Virtual museums and galleries

Virtual (3D) museums fall into two categories: [1] digital representations of real world museums, with their collections, and [2] digital reconstructions of worlds or environments.

Examples

Weald and Downland Open Air Museum (Panoramic VR)
» http://www.wealddown.co.uk/weald.htm
[Link verified and viewed 22 Feb 2007]

Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art (NY), American Wing Period Rooms: Virtual Reality Tour (Java panoramas))
» http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/vr/index.asp
[Link verified and viewed 22 Feb 2007]

National Gallery of Art - Cambodia Virtual Tour (Panoramic VR)
» http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/camwel.htm
[Link verified and viewed 22 Feb 2007]

Dennett's Dream (Abulafia Gallery ) (VRML)
» http://www.cgrg.ohio-state.edu/~mlewis/Gallery/vrml.html
[Link verified and viewed 22 Feb 2007]

VrView - Exhibits (Panoramic VR)
» http://www.vrview.com/exhibits/exhibits.html
[Link verified and viewed 22 Feb 2007]

Digital Virtual Design Museum (Viscape)
» http://www.svrt.com.tw/prj/chairgallery/index.html
[Link verified and viewed 22 Feb 2007]

Milltown Wing, National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin (VRML)
» http://www.dmc.dit.ie/guests/eirenet/eirenet/pages/vrart.htm
[Link verified and viewed 09 Feb 2005]

Virtual Music Museum (Sweden) (VRML; best with CosmoPlayer 2.0 for 3D graphics, and requires RealPlayer for audio)
» http://www.musiknet.se/musikmuseum/sve/
This was a truly brilliant site, but the URL now returns a 'page not found'. You can still view it, however, using Archive.org—the page is at:
» http://web.archive.org/web/20010911061450/www.musiknet.se/↩
musikmuseum/eng/museet_e.html
and for the VRML file alone:
» http://web.archive.org/web/20020624055206/www.musiknet.se/↩
musikmuseum/eng/museet2_e.wrl
[Archive.org link verified and viewed 09 Feb 2007]

Brancusi's Mademoiselle Pogany (Philadelphia Museum of Art) (VRML; best with CosmoPlayer 2.0 for 3D graphics, and requires RealPlayer for audio)
» http://www.narrativerooms.com/pogany/vr/index_a.html
[Link verified and viewed 22 Feb 2007]

Adrift (Boston CyberArts HyperGallery) (VRML)
» http://gallery.bostoncyberarts.org/vrml_frameset.html

VRML-ART --
» http://www.vrml-art.org
Seems to have been dead since late 2003, but can still be viewed at Archive.org:
» http://web.archive.org/web/20030612062957/www.web3dart.org/

Museo Casa de la Moneda (Madrid) (VRML; best viewed with CosmoPlayer)
» http://www.fnmt.es/esp/museo/evisita.htm

"The Yellow House". (in ActiveWorlds.)
» [Select VanGogh from the Worlds menu in ActiveWorlds browser.]

Readings:

» Artistic Representations in Virtual Reality (VRArt) -- a comprehensive bibliography of documents on VR in the visual arts.

Katie Fernie & Julian D. Richards (eds.), Creating and Using Virtual Reality: A Guide for the Arts and Humanities (Arts & Humanities Data Service Guides to Good Practice S.) Oxford: Oxbow Books. 2004. ISBN: 1842170406. [Amazon]
[An online version of the book may be viewed at:
http://vads.ahds.ac.uk/guides/vr_guide/