With many of us at home and school officially out for summer, you might be looking for ideas    to keep yourself or your children occupied and entertained. A wealth of new educational resources is now becoming publicly available free of charge to encourage us to learn and to develop our creative skills. Authors, orchestras and cultural sites are abandoning their price tags and entry fees to offer free audiobooks, concerts and online tours. We may be stuck inside but a whole new world is opening its doors to us, completely free of charge.

Learning

How to turn isolation to your advantage

Visit openculture.com for a wealth of information, tips and resources to help you make the most of the quarantine measures. The website promises a selection of more than 1,500 free online courses. Visit openculture.com/2020/03/use-your-time-in-isolation-to-learn-everything-youve-always-wanted-to.html for Open Culture’s recommendations.

Online university art classes

Have you ever dreamed of studying art at Harvard, Duke or Yale? If so, then this might be for you. Online fine arts platform Artsy has assembled a list of 10 courses from leading colleges and universities around the world to help you push your artistic skills to the next level. Visit artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-10-university-art-classes-free-online for the list.

University courses for free

Online education aggregate site classcentral.com has compiled a helpful list of 600 free Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) from 190 universities around the world. Course subjects range from engineering and computer science to business, social sciences and personal development. Visit classcentral.com/report/new-courses-october-2018 for the full list.

Getting creative

Learn to paint for free

Online arts magazine My Modern Met has collated 13 YouTube channels which offer free online instructional videos for a range of visual arts techniques, including oil and acrylic painting and watercolours. Visit mymodernmet.com/online-painting-tutorials/ for the collection.

Free colouring ‘books’ from local artists

Maltese artist Zack Ritchie has created a free colouring book to, in his own words, “help you and your children stay creative”. The downloadable book contains three of Zack’s engaging designs to help you keep creative during the days ahead. A number of other local artists,  including Stephanie Borg, James Vella Clark, Isabel Warrington and Rune Bo Jakobsenare, are also providing printable colouring sheets on their social media pages. To download Zack Ritchie’s free book, you can visit zackritchie.com/resources.

Entertainment

Boredom-busting resources to beat the blues

Self-improvement website chatterpack.net has compiled a list of online resources for self-help, learning, arts, culture, entertainment and science. The collection has something for  all ages and parents in particular may find the virtual tours and educational entertainment of much interest to youngsters unable to attend school at this time.  To explore the collection,  you can log on to chatterpack.net/blogs/blog/list-of-online-resources-for-anyone-who-is-isolated-at-home.

Stories for children

Online audiobook retailer Audible is offering a selection of audiobooks for free while restrictions on school openings continue. Simply visit the website to start listening, no sign-up is required. Visit stories.audible.com/start-listen. 

Art

The Louvre online

The world’s largest art museum, the Louvre, is offering online visitors the chance to explore selected exhibitions and galleries for free, including a collection of Egyptian antiquities and artwork by Rembrandt. Visit louvre.fr/en/visites-en-ligne to view the collection.

Culture

Recommendations from across the pond

World-renowned news outlet The New York Times has published an online list of performances, tours and classes from the worlds of theatre, dance, art and classical music, all accessible from the comfort of your own home. For more details, visit nytimes.com/2020/03/20 /arts/theater-dance-classical-art-stay-home-virus.html.

Explore cultural landmarks from the comfort of your own home

Heritage Malta has partnered with tech-giant Google to offer virtual tours of some of Malta’s most famous landmarks, including the Tarxien Temples, Fort St Elmo and the Malta Maritime Museum. To explore the collection, visit artsandculture.google.com/search/partner?q=Malta.

Music

From their house to yours

Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House is currently streaming a selection of its productions for free, with additional content such as demonstrations and rehearsal footage also available. Following their screening of Peter and the Wolf on March 27 and Acis and Galatea on April 3, future productions scheduled for online broadcast are Così fan tutte (April 10) and The Metamorphosis (April 17). Head to roh.org.uk for more information and visit their Facebook and YouTube channels for previously uploaded content.

Met Opera streams

Though its doors may be closed, New York’s Metropolitan Opera is keeping the lights on online, streaming encore performances every day on its website with each stream available for 23 hours after the initial showing. The performances are part of the company’s Live in HD series. Visit www.metopera.org/ for details.

RCS at Home

The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, a prestigious school of music located in Glasgow, UK, has launched a new online community to help support its students, staff and the general public. Featuring an array of free online content, including lunchtime concerts, online talks and even yoga classes. RCS at Home aims to “spread joy and combat isolation”. Visit facebook.com/rcsofficial for more information.

Free access to orchestral concerts

The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra is offering their extensive online collection of video performances for free. To make use of the offer, simply sign up before March 31 using the voucher code BERLINPHIL. Visit digitalconcerthall.com/en to register.