The University of Pretoria Museums are joining the global museum community to best amplify public engagement online through social networks and websites to be somewhat accessible during the lockdown period following the covid-19 pandemic. This global pandemic will not stop us from curating from home and doing what we do. While there is social distancing, we are aiming to bring our collections closer to the public, out of isolation from storage and temporary, exhibitions which are currently closed but available on our website. We do not have the luxuries for 3-D experiences or virtual reality museums at our disposal, but these amazing experiences can still be viewed at some of the world’s greatest museums with over 2,500 virtual tours online, follow this link to read more: https://hyperallergic.com/547919/2500-virtual-museum-tours-google-arts-culture/

As small university museums, while our resources remain limited, yet not enough to hold webinars or Zoom events, we are creatively bringing the UP Museum collections and galleries with regular updated features, news items and highlights of our collections and exhibitions to continue to roll our public and curatorial programme. April in South Africa is a celebration of Freedom Month and the UP Museums will be showcasing select artworks from our SA Landscape series, part of a temporary exhibition at the Rectorate. The landscape in art has the potential to depict a nation’s ideals of individualism, freedom and opportunity- South Africa is picturesque and has some of the world’s most beautiful and diverse landscapes both of natural, cultural and artistic beauty. Follow our Instagram for more @upmuseums

The UP Museums are professional members of global networks such as ICOM-SA and UMAC and we wish to share our network more widely. Universities across the globe are switching to remote learning and university museums and professionals are #workingfromhome. UMAC is inviting all university museums to share (1) the challenges of remote work (2) the challenges of keeping the engagement (3) the challenges of solidarity. Please leave your comments and experiences at
http://umac.icom.museum/university-museums-from-home/