publishing, print-making, digital, film and art research. Click here .
The Arts Society gave us a whole series of free on-line talks during the pandemic. You can still watch them some of them here.
New York’s brilliant Frick Collection gave us no less than 65 free Friday night talks about different paintings in their series – still available on YouTube and complete with cocktail recipes – Cocktails with a Curator
The National Gallery has several virtual tours of their permanent collection and other free video talks So does the Tate – click here. The Wallace Collection also has films and talks about the collection.
Art and the Country House – not talks but illustrated essays on art in some of our major country houses (including Petworth)
EXHIBITIONS 
Some museums and galleries offer free to view tours of recent or past exhibitions or films about them. The Rijksmuseum for, example, still has a wonderful interactive video about its major exhibition of Vermeer in 2023.
The British Museum has many on-line articles,videos and photos about past exhibitions
PERFORMING ARTS
The National Theatre has many recordings of their plays that you can watch on-line for a monthly subscription. Click here
The Royal Opera House – also has many recorded ballet and opera performance available for you to buy and view on line.
New York’s Metropolitan Opera also has live streams (audio only) of operas and a subscription service like the ROH for a huge range of recordings
There’s also Operavision – click here for a wide range of free recordings of opera performances from around Europe
Medici TV also has a wide range of concerts, operas and ballets
Shakespeare’s Globe also has on-line performances to rent or buy
The London Symphony Orchestra has concerts to listen to on-line.
VIRTUAL TOURS OF MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES
Many world famous museums and galleries have virtual tours that you can access for free by going to their websites. Google Arts and Culture also showcases artworks from museums and galleries worldwide on a major website with suggestions for all sorts of art activities as well. Go to it here
Recommendations for ones you like are very welcome. Here are a few suggestions:
Bayeux Tapestry – for the first time you can explore it in detail on-line
Mauritshuis Museum in the Hague – see this world class collection of paintings – including Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Goldfinch – in unprecedented detail in a 3D tour.
David Parr House, Cambridge – take a live virtual tour of this beautifully preserved Arts and Crafts worker’s home
Liverpool Museums and Art Galleries – there are several virtual tours, including the Walker and Lady Lever galleries and the Maritime Museum
Kettles Yard, Cambridge, former home of Jim and Helen Ede – take the virtual tour here too
Monet’s Water Lilies at the Orangerie – a virtual tour
While you are in Paris, why not go up the Eiffel Tower and see the views?
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam
The Courtauld Gallery has a wonderful collection, especially noted for Impressionists.
Dulwich Picture Gallery has a number of short films to view. Have a look at artist Lachlan Goudie taling about John Singer Sergeant’s lovely watercolours.
The Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum in Boston has an extraordinary collection of world-class art works from ancient times to the 20th C. Collected by one woman with a love of art – and a great deal of money – and housed in a purpose built house in the style of an Italian palazzo. Look at Google’ s virtual tour and explore anything you’re interested in in more detail on the museum’s website. Make sure you look at the amazing upper rooms (including the ceilings)
Fancy a virtual trip to Florence? Go to the Uffizi with links to the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens too.
Or lift your spirits with Sorolla’s wonderful effects of light at the Sorolla Museum in Madrid.
Closer to home, take a trip to the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle and see Holman-Hunt, John Martin, Henry Moore and others.
GARDENS
The National Garden Scheme has a huge range of virtual garden visits as well as much more.
For more garden ideas have a look at Waddesdon Manor’s gardens or try this video about King Charles’s Highgrove House, with Alan Titchmarsh.
QUIZ CORNER
Julian Halsby, Chairman of The Arts Society Sherborne, put together an excellent quiz, which he kindly shared with others. Find it attached here. It’s not easy! Link to answers at the bottom of this page.
Have a go at a Quiz about Illustrators, kindly devised by another friend. You can find it here. You’ll find a link to the answers towards the end of this page.
There’s another Quiz about Self-Portraits. Name the artist portrayed in these self-portraits. Click here. A link to the answers is also at the bottom of the page.
MEMBERS’ RECOMMENDATIONS
Nature and Us – A History of through Art – James Fox – Three BBC programmes on iPlayer here
The Sights and Sounds of LS Lowry – see and hear it on Google Art and Culture here
The Guardian Arts Page on-line Several members have recommended the Guardian newspaper’s on-line arts page. It’s free to view. Here’s a link.
Coursera offers on-line courses by universities, some free, in a wide range of subjects including art and art history. Click here to see some of the courses offered.
Philip Mould – Art In Isolation on YouTube A series of 20 short talks in which Philip Mould talks about his personal art collection. Philip owns a gallery in Pall Mall and is a well-known writer and TV presenter. Here’s a link to the full series – scroll down on the page to view the different episodes.
The Ghent Altarpiece by Van Eyck There are lovely pictures, close ups and details of the restoration here. You can also see anexcellent short film about the Van Eyck in Ghent exhibition presented by Waldemar Januszczak
Doodlechaos For an unusual bit of fun while listening to music, try ‘Doodlechaos’. Here’s Beethoven’s 5th
Lots more – classical and others – at https://www.youtube.com/user/DoodleChaos/videos
QUIZ ANSWERS
Big Art Quiz find the answers here
Illustrators Quiz – find the answers here
Self-Portaits Quiz – find the answers here