DRESDEN.- As of now, nine museums belonging to Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD) can be visited on new 360° panoramic tours at the web portal www.skd.museum. The first generation, starting with four museums, went online in 2011. Now the existing tours have been updated to a high technological level and the services they offer improved. Five other museums and collections have been added at the same level. Now, for the first time, it is possible to make an online tour of the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon, which reopened in 2013, the Riesensaal in the Residenzschloss (also open since last year), the new interim presentation at Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, the Neues Grüne Gewölbe and the Albertinum with the Galerie Neue Meister and Skulpturensammlung. In addition, the tour still leads through the Historisches Grüne Gewölbe, the Porzellansammlung and the Türckische Cammer.

Whether sitting at their home computer or travelling with a tablet, art lovers around the world can discover the fascinating range of artistic treasures at Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden in 30 exhibition rooms with 45 panoramic views in all. Anyone interested in the museums can get a glimpse online, from Renaissance paintings to contemporary art, from delicate porcelain, magnificent armour, sculptures, precious objects made of gold, silver, enamel and gems to instruments and apparatus used in mathematics and physics. While the Online Collection (also accessible at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden website) presents thousands of artworks from the museum association stocks, the virtual tours complement this by allowing users to experience the interplay of artworks and architecture in world-famous buildings with unique ways of presenting their art.

As Director General Hartwig Fischer explains, “We want to give people around the world the chance to discover the museums of Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Our collections are part of the world's cultural heritage. In a world that is increasingly reflected on the Internet, and considering the rising significance of digital communication, we thus need to try to live up to our duty to get them across; our key task of showing them to people. An important role in this is played not only by the new panoramic tours but also by the Online Collection or the many videos in our online multimedia centre. All these presentations on the Internet help prepare for or look back on visits to our museums, as well as allowing people to share these artistic treasures despite perhaps having no opportunity to travel to Dresden.“

The panoramic tours can be accessed via the page www.skd.museum/panorama. The rooms are easy to navigate and it is simple to switch from one collection to another, making the virtual museum tour a real adventure. Clicking on symbols provides detailed information on the collections, rooms and selected objects, offering background information in two languages, as usual: German and English. During the practical implementation of the tour, special attention was paid to it working on various mobile devices, with fast download times despite the images being at the best possible resolution. Embedded social media plug-ins make it simple to share the views on Facebook or Twitter.

The new panoramic tours are just one part of the SKD's strategy for innovative digital communication, with more than 35,000 works of art now accessible in the Online Collection, founded in 2011, along with plenty of links and information on the works. Moreover, the SKD has been part of the Google Art Project since 2012. In the multimedia centre on the SKD website, films offer an impression of special exhibitions and museum openings.