Who would have dreamt a generation ago that the time would come when you could explore the world’s great collections at the click of a mouse?

Virtual Veronese
National Gallery, London

Who would have dreamt a generation ago that the time would come when you could explore the world’s great collections at the click of a mouse? The digital revolution has been a boon to galleries and museums – but every revolution has its downside. The worry for bricks and mortar institutions is that with gallery websites at their fingertips, people won’t visit in person.

Virtual reality is another mixed blessing. At Tate Modern’s 2017 Giacometti show, ­visitors rushed past examples of the artist’s work to join 15-minute queues for a virtual recreation of his Paris studio. When a digital gallery experience becomes a substitute for the real thing, it defeats the object of the exercise. The challenge for galleries is to harness the power of new media to enhance the ­experience of looking at the actual art.

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