M invites the public to visit the museum virtually

Now that physical visits to M will no longer be possible until at least 5 April, the museum is doing all it can to bring its masterpieces to visitors at home. “On the website, visitors can walk around the rooms virtually, watch videos about current and past exhibitions, listen to the first podcast that M has launched or read the first issue of the brand-new M magazine”, Denise Vandevoort, Chair of M says. And there is plenty happening on social media under the hashtag #getMathome (Dutch: #haalMinhuis).

As a measure to slow down the spread of the coronavirus, M will not receive visitors until at least 5 April. “Yet M still wants the arts to touch as many people as possible. Even if those people are no longer permitted actually to touch each other due to an infectious virus that is currently gripping the whole world”, Peter Bary, General Director of the museum says.

Walk through the museum rooms virtually
M is presenting a number of past exhibitions on its website in the form of online 360° tours. Visitors can walk through the museum rooms virtually and click on certain highlights to discover more about them. For example, the recent exhibitions ‘The Waddle Show’ by Nel Aerts and ‘Borman and Sons – The Best Sculptors’ are now available online. If you would like to travel back to last summer, you can walk around the large-scale installations by Pieter Vermeersch again. The complete selection of a total of nine tours is available at mleuven.be/en/VisitMdigitally.

Podcast: Moving Henry
The recently completed restoration of Leuven’s Saint Peter’s Church yielded fascinating stories. During the dismantling and restoration of the tomb of Henry I of Brabant in the church, restorers discovered a mysterious little chest. This discovery marked the beginning of a search for the remains of the first duke of Brabant. And it is the subject of M’s first podcast. The five episodes are available (in Dutch) via Spotify, Soundcloud, iTunes and on the website diericbouts.be.

M, the new magazine from M
At the end of February, M also launched a new magazine (in Dutch), called M. There will henceforth be two issues per year, and it is full of stories about our exhibitions, lectures, the museum collection and the work we do behind the scenes. It features interviews and essays by artists and curators, but also staff members and friends of the museum. The complete magazine is available via Issuu.

M on video
For those isolated at home who are bored of Netflix, M is exploring its video archive. On the museum’s Youtube channel, visitors can browse videos about current and past projects. If you would prefer to receive regular video posts, you can follow the Instagram-TV (IGTV) series #haalMinhuis. Over the past few days, a series of short videos was posted there about the Angolan artist Kiluanji Kia Henda, who is currently exhibiting at M.

The entire range of digital options is listed on this page on the M website, and it is constantly growing. For example, very soon there will be a new digital selection for families online.