Newcastle’s Laing Art Gallery joins Google Cultural Institute

Newcastle’s Laing Art Gallery has joined the White House, the Palace of Versaille and other museums and galleries from around the world as part of Google’s Cultural Institute. The project hosts the world’s cultural treasures online, meaning that people from all over the world can virtually visit the Laing Art Gallery and see the artworks on show. Julie Milne, Chief Curator, Laing Art Gallery, said: “This project means that you can now navigate around the Laing Art Gallery from your computer or mobile device, view the paintings from the collection online and even curate your own collections of artworks. “We were thrilled to be approached by Google to be a part of this project, and the Laing now appears alongside some of the most exceptional cultural venues in the world.” Google used Street View technology to film inside the Laing Art Gallery, and even photographed one of the Gallery’s key paintings, Laus Veneris by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, in ‘gigapixel’ format, allowing people to zoom in to brushstroke level and explore the painting in incredible detail. Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, which manages the Laing Art Gallery and eight other cultural venues in the North East, is continuing to work with Google to include its other venues in the Cultural Institute project. View the Laing Art Gallery online at www.google.com/culturalinstitute.