If you’re a wannabe arts aficionado who’s a little short of time, then I’ve found the perfect site to help you make your dinner party guests look like philistines.

Artandculture.com is an online encyclopaedia, with entries on the most important and exciting figures in just about all mainstream artistic forms. For each artist you get a timeline, and links to conceptually related people and movements, as well as links via the exciting ‘Keyword’ function. The site covers the ‘Design Arts’ from architecture to interiors, the ‘Visual Arts’ from tribal to 20th Century, and ‘Performance’ from ballet to disco. The ‘Film’ and ‘Literature’ sections are similarly comprehensive.

While most of the arts are well researched and full of examples, others like ‘Music’ seemed to have some editorial holes. I’m not convinced that only 12 artists can tell the whole history of rock. Having said that, the depth of information in most other areas is incredible, and what they don’t cover on the site is fulfilled by book recommendations and links. The presentation on art and class in the UK is just one of the particularly interesting features on offer.

The ‘Culture’ channel offers two main areas; a wall of web cams from around the globe, which I guess is intended to depict the extent of cultural diversity on the planet. And the other makes a superficial attempt to cover the world’s main cultural areas, having divided them up geographically. Overall though, the site offers a well structured, well edited resource – a feast for culture vultures everywhere.