For a couple of years now, I’ve seen posts about the immersive Beyond Van Gogh exhibit that’s been traveling around the U.S. It always looks gorgeous, and I love immersive art experiences. They’re just so cool! But it was never showing in a good location for us to go…until this summer.
Beyond Van Gogh finally made its way to Virginia Beach, Virginia, at the beginning of July 2023 and will be there until September. Since I’ve been wanting to go for so long, I decided to book tickets for my birthday and see what all the buzz was about.
Unfortunately, Daniel and I both walked away disappointed in the experience. It’s not that we didn’t have any fun, but neither of us felt that the experience (or the hype around it) was worth the $80+ fees it cost us to attend. And those weren’t even the most expensive tickets! So, after attending Beyond Van Gogh myself, here are my honest thoughts:
Why I Was Disappointed with Beyond Van Gogh
The Exhibit Was Crowded
I specifically chose tickets for 3:30 pm on my birthday, which fell on a Thursday, assuming that we’d have the place pretty much to ourselves. Boy, was I wrong!
Even during mid-afternoon on a weekday, the exhibit was a popular place to be. Although we got into the pre-exhibit pretty quickly, it took us about 15 minutes to follow the line into the main room with the immersive art.
And when we got inside, it was already pretty crowded. I can’t even imagine what this room must look like on a Friday night or weekend! Although the exhibit is supposedly 30K square feet, it certainly didn’t feel like it, and I wonder if the walls are included in that estimate. The crowds made it almost impossible to see the full exhibit at any given time, take pictures of or with the art, or find a place to sit. The exhibit had just a handful of benches scattered around the room, and those were all taken when we arrived.
We found out later that the experience doesn’t run on a specific time slot–it just repeats on a loop over a certain time period. So there were people there from the previous cycle, and others for the next time slot joined the group before we left. Unfortunately, that means there’s no real way to control the number of people in that room at any given time.
The Experience Was Short
The Beyond Van Gogh website says that the visit takes around an hour to complete. This is technically true. The visit takes about an hour, but the experience does not.
As I mentioned before, we spent about 15 minutes in the “pre-exhibit,” which was a room full of historic information about Van Gogh and his career. While interesting, the main purpose of this area was to guide visitors in an orderly line to the main room. So we spent 15 minutes following the line back and forth between hanging picture frames and large informational displays before we entered the actual immersive experience.
Once in the main exhibit room, I was very excited to see the 300+ artworks displayed on the walls and ceiling. And I do have to say that it was beautifully done.
But as pretty as it was, the show was over within 35 minutes. Originally, we thought that the main exhibit was just one of several. But the entire experience is contained to the line and the one room with projectors, which left us wanting more.
It Didn’t Really Feel Immersive
When I think about immersive art experiences, my mind immediately goes to Artechouse in D.C. Although Beyond Van Gogh is supposedly the largest immersive experience in the country, it felt small in comparison to Artechouse. I never fully felt as if I were drawn into Van Gogh’s paintings. I do wonder if this has something to do with how low the walls were in the exhibit space. After all, it’s hard to feel immersed when you can see the industrial bars lining the ceiling.
Additionally, I was disappointed at the lack of interactive elements. The exhibit doesn’t advertise any, but I’ve come to associate interactive with immersive to a degree. So when Beyond Van Gogh was just a singular room with a projector show, I felt a little let down.
What I Liked About Beyond Van Gogh
As I briefly mentioned earlier, the actual presentation was gorgeous and very well done.
Some paintings appeared in a collage style across the walls, while others had animation added to the painting itself to bring them to life. For example, the stars moved in Starry Night, and in Starry Night over the Rhone, the waters were projected down along the floor where it looked like they were actually moving.
Other fun effects included filling in the colors of classic artworks, “erasing” one painting to reveal another, and a large collage where we watched each piece get signed “Vincent.”
Additionally, the whole thing was accompanied by a calming music soundtrack that also added a few sound effects (like the lapping of waves).
I’m not familiar with many of Van Gogh’s works, but I felt like they paid a fitting tribute to this brilliant painter while putting a fun twist on some of his most popular paintings.
Obviously, I’m no art expert. But I felt like the exhibit was really geared toward people who already love and appreciate Van Gogh or just high-class art in general. It was almost like a constantly changing art gallery. So I can definitely see how someone like that would get a lot more enjoyment out of this experience than I would as a casual observer.
Closing Thoughts on Beyond Van Gogh
If you already appreciate Van Gogh and enjoy chill activities like walking around an art gallery, you’ll probably have a wonderful time at Beyond Van Gogh. I sincerely mean that.
But if you’re really more about the experience and don’t know much about this artist’s work, it’s probably not worth your time or money.
We essentially paid a dollar per minute to attend, and I really didn’t feel like I got to enjoy it. As pretty as the artwork was, it was broken up by the crowds, and having to stand (or wander to a less-crowded spot) the whole time took away from my ability to just be in the space.
If you’re on the edge about going, I’d recommend taking a look at my YouTube video to get a glimpse at what the exhibit looks like. That may help you make a final decision about whether you would enjoy it. And if you like yoga, they do offer a weekend yoga class that is probably less crowded, and it only costs $9 more than a weekend ticket. I haven’t tried it, but that sounds more fun to me, personally.
If you want to check out an immersive art experience I do recommend take a peek at this article about Artechouse in Washington, D.C. (and select locations around the U.S.)
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