Recently, you might have, like me, been seeing advertisements for the “Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience” exhibit. One recently opened in Washington, DC, so I decided to check it out and see if it was worth the $44.90 ticket price.
This for-profit exhibit created by Massimiliano Siccardi has several locations and tours worldwide, from Miami to London to Singapore. It boasts several awards, such as Best 2021 Immersive Experience by USA Today. This is an immersive/VR experience, meaning you will not see any actual paintings by Van Gogh. Instead, the primary selling point of this exhibit is its 20,000 sq ft story-telling light and sound projections and a VR experience based on Van Gogh’s work.
To begin, getting tickets for this exhibit when it was first opening took some work to the point of needing to be added to a waitlist.
The first portion of the exhibit consists plainly of projections of Van Gogh’s paintings. I knew I wouldn’t see any authentic physical paintings, but I couldn’t help but be slightly disappointed. That being said, it was still interesting to compare the different variations and the progression of his work side by side. To spice things up, the exhibit also broke down several of his iconic paintings, such as Bedroom in Arles, and made them 3D.
The next part of the exhibit is the famous 360° projection. Most guests, myself included, sat on the floor as there were limited seats. It took around 30 minutes for the whole thing to run through. While it was calming to be surrounded and immersed in Van Gogh’s artwork, there were times when I felt a little bored and, frankly, sore from sitting on the floor, and I can’t say I was impressed by the quality of the editing either.
This is followed by a VR experience, where you stand in line to put on one of those headsets and walk through various Van Gogh landscapes. It looks a little silly (even dystopian) to watch rows of people in bulky goggles sitting against a wall and craning their necks. The actual virtual reality experience wasn’t anything special, but I applaud the efforts gone into designing it.
My favorite part of the exhibit would be the coloring station at the end. I got to color a Van Gogh piece (I chose Sunflowers) with my own color scheme and scan it to be projected on a wall. It felt nice to pin my work on the wall and collectively see everyone’s variations of Van Gogh’s.
Before you reach the exit, there’s a gift shop filled with pretty generic souvenirs like Starry Night umbrellas and sunflower tote bags for them to make some extra cash. The whole exhibit took a little over an hour.
Considering I paid almost 50 dollars to watch cardboard and projections, I probably wouldn’t go again. All in all, this exhibit felt slightly like a cash grab. It does seem like a pleasant interactive experience for children. Still, I wouldn’t recommend going unless you’re a huge fan of Van Gogh.
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Very nice!! :)