ArtStart interactive guide

ArtStart is the National Gallery's award-winning interactive multimedia system. ArtStart allows you to explore the collection for information on every painting in the Gallery via high-quality touch-screens, and you don't have to be an art historian or a technical whiz to use it.

Browse the collection

ArtStart features specially written in-depth explorations of thirty of the collection's most popular paintings including video and audio clips. The Themes and Tours section allows paintings to be explored via a range of topics, ranging from 'Drunkenness and Debauchery' to 'Impressionism. In addition, every painting can be examined in detail via a 'zoom-able' image - from the wasps in Botticelli's 'Venus and Mars' to the petals of Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers'.

Plan your visit

Whether or not you are familiar with the paintings in the collection, ArtStart can help you to plan your visit. Either choose from one of the many pre-selected themed tours, or compile your own tour of up to 10 paintings. Having created your tour, you can print it out for free.

Where to find ArtStart

The ArtStart room in the Sainsbury Wing provides a relaxed and comfortable environment with 12 screens and a printing facility. There are also two screens in the Sainsbury Wing foyer and two on the link between the Sainsbury Wing and the main building. A further 14 screens are also available in the East Wing Espresso bar and multimedia room, where visitors can browse the collection at their leisure over a coffee.