Www Is Your Door To Vacation And The Arts
The World Wide Web can help travelers prepare for a trip, just as a travel article or book can help them decide on what to see during five days in Tokyo, or three in Rome, or a weekend in Cleveland.
Among the more useful tools are the sites being set up by arts institutions.
There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of arts-related sites on the Web.
The Arts category in Yahoo, a popular Web searching tool, lists 37 categories, from architecture, with 697 entries, to thematic, with 15. The listing for museums and galleries alone contains 346 sites.
Here are three worth visiting.
VIRTUAL VISIT
Carnegie Hall - http:/ /www.carnegiehall.org
Last month, Carnegie Hall set up a Web site that serves both as a planning tool and, with excellent images and snippets of sound, as a virtual trip.
The home page, Welcome to Carnegie Hall, is handsome, with a small and colorful photograph of the interior. From there, the main menu ranges wide: New and Notable, Concert Calendar, Box Office, Virtual Visit, Carnegie Then and Now, Support the Hall, Learning Center, Entertainment Lounge, Gift Shop, Services Guide and About This Site.
Virtual Visit offers three options: Walk Through, Photo Bubble and Timeline. (Photo Bubble provides a 360-degree view of the hall, but you have to download special software from the site to see it.) Walk Through also leads to three links: the lobby, stage door, Weill entrance. Each of those attractive photographs links to others.
Carnegie Then and Now leads to “100 Years of Excellence: 1891 to 1991,” a 10-part history of the hall. The Entertainment Lounge has two parts, a quiz and a chat room.
There is a new quiz each month, with the winner, selected in a drawing from all who gave correct answers, getting a pair of concert tickets.
When I checked in to chat with someone, the room was not yet ready.
The gift shop offers the usual mugs, caps, totes and videos. Orders must be made by phone or in person.
Concert tickets may be bought on line, however, at a $4 surcharge. Buyers can specify the area of the hall, but not particular seats.
The concert calendar can be searched by date, composer, or key word. A symbol next to some of the listed groups indicates that you can hear a musical excerpt, but as often happens on the Web, the sound may not actually be available.
MUSEUM OFFERINGS
Detroit Institute of Arts - http:/ /www.dia.org
The Detroit Institute of Arts, the fifth-largest fine arts museum in the country, also offers a striking Web site.
When you enter, the fall-winter schedule is presented, with African, Oceanic and New World Cultures; Woven Splendor: Five Centuries of European Tapestry; the Car and the Camera: the Detroit School of Automotive Photography (1996 is the centennial of automobile manufacturing in North America); Youthart; and much else.
The Detroit Institute of Arts is in the Cultural Center of the city, so the Web site includes information about other museums, as well as the restaurants, coffee houses, theaters, galleries and other attractions in the neighborhood.
SCIENCE FOR KIDS
Exploratorium - http:/ /www.exploratorium.edu
If you are taking the children on a trip to San Francisco, the Exploratorium is the place to go. It is in the 1915 Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina district.
Among the exhibits is one natural to San Francisco, Turbulent Landscapes, the Natural Forces That Shape Our World. There is another one marking the 100th anniversary of the automobile, plus Bob Miller’s Light Walk, a wonderful series of images of light and shadows.