Van Gogh Immersive Experience: Is It Worth The Visit?

Is It Worth The Visit To See The Van Gogh Immersive Experience?

There’s been a lot of hype recently about the Van Gogh Immersive Experience that’s taking over headlines worldwide, but is it actually worth the cash to go? Here’s my honest review of the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit. 

Experience art in a new and innovative way

We live in the era of innovation. The world is changing and great thinkers are imagining new and different ways to experience the many joys of life, like art. Two of these great thinkers are Massimiliano Siccardi and Luca Longobardi, who partnered to create the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit. While Sicardi designed a way for Van Gogh’s masterpieces to be animated and projected onto 500,000 cubic feet of floor, walls, and ceiling, Longobardi designed the music to create a story out of the artwork that shared the emotional struggle that was Van Gogh’s existence.

Since the duo opened their first exhibit in Paris, in 2008, the immersive art show has toured more than 65 countries, and has been in more than 40 US cities, including my own town of Phoenix. While the show in each city varies slightly, the overall experience is pretty similar, but for the purposes of this article, I will be focusing on the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit in Phoenix.

What is the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit in Phoenix?

This immersive experience transports you out of the real world and into the body of a painting. You’ll exit the streets of downtown Scottsdale by descending an escalator lined with hundreds of yellow sunflowers and enter the Lighthouse Art Space. In the lobby, you’ll find the gift shop as well as a little bar where you can buy (non-alcoholic) drinks and snacks produced by local companies to take into the show. 

Make sure to plan a little bit of time before the show to wander a Van Gogh exhibit where the Art Space has put together a brief summary of Van Gogh’s life, as well as an artful display of some of the many letters Van Gogh wrote during his lifetime. 

The Van Gogh Immersive Experience

To enter the exhibit, you’ll walk down a black-lit hallway etched with the swirling strokes of Van Gogh’s pallet knife. The nature of this dark hallway almost makes you feel like you’re Alice falling into Wonderland. You certainly can tell you’re about to enter a brand new world. At the end of the tunnel, you’ll emerge into a room with 35-foot high walls and every space from floor to ceiling is covered in one of Van Gogh’s masterpieces, now alive through animation. The show is played on a constant loop, so no matter when you enter, one of the animated scenes will fully envelop you in this new, artistic dimension.

Next to the entrance hall is a second, even larger room that is also displaying the projections. This room has mirror-covered pillars that add an even more ethereal vibe to the experience. The show is about 30-minutes long and will guide you through both the brilliance and madness of Van Gogh’s art. Feel free to wander between the two rooms as you watch, or sit on one of the benches or even the floor and allow yourself to become fully immersed in the show.

Once the projections have played out, credits will begin to roll. At this point, you can either stay and watch the show again or leave through the exit, which will take you back to the gift shop in the front lobby.

Is the Van Gogh Immersive Experience worth the visit?

The Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit is a 30+ minute experience and tickets range from $40 to $55 per person. That’s a pretty steep price to pay for just 30 minutes of fun. Luckily, you can stay and watch the show as many times as you like until you feel fully satisfied. 

My honest review is that if you are a fan of Van Gogh or art in general and you want to experience art in a cool, new way that is different from the standard gallery experience, and you stay and watch the show more than once, then yes, the Van Gogh immersive experience is worth it. 

The first time Mikey and I went to see the show, we booked an afternoon showing that happened to be on a day that the Art Space was closing early (unbeknownst to us). Our tickets were for 6 pm and when we arrived (on time by the way), the show was already halfway through its last showing. We only saw about 15 minutes before the credits rolled and the lights came on. Needless to say, I felt pretty jipped. However, a nice security guard realized what had happened and took us to guest services to help us get sorted out. The Art Space rescheduled our tickets for another day and we were able to come back and experience the full show the next week. The second time we went, we booked for 4 pm instead and stayed for about two hours.

What should you know before visiting a Van Gogh Immersive Experience?

• Do not book the last showing of the day. Don’t make the same mistake that we did. Since the show is only 30 minutes long, the experience is only really worth it if you watch it more than once. The artwork is beautiful and the animations really make Van Gogh’s masterpieces come alive. You’ll want to experience the show more than once in order to catch all the details and experience it from different angles.

• Plan for a few hours at the art space. We watched the show three times before we felt satisfied, then we wandered through the letters exhibit and the gift shop for about a half-hour. Overall, we spent about two hours in the Art Space.

• Food and drink are allowed on the show floor, but only if you buy them from the art gallery itself. No outside food or drink is allowed.
• This is a fully accessible experience. There are plenty of places to sit (both on the floor and on benches or chairs) and it is wheelchair accessible.
• There are flashing lights and loud music during the show, so keep that in mind before booking if you are sensitive to those types of experiences.

Why do we care about Van Gogh?

Since I was a kid, Van Gogh has been my favorite artist. I’ve always felt connected to his artwork and his tragic story. He was never successful during his lifetime. In fact, he was so unsuccessful that I doubt he could have contemplated the amount of success his art has had since his death. Yet, now, he is known as one of the greatest artists of all time. But, why do we care about his artwork so much?

Van Gogh’s style is striking and stands out from the techniques used by other artists of his time. He poured his soul into his paintings. In each brushstroke, you can see that he saw the world in a different way. You can almost tell what was going on in his mind by looking at his work during different time periods. During his darker days, he used darker hues and stronger lines, and during happier times he painted in bright colors. But beyond the technique and colors that he used, Van Gogh is also a symbol of hope and determination. Despite his personal demons, Van Gogh had a dream. And he went after that dream, no matter how much adversity stood in his way.

Other ways you can experience Van Gogh’s artwork

The Van Gogh Immersive Experience in Phoenix isn’t the only way you can experience the art of Van Gogh. There are several different immersive Van Gogh experiences located across the globe, including in most major US cities. And, if you prefer to see his artwork in the traditional way, here’s where you can see his ten most famous paintings in person.

Looking for other things to do in Phoenix? Here’s a list of 17 romantic date ideas to do in town.

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