San Antonio Becomes First Texas City on Google Arts & Culture Platform

Last week, the City of San Antonio announced that it has partnered with Google Arts & Culture, an initiative launched in 2011 to bring cultural institutions and art to a broader audience, to bring several local institutions onto Google’s online platform.

When Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) first launched, it partnered with 17 museums from around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Frick Collection in New York; the Van Gogh Museum and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam; and the National Gallery in London. Since then, it has grown, and now features more than 1,500 museums and cultural institutions, including the following Texas museums: the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, the Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon. 

As Google Arts & Culture expands, it has begun highlighting broader arts and cultural initiatives of cities, rather than just institutions. Some other U.S. cities that have been spotlighted include Cleveland, Atalanta, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, Kansas City, and Milwaukee. San Antonio has become the first Texas city added to the platform. A year-and-a-half in the making, the full partnership encompasses 19 San Antonio-based organizations, such as Visit San Antonio, the Alamo, the Holocaust Memorial Museum of Texas, the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum, Briscoe Western Art Museum, The Contemporary at Blue Star, the McNay Art Museum, Ruby City, and the San Antonio Museum of Art. 

Beyond documenting these cultural spaces, this initiative shares important narratives and information about the city including online tours that focus on the city’s cultural roots, historic sites, and public art. Potential visitors to the city might use the site to help plan a trip, and those who may not be able to travel but are interested in learning about and seeing the sites of San Antonio can explore a wide range of spaces from the comfort of their own homes.

Though launched just recently, the project will be ongoing. Additional information and organizations will be added in the future, and institutions that are already a part of the San Antonio roll out will continue to update their pages with new information moving forward.

Visit Google Arts & Culture to learn about and explore San Antonio.