Saturate Your Senses at Van Gogh Alive

WORDS LIANE MORRIS | IMAGES MILES NOLES PHOTOGRAPHY

VAN GOGH ALIVE, THE WORLD'S MOST VISITED MULTI-SENSORY EXPERIENCE, COMES TO LIFE IN THE GRAND PAVILION FORESHORE PARK FROM THURSDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER, AS PART OF THE CITY OF NEWCASTLE'S SECOND NEW ANNUAL FESTIVAL.

Created and produced by Grande Experiences, presented by Lexus and co-produced by Andrew Kay AM in association with BBC and Fane, Van Gogh Alive is a large-scale, multisensory experience that has been visited by over 8.5 million people across 80+ cities around the world.

This digital spectacular gives visitors the unique opportunity to immerse themselves in Van Gogh's artistry and truly venture into his world.

Make no mistake – this is no ordinary art exhibition.

Traditions of tiptoeing through silent galleries and viewing paintings from afar are forgotten during the Van Gogh Alive experience. Supported by a vibrant symphony of light, colour, sound, and fragrance, Van Gogh's masterpieces come to life, giving visitors the sensation of walking right into his paintings. Adults and children delight in the super-scale show, viewing artworks from new angles and discovering unique perspectives. Visitors also have the chance to examine Van Gogh's sources of inspiration with photographs and video displayed alongside his works. Van Gogh's works have been exhibited and enjoyed worldwide for over a century – but never like this.

Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said securing Van Gogh Alive is a coup for Newcastle that will enhance the city's reputation for hosting worldclass events while boosting the local economy by attracting thousands of visitors to the city. "The versatility of Foreshore Park ensures we're able to attract major events such as this to Newcastle, which will bring an influx of visitors to our city at a time when the local tourism industry needs it most and as local operators and businesses recover from the pandemic," said Cr Nelmes.

"We're excited to partner with Andrew Kay Management to bring the impressive Van Gogh Alive to a regional city for the first time in Australia as part of Newcastle's New Annual festival."

Van Gogh Alive is housed in The Grand Pavilion, a giant 70m X 25m bespoke marquee. In fact, The Grand Pavilion is the largest touring showroom in the southern hemisphere and features a themed bar & café space.

"We can't wait to unveil the extraordinarily beautiful Grand Pavilion, which we have designed specifically to showcase Van Gogh Alive," said Andrew Kay.

"The Grand Pavilion is not only home to the Sensory 4™ Gallery, which houses Van Gogh Alive, but it features four additional immersive spaces, including the instagrammable Van Gogh's Bedroom, Van Gogh's Café Terrace at Night, where you can sit and enjoy a glass of Taittinger Champagne, the amazing infinity Sunflower Room, where you can stand in a never-ending field of sunflowers and the spectacular Starry Night Room which allows visitors to walk on air through Van Gogh's famous painting 'Starry Night'."

Grande Experiences' state-of-the-art SENSORY4™ immersive gallery combines with a tailored exhibition space to allow the projection of enormous crystal-clear images. Set to an evocative classical score, a thrilling display of over 3,000 inspirational images transforms the world around you. You will truly lose yourself in the vibrant colours and vivid details of Van Gogh's work.

Founder and CEO of Grande Experiences, Bruce Peterson began his fascinating career as a PE teacher. He considers himself a humble Aussie bloke who has managed to scale the heights of the art world, and this attitude has led to his pioneering exhibitions and experiences that regularly headline some of the world's most prestigious established and emerging museums and galleries, including the National Geographic Museum in Washington, Madrid's Arte Canal, Russia's Artillery Museum and the ArtScience Museum in Singapore. He holds a Bachelor of Education and aims to educate and share the pleasure of art not just with those who already appreciate great art and culture but also with those who might not otherwise have the opportunity to be exposed to it or might be intimidated by it.

We caught up with Bruce to learn more about Grande Experiences and Van Gogh Alive.

intouch: How long has Grande Experiences been running - when was it first created?

Bruce: In 2009, our plan for a multimedia exhibition was born. It took two years to build a technology system (which Grande Experiences calls Sensory4) that would create the sort of immersive experience we had in mind, harnessing multiple projectors, multiple screens, music and other elements. The exhibition system also had to be portable, packed into two shipping containers, sent around the world and set up in a new city within seven days.

In 2011, the first display of Van Gogh Alive was held at Singapore's ArtScience Museum. We can now proudly say that Van Gogh Alive is the most visited immersive, multi-sensory experience in the world, having been presented in over 85 cities to more than 8.5 million visitors.

How many people does it take to produce/set up the Experience?

We have a very talented in-house team of creative designers, motion graphic experts, graphic designers, and skilled audio-visual production managers who work together to take an idea from concept stage to final execution. Having said that, we are a lean company given the reach and magnitude of what we have been able to achieve. Grande Experiences currently employs about 40 staff to create, produce and license our experiences globally. So it's certainly a team effort!

Why was Van Gogh chosen?

