With nearly half of the world’s population restricted from travel and movement, the travel industry is taking unusual measures to encourage people on lockdown to enjoy the best of the world through art and culture.
Artists and art galleries alike are looking to inspire people who are isolating at home around the world.
Paintings, sculptures and installations are becoming increasingly available online so people can take “virtual-tours” without having to leave their home.
Galleries from the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles to the Natural History Museum in London are offering virtual tours for people to experience art and travel from home.
Artem Shestakov is an influential artist on social media who is inspiring travel through artistic photography of destinations around the world. Whilst working with the Tranter-Sinni Gallery, the Ukrainian-born artist, now living in Miami, is showing off photography from six different countries. Travels to Pakistan, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, China, Indonesia and the Netherlands are featured in inspiring shots that show off the very best of the world, which are designed to be enjoyed and appreciated from peoples’ homes.
Shestakov’s world travels have helped develop his deep passion for landscapes and the wilderness, and the well-known artist is encouraging people to embrace creativity during travel restrictions. The travel photographer is keen to encourage more artists to distribute their work around the world online and spread positivity through appreciation of nature.
Virtual tours and the enjoyment of museums, world-famous sites and art are increasingly being made available online. The UNESCO World Heritage site of Machu Picchu is offering a virtual tour that affords many whose dream it was to follow in the Inca footsteps to now do so from their living room.
Similarly, it is now possible to walk through the majority of the rooms at the world-famous Louvre Gallery in Paris. The interactive tour allows for an in-depth look at some of the world’s most famous pieces of art.
It is not just galleries and museums that are opening their doors to the public virtually. Aquariums are also allowing visitors to marvel at the underwater world from home. The Georgia Aquarium in the U.S. is allowing online visitors to marvel at Belugas from up close and personal. The aquarium also has a daily live-stream.
With reduced movement and travel globally the creativity demonstrated amongst those in the travel industry has been hugely positive in such unknown territory.
Music artists such as D-Nice are playing live DJ sets on their Instagram live accounts and Late Night chat shows are adapting with home-recorded episodes. To encourage people to only travel where strictly essential, other well-known names including Daddy Yankee and Ricky Martin are also pushing their messages across social platforms.
Art and content are now being created from home, and although the world is hoping travel restrictions will be short-lived, we are seeing an unprecedented appreciation for the world in which we can hopefully travel again, in the not too distant future.
This article first appeared on Forbes and has been reproduced with consent.
