Sasol is celebrating close on three decades of sponsoring the New Signatures Art Competition, but there is one thing this year that is completely different. The 360 Virtual Tour is the first of its kind in South Africa − and following in the footsteps of the National Gallery in London, which is rumoured to have had the first-ever virtual gallery tour − it is changing the way that art is viewed and appreciated.

The Sasol New Signatures Art Competition is currently on at the Pretoria Art Museum until 9 October 2016. For all of those who are not able to get there, the Virtual Tour is a must. “It has provided art enthusiasts who cannot visit the gallery with an opportunity to experience it. For those who have been to visit the gallery, they can relive this special memory,”  said Sasol Group Online Media Manager, MJ Khan. The virtual tour is also linked to Google Street View, so when people are searching for the museum, they will be able to click and enter the museum digitally (so that they have a taste of what’s to come).

In fact, the virtual tour is worth doing even if you have done the real thing, as you are able to view every room at the Pretoria Arts Museum and find out more information about every single piece of art and the artists − including an informative Q&A session with the ‘Winner’s Circle’. Best of all, even though it allows local art enthusiasts from all corners of South Africa the opportunity to enjoy the art, it also means that overseas art collectors are exposed to the cream of South African artistic talent at the click of a button.

With the massive increase in multimedia art submissions this year, last year’s winner, Nelmarie du Preez can understand the jump. “Younger artists are growing up in the digital age and having travelled the globe for exhibitions since winning the competition last year, I’ve definitely noticed a leaning towards multimedia and digital mediums globally,” she asserted.

With this in mind, the virtual gallery is the ideal way to showcase the winning multimedia art. This includes the digital video, ‘Delicates’, from runner-up Paul Andries Marais and the solo exhibition from last year’s winner, Nelmarie du Preez – a series of performance-based videos, which centre around society’s love-hate relationship with technology.