Bring the Best of Arts and Culture Home
Our mission at Arts Orange County is to support, showcase, and celebrate the arts and culture of our home here in O.C. In addition to the outstanding offerings we share on SparkOC by our own world-class Orange County artists, we are pleased to provide this curated list of some of the best online arts and arts educational experiences originating from around the U.S. and abroad.
Simply click on one of the buttons below and start exploring!
VISUAL ARTS
Google Arts & Culture
See masterpieces from the collections of over 1,200 global museums through a partnership with Google
Art21
Every week, Art21 pulls from their vast, free collection to feature one video on contemporary art. Start there, then learn how young artists live and work through the New York Close Up series.
MoMA Learning
From themes of “Pop Art” and celebrity culture to “Movement and Migration”, MoMA Learning offers mini-courses filled with videos, activities, and reading materials centered on modern and contemporary art.
Arts Integration
Explore visual arts lessons designed to be done at home with limited materials. From “Photojournalism” to “Art from Nature,” participate through video lessons or printable handouts.
PERFORMING ARTS
Live with Carnegie Hall
Live performances, storytelling with world class artists, and excerpts from past performances at one of the world’s most legendary musical venues
The Social Distancing Festival
Every day, the Social Distancing Festival features new work from photography exhibitions to performances from opera and Broadway artists. Participate in their worldwide community celebrating art.
Nightly Met Opera Streams
Every night, a new, free performance from the archives of the Metropolitan Opera’s long-running Live in HD series is made available online for 24 hours.
Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concerts
The great musical ensemble is expanding its subscription streaming program to include free selections from their performance archives as well as weekly streaming concerts.
Filmed on Stage Free Streams
Stream musicals, concerts, and plays featuring some of your favorite artists like Cynthia Erivo and Billy Porter from this list that is updated daily.
Stream Shakespeare!
The MarySue has compiled this helpful guide to online options for viewing every play in Shakespeare’s canon
Ailey All Access
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is sharing a rotating series of performance videos featuring their stunning, internationally-renowned choreography.
BroadwayHD Free Trial
The streaming service which offers access to thousands of filmed productions from the capital of the theater world will give you a week of unlimited access
PBS Passport
The best of Broadway, British television, award-winning journalism, and much more is available when you dive into the vast collection of PBS SoCal with their Passport streaming service.
Dance Magazine
Streaming dance performances of every kind from around the world gathered on a regularly-updated page.
Banjo House Lockdown with Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn
The dazzling musical duo holds weekly live concerts on Facebook live and YouTube.
GoNoodle
Get moving with GoNoodle! Bring out your bravest and silliest dance moves to go along with their videos. Whether you need to energize or calm down, GoNoodle has a perfect video for you.
Dance with Ryan Heffington!
Ryan Heffington has choreographed everything from Sia’s music videos to the TV show Euphoria. Join the worldwide community and participate in his famous Los Angeles dance classes for free on Instagram!
Retaking the Stage
Theatre Bay Area is providing daily updates on upcoming streaming theatre performances as well as archived productions you can view for free
What’s Streaming Today?
Theater, music, and dance performances from around the world in one easy calendar
POETRY & LITERATURE
Poem-A-Day
Poets.org produces this daily, digital series devoted to new and unpublished poems from leading contemporary poets, including text and recorded readings
Storytellers Project – from USA Today
Journalists from USA Today work to turn the stories of ordinary lives into compelling stage presentations from the people who lived them. You can watch highlights from the archives, or tune in for their new, monthly virtual editions
Book Passage’s Conversations with Authors
The beloved independent book store in the San Francisco Bay Area is holding weekly streaming conversations with authors beloved by the indie bookseller community.
A Sonnet a Day From Sir Patrick Stewart
One of the world’s most beloved and admired classical actors is posting daily readings of the poetry of William Shakespeare
FAMILY
Lunch Doodle with Mo Willems
“Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems!” is a daily, online series from the Kennedy Center that lets kids enter Mo’s studio virtually. Learn to create doodles and cartoons from one of the greats, himself.
MetKids
A child’s-eye view on the worlds of art, culture, and history available from the Metropolitan Museum of Art; including a “time machine”, interactive cartoon museum map, and interviews by kids of Museum artists and staff.
Art Lessons with Cassie Stevens
The popular art instructor is filling her YouTube channel with brief lessons and activities to get kids crafting and creating.
VIRTUAL TOURS
The Louvre
The world’s largest art museum, home to the immortal Mona Lisa, there aren’t enough superlatives for Paris’s monument to beauty and culture. Multiple virtual tours of galleries and exhibits are available
The British Museum
Travel through time with this unique interactive tour of major exhibits from one of the world’s greatest historical and cultural collections; home of The Rosetta Stone and so much more
Musée d’Orsay
Paris’s home to many of the greatest masterworks in the history of French painting
Rijksmuseum
The premier art museum of the Netherlands celebrates the Dutch golden age of painting with works by Vermeer, Rembrandt, and many more
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Met’s one-of-a-kind “Met 360” immersive video experience allows you to experience the museum in ways you never could in real life – in an empty gallery after-hours, in a time lapse where hours go by in seconds, even flying high above.
EDUCATION
MacGillivray Freeman Films
Free online selections from veteran creators of inspiring and educational documentary films that immerse people of all ages into natural wonders, great stories of science and culture, and much more
At Home Learning
Curated resources from the Los Angeles County Office of Education to support all arts education. This is for teachers and administrators to access and adapt in online learning environments.
Amplifier
Amplifier connects your classroom and students to a wider community with tools that integrate arts and social change. Join them in their mission to amplify art, dialogue, and cross-cultural conversation.
Theatricum Botanicum
The “Distance Learning Academy of the Classics” created by this acclaimed outdoor Shakespeare festival offers classes in acting technique, theatrical history, dramaturgy, music, dance, even classical hairdressing
The Arts Standards Webinar Series
A six-part webinar series for teachers on the newly-adopted 2019 California Arts Standards. These webinars feature county office of education Arts Leads and TCAP Teacher Leaders addressing what’s new and challenging.
Art Education and the Coronavirus
The Art of Education University offers a free weekly seminar on teaching art online in the time of COVID-19. The webinar covers everything from fostering creativity online to practicing mindfulness.