Have you ever wondered what it’s like backstage at the opera? Or how it might feel to dance under the glare of a concert hall’s spotlight? With a new virtual exhibition of performing arts on the Google Cultural Institute, you can experience all of this with the click of a mouse. And we’re also giving you front row seats to some of the world’s leading performances. So sit back and get comfortable as we dim the lights and take you through a world tour of performing arts…



You can browse performances and everything that goes on on- and off-stage at more than 60 institutions—including the world famous Carnegie Hall, to the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Berliner Philharmoniker. Moving east, I’ve selected some highlights from our partners in Asia-Pacific—the Queensland Performing Arts Center in Australia, the Dilli Gharana and Natural Streets For Performing Arts Foundation in India, Aomori Nebuta Matsuri in Japan, and the National Theatre of Korea, National Gugak Center and Kukkiwon in Korea.


Start with a tour of the Queensland Performing Arts Center and its lovely venues, indoor and out.
[Image] Left: QPAC’s Melbourne Street Green is a great place to enjoy free music outdoors on a Friday night; Right: The view of the stage from QPAC’s Concert Hall balcony.
Get lost in a sea of colored lights amidst the floats Aomori Nebuta Matsuri. The lantern floats at this annual Japanese summer festival in Aomori prefecture stand up to 10 meters tall and are made of fragile traditional paper wrapped around a bamboo frame. They depict Japanese gods, mythological and and historical figures.

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In Korea, see how the demonstration team of Kukkiwon, the sport’s global headquarters, reinterprets the ancient martial art of taekwondo, presenting it alongside traditional music to create a special performance.




You can also learn about the Dilli Gharana, an ancient form of music from Hindustan in India.
[Image] Ustad Chand Khan Sahab giving a lesson to Ustad Iqbal Ahmed Khan. The portrait at the back is of Shams-e-Maousiqi Ustad Mamman Khan Sahab.
The Google Cultural Institute was founded in 2011 to bring the world’s treasures to anyone with an Internet connection. Starting in partnership with a handful of renowned museums, we’ve since joined forces with 900+ institutions to include historic archives, street art, and 200 wonders of the world. Now you can also visit dozens of the world’s stages together in one place—across mobile, tablet and desktop at g.co/performingarts and on the Google Cultural Institute website.

Posted by Kate Lauterbach, Program Manager, Google Cultural Institute