Summer Arts & Culture Travel Enhanced!

Screenshot of the Bloomberg Connects promotional video available on their website: https://www.bloombergconnects.org/for-partners/

In a much earlier blog post, I talked about Google Arts & Culture and how fun it is to use it to explore museums around the world from the comfort of your armchair. Well, recently I found out about another FREE app designed to bring a wealth of information into your home OR augment your visit to over 900+ museums, parks, gardens, or other cultural spaces. It's called Bloomberg Connect, and here's what it looks like in the app store:

This arts and culture travel app provides a combination of images, text, videos, and content created specifically for it (i.e., not available at the location) to help users "find context, history, and a larger understanding of the artwork and both its relevance and significance in the world."

Let's take a look at the famous Guggenheim Museum in New York on the app:

https://www.guggenheim.org/plan-your-visit/digital-guide

Dear reader, you can see that with the app, you can easily explore content about current, upcoming, and past exhibitions, the architecture and story of the building, and information on programs/initiatives. And it's available in multiple languages.

Or, if historical sites are on your summer travel list, check out all the cool content available for visiting Benjamin Franklin's house, located at 36 Craven Street in the heart of London. It is the world's only remaining home of Benjamin Franklin.: https://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/visit/bloomberg-connects/

For this location, they offer a lot of interesting content including: stories about Benjamin Franklin’s life in London narrated by Founding Director, Márcia Balisciano, which brings the historic spaces to life, a behind the scenes look at historic features not normally seen by the public, an extensive catalogue of virtual lectures – audio focused on topics related to Benjamin Franklin, the18th century, and American culture and politics, and a digital flythrough of the building showing how it would have looked in Franklin’s day.

When I was younger, I preferred to show up in a new place and explore by following my instincts. Honestly, I still like doing that, but I also find value in a little more preparation. If I had an arts and/or culture themed trip planned this year, I would use this app to take a look at what will be on display and where I want to focus my time.

If you go somewhere that has a lot of history, art, and/or culture, download this app, check it out, and let me know what you think!