Improve memory by visiting museums virtually
By Patty Marsters
pattm@lwsb.com
According to a recent podcast by Dr. Anthony Metivier, visiting art galleries can improve memory. Among the 17 reasons he gave are it helps make mental connections between space and material objects, exercises one’s ability to create meaning, and gives the experience of puzzlement.
“Looking at art is never just about ‘looking,’” Metivier wrote in the accompanying blog on his Magnetic Memory Method website. “As your eyes meet the graphic displays, ideas emerge. In fact, ‘art’ happens the moment that you start thinking about what you’re looking at or noticing your emotional responses.”
If taking a guided tour, he says, a person would further develop concentration. Other sources agree, adding the visit can enrich personal creativity and provide a source of stress relief, as well as serve as affordable entertainment.
But with COVID-19 precautions and safer-at-home orders in place, it can be hard, if not impossible, to visit local art galleries. But last year, Google Arts & Culture partnered with more than 2,500 museums and galleries to bring their collections to homebound aficionados.
The list at https://artsandculture. google.com/partner?hl=en is impressive, including American favorites such as the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and New York’s Guggenheim Museum, as well as international treasures such as the British Museum in London, Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Pergamon Museumin Berlin. Those who are overwhelmed by it all can visit a curated top 10 list at https:// artsandculture.google.com/story/ igKSKBBnEBSGKg? hl= en that features the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and MASP in São Paolo.
The collections contained within the museums are separated by category, and for some, there are also featured exhibits. Everything is in an easy-tonavigate format and include detailed information about the works presented. For virtual visitors to the Musée d’Orsay, there’s a pictorial history of the building’s transformation from train station to museum. Washington, D.C.’s National Gallery of Art offers “Fashioning a Nation,” a survey of American formal wear from 1740 to 1895. There are up-close views of 5,000 years’ worth of treasures displayed at the National Museum in New Delhi. Astronomers won’t want to miss seeing what NASA and the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum have on view.
There are also “street view” tours of select museums, such as the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands. This allows the viewer to roam the museum as if they were there.
As COVID continues to impact daily routines as well as vacation plans, there just might be time to cross several museums off people’s bucket lists—and create new, art-filled memories.
Tour New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met), the largest art museum in the United States, and improve your memory-without leaving California.
Anton Ivanov Photo
