Pop Culture, Creativity & an Ode to Google Arts & Culture

When I tell people my favourite tech tool is Google Arts & Culture, I’m usually met with a puzzled expression and a ‘What’s that?’ But Google Arts & Culture is a deep and immersive experience with a bit of something for everyone.

Before delving a little deeper, let me take a moment to explain how I got to this point with Google Arts & Culture. I’ve always been an advocate for creativity and believe that it is fundamental to one's expressionism that we share our influences as they are what helps to define us. The late, great Hounslow-born-US-rapper MF DOOM (just remember: ALL CAPS) puts it best, ‘You’ve gotta remember the roots of your inner creativity’. DOOM was not afraid to put his influences front and centre of his art; many of his tracks start with samples of classic 1960s Fantastic Four and Spider-Man Cartoons or beats taken straight from 60s and 70s artists like Steely Dan or early-RnB pioneers, The Whatnauts. Good artists share their influences and show them with pride. In teaching, there are seldom moments for this to happen, but when it does, it can make magic.

In the early 2010s, I took a group of children to East London to immerse them in street art. I’d been given free rein over the curriculum and produced a cross-curricular odyssey to Shepard Fairey, WATTS, SpaceInvader, and other street art greats. Hopping on the Overground from Crystal Palace, I took the class through Brick Lane on a tour of East London Street Art and took in their thoughts and opinions. We interviewed members of the public and got first-hand impressions of the effects of street art on an area. Back in the classroom, the pupils created some of the best non-chronological reports they’d ever written as a result. This freedom to teach through influences led to the pupils reciprocating this in their own writing.

Fast-forward some years to the discovery of Google Arts & Culture, and it felt like finding a treasure trove of artistic inspiration right at my fingertips. Arts & Culture opened up a world of creativity, allowing me to explore museums and areas of interest all over the globe —from Renaissance masterpieces to contemporary installations, all without leaving my home. The Arts & Culture extension had become part of my daily routine in the classroom. Every day my pupils would be excited to see the artwork of the day and we would spend every day discussing our likes, dislikes, the personal connections and questions we had about the artwork.

During the pandemic, Arts & Culture rescued our annual trip to the British Museum. The ability to virtually tour some of the most renowned museums and galleries across the globe became a go-to when everything was closed down. Being able to visit the Mexico exhibition to see the Maya treasure was still possible, but what it also made me appreciate was the breadth of additional resources that were in the platform that expanded what we had done before. Suddenly, we were not only visiting the halls of the British Museum but we had a virtual passport to the Maya Temple of the Sun in Mexico itself.  

Suddenly, as a teacher, Google Arts & Culture was enabling me to wander through the halls of the Louvre, gaze at the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, or even step inside Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles. It provided an invaluable resource for inspiring students in a primary school in Loughton during a time when it was a little harder to leave the house.

As the pandemic waned, and it was time to return to the British Museum in person. Arts & Culture provided an opportunity for pupils to preplan their visit to the museum and provided a resource for the pupils to have a self-guided tour when they got there. This combination of having the real-world experience meshed with the online tour allowed us to take advantage of the British Museum more than ever.

There Are an Abundance of Features That Are Tried and Tested in the Classroom:

• Google Arts & Culture's ‘Art Zoom’ made art lessons more interactive than ever by allowing pupils to dive into the tiniest details of iconic artworks, uncovering hidden textures and brushstrokes that one might miss in person. This level of detail sparked countless discussions and deepened our appreciation for the skill and vision of artists through the ages.

• Virtual experience tours were now easier than ever. The legacy created by Google Expeditions also continued on through Arts & Culture which incorporated the AR and VR experiences Google had developed into the app. Like touring the Mexican temples as we did, this feature allowed pupils across the school access to museums and areas of cultural interest that they were unlikely to get otherwise in a primary school.

• Art Remix is an AI-powered feature which allows the user to remix famous artworks with their own ideas and thoughts. It’s a safe environment to explore AI and get the pupils experimenting and visualising their own artistic ideas whilst using the greats for inspiration.

  

• Finally, hidden gems like the Blob Orchestra (a drag-and-drop, blob-based singing game) are silly opportunities of creativity that is sure to bring smiles to any classroom. 

By using technology to bridge the gap between classroom, creativity and culture, I found a way to nurture creativity and critical thinking in ways I had never imagined possible. Being able to foster that creativity through an artistic and technological lens shaped my approach to the classroom; a way to continue sharing the things that made me want to be a teacher in the first place. For various reasons, it’s become more challenging for teachers to show a bit of themselves through their lessons, but, where you can, I encourage you to express yourself. Make reference to inspirational messages from those who inspired you or take time to explore Arts & Culture alongside the pupils.

So, when I hear that puzzled ‘what’s that?’ From those educators unaware of Google Arts & Culture, I see it as an opportunity to share a truly remarkable resource. It's a gateway to a world where art and technology intersect, fostering a deeper understanding of our shared history and inspiring the next generation of creators.