How to explore Chicago, suburban museums from home during the pandemic

Chicago's Shedd Aquarium caught the global media spotlight in March with photos and videos of waddling penguins checking out other aquarium exhibits.

But as the penguins cheered us up, the empty aquarium stood as a stark reminder that the Shedd - and other cultural institutions - are temporarily shuttered because of the coronavirus pandemic.

While we can't visit our favorite museums in person right now, we can still experience some of what they have to offer online.

Google Arts & Culture at artsandculture.google.com is one way to start your search, whether you want to visit local sites or museums around the world. Using the map option or search bar, you can find 16 Illinois cultural institutions from Rockford down to Springfield that are among more than 2,000 museums globally that partnered with Google to create online content.

There are major Chicago institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago and the Field Museum of Natural History. Lesser-known ones, including the Illinois Institute of Technology's Institute of Design and the Obsidian Collection Archives tied to the Chicago Defender newspaper, are also in the mix.

On the Google Arts & Culture page for the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, for example, you'll find seven online exhibits plus pages dedicated to single artists or art movements. There's also a 360-degree gallery stroll similar to Google's Street View.

You can travel “outdoors,” as well by checking out the Morton Arboretum in Lisle and the Klehm Arboretum & Botanic Garden in Rockford.

Links at the end of each Google Arts & Culture page will send you to institutions' individual websites, where you can browse further or even participate.

For example, the Adler Planetarium in Chicago has its own Online Resources page full of back stories tied to the building's history and several do-it-yourself scientific experiments. The site also steers crowdsourcing researchers of all ages to help out at the external site zooniverse.org to work on multi-source group projects.

Not every Illinois museum has partnered with Google, but you can check out individual sites to find online content. For example, Oak Brook's recently reopened Lizzadro Museum has video features and quizzes about its collection of precious rocks and minerals.

Many children's museums have also provided suggested activities for families while they're cooped up at home.

The Chicago Children's Museum has switched up its homepage with activity links to a Parenting Playbook and Recipes for Play at Home. And in the suburbs, the DuPage Children's Museum in Naperville features a 360-degree virtual tour of its building, while the Kohl Children's Museum in Glenview has a Home Zone page full of videos for kids to make crafts or try experiments.

Families can also tune into Facebook livestreams including “Brookfield Zoo Brings The Zoo To You.” At 11 a.m. Monday through Friday, there's a live chat with zoo staffers talking about and showing off animals in an effort to engage and educate kids.

Once you finish your tour of the Chicago and suburban museums, you can make summer plans to actually visit them.