Photo: Courtesy of Immersive Van Gogh,
Immersive Van Gogh in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
After months of anticipation and constant promotion, the show seemingly taking the world by storm,
Immersive Van Gogh, has finally announced a location for the Pittsburgh stop of its nationwide tour.
On Sept. 8, Lighthouse Immersive and Impact Museums, the two companies behind
Immersive Van Gogh, named Lighthouse Artspace Pittsburgh as the location for the upcoming exhibit. Described in a press release as “newly-titled,” the space is housed in a former manufacturing plant at 720 E. Lacock Street on the city's North Side, adjacent to the Allegheny River.
“The building illustrates the city's beautiful, industrial, and technological history that pairs seamlessly with
Immersive Van Gogh,” reads the release. Using advanced technology, the exhibit is described as inviting audiences to “step into the mind of Van Gogh” by illustrating his work using 60,600 frames of video, 90,000,000 pixels, and over 500,000 cubic feet of projections.
"We've created a unique and enthralling production where Pittsburgh residents and visitors alike can quite literally surround themselves with the work of Vincent van Gogh, one of the greatest artists who ever lived," says
Immersive Van Gogh producer, Svetlana Dvoretsky, in a press release.
The news comes not long after
Immersive Van Gogh Pittsburgh was rescheduled from its original Sept. 23 opening date, and it is now slated to open on Oct. 21. The exhibit will then run through Feb. 6, 2022.
The interest in shows claiming to enhance the work of Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh came about after
Van Gogh Alive, an exhibit similar to
Immersive Van Gogh, was featured on the hit Netflix show
Emily in Paris. Lighthouse Immersive and Impact Museums claims that their
Immersive Van Gogh North American tour has, to date, sold over three million tickets, making it one of “the most sought-after attractions on the continent.”
However, the popularity of these touring exhibits has not come without controversy. Various media outlets have reported problems related to the public’s new thirst for van Gogh.
People have become confused by multiple van Gogh exhibits with similar names.
Immersive Van Gogh has had to compete with
Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience.
News affiliates in Boston and
New York City tried to make sense of two shows coming to the cities,
Van Gogh: The Immersive Exhibition and
Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience, reporting that one was a projected installation, while the other used virtual reality headsets.
As an April
story from Axios points out, the company Grande Experiences claims to have launched the original van Gogh immersive exhibit,
Van Gogh Alive, back in 2011.
Regardless of the drama surrounding the trend, Pittsburghers appear ready to see
Immersive Van Gogh in October, as
certain dates on the event website have already sold out or are listed as having “limited availability.”