Bookmark this: Museum websites worth checking out

Since converting its print magazine to an online-only publication (Verso) in 2012, the museum continues to dish up visually rich digital options. ArtStories gives deeper background on more than 100 pieces in the museum's collection in an entertaining, storytelling way. Coming in May is a new "choose your own adventure" app, Overheard. Users can eavesdrop on the chatter of fictional characters in the museum and decide whether to follow them (or not).

The Walker has one of the art world's oldest and most well-developed websites, featuring commissioned articles, several themed blogs (look under the "media" tab) and a video channel. The quality and quantity of content have drawn regular users from across the country and overseas.

You can browse through and stream more than 1,300 oral histories of Minnesotans from all walks of life, compiled by interviewers for the Minnesota Historical Society. You also can plug in such topics as "staying warm" through monthly featured searches.

Most of the site's categories present a unified front — tempting with tidbits to get people through the door. But if you think you've discovered a triceratops tooth in your backyard, you can find out how to get help in identifying up to three objects you bring in, with assists from biology, anthropology and paleontology curators.

Easy-to-navigate searches put more than 20,000 objects from the museum's permanent collection and past exhibitions at your fingertips. Plus, there's a handy tour of public art on the University of Minnesota campus.

MN Artists

In the 13 years since the Walker partnered with the McKnight Foundation to launch this site, it's become an online community spanning all art forms, and a culture-loving surfer's paradise featuring images of more than 40,000 creations by 3,000-plus Minnesota artists. It publishes arts criticism and profiles by a stable of freelance writers and artists, hosts events and serves as a connection point for artists and their supporters.

Kristin Tillotson