Van Gogh's works always caught my eye from an early age simply because of the colours. The vibrancy of Van Gogh's artwork is ideally suited to large-scale immersive projection environments. Our cutting-edge technology allows visitors to examine his broad brushstrokes in intricate detail, whilst simultaneously being engulfed by the bold colours and beauty of his masterpieces on a jaw-dropping scale. There is also significant interest and intrigue with audiences globally around Van Gogh's story and the challenges he faced with mental health. We are storytellers at our core, so it is vital for us to use our technology, creativity and reach to help shed light on such an important issue. Through our multi-sensory approach to art and culture, we can stimulate all of the human senses together to tell a story that impacts people emotionally.

How were the pieces selected to be included?

With storytelling at the forefront of what we do, it was critical that we could display the complete works of Van Gogh in chronological order to guide visitors on a journey of his entire life as an artist. From his early beginnings in The Netherlands right through to his final works in Auvers-sur-Oise, visitors can truly get a sense of his creative evolution and leave the experience with a deeper understanding of who Van Gogh was, not just as an artist but as a person. Our Van Gogh Alive experience includes over 3,000 images of his masterpieces, sketches, drawings, letters and inspirational landscapes at enormous scale. Quality is of the utmost importance in everything that we do, so we have to carefully select imagery that can be projected onto four or even twelve-metre-high ceilings without losing its integrity.

Did you have to gain access to the originals to create the vision for this?

No, we were able to gather everything we needed to create the experience without accessing the originals. Of course, we always do our homework, so a trip to the museums and galleries across Europe and around the world really helped us craft how we wanted to tell Van Gogh's story.

How is the vision created? Is it all Van Gogh via digital art, or are there parts that had to be extended by artists? Or computer?

The integrity of the art is fundamental to us, but so is the animation that forms an integral part of our experiences. Our in-house creative team works meticulously to ensure that they add movement and synchronise the artwork to music in a way that does not stray from its original meaning. A lot of work goes on behind the scenes to bring the art to life.

Is this the future of art?

Yes, we believe this is the future of art. While immersive experiences are here to stay, by no means are they here to detract from seeing original art in a museum or gallery. Instead, our mission is to engage more people in art and culture by creating an accessible, nonintimidating environment for people all around the world to enjoy and share with others. My background as a teacher taught me that to educate, you have to engage. And to engage, you have to entertain. With that in mind, we believe that as long as we continue to do that, we will remain global leaders in the arts and culture industry.

From the moment you walk through the doors, you're transported into the art itself by weaving imagery from 28 state-of-theart projectors onto a tapestry of surfaces seamlessly and magically bringing the beauty and wonder of masterpieces to a larger-thanlife like never before. The presentation in the S4 Gallery runs for approximately 45 minutes. Visitors then typically spend 60-90 minutes in the building. The experience is carefully curated and choreographed to an evocative musical score, layered with suggestive aromas that ignite one's imagination and stirs one's soul. Our travelling VGA can even involve integrated themed food and beverage offerings into the broader experience to engage more senses and amplify the visitor experience further.

Should art galleries be worried?

No, art galleries shouldn't be worried. In fact, they should embrace this new technology to broaden their audiences and get more people involved with their institutions. Tourists will still visit traditional art galleries and museums, whether they are public, private or corporate collections. We are not replacing objects or artwork. We just create a fantastic enhancement and a different experience that engages people in a more multi-sensory way. We are currently working with The National Museum of Australia in Canberra to showcase Connection: Songlines from Australia's First Peoples in a spectacular immersive experience. We also partnered with Newfields over in the USA to establish a permanent immersive gallery inside their museum, which just finished displaying Van Gogh Alive and has now switched to Monet & Friends Alive.

What is being planned for the future?

We have big plans for the future! Our touring experiences are being licensed globally, with confirmed venues secured for 2023 and well into 2024. We have also just announced that Monet & Friends Alive will be our next experience on display inside THE LUME Melbourne, which is one of our permanent locations. After opening just nine months ago, THE LUME Melbourne has welcomed over 600,000 visitors through its doors, so we are very excited to see what the future holds for that space! In partnership with the Dali Museum, we just announced that our newest immersive experience, Dali Alive, will make its world premiere at THE LUME Colorado later this year. We are honing in on establishing more permanent venues (known as THE LUME's) worldwide, so watch this space!"

"THE FULL EXPERIENCE IS CAREFULLY CURATED AND CHOREOGRAPHED TO AN EVOCATIVE MUSICAL SCORE, LAYERED WITH SUGGESTIVE AROMAS THAT IGNITE ONE'S IMAGINATION AND STIRS ONE'S SOUL."

What other multimedia immersive experiences have been produced or are in planning?

Our diverse range of blockbuster experiences includes The Leonardo Da Vinci Collection, Monet & Friends Alive, Planet Shark, Alice – A Wonderland Adventure, Digital Nights,

Connection – Songlines from Australia's First Peoples (a spectacular immersive experience), Street Art Alive, Dalí Alive and of course Van Gogh Alive. Our in-house design and production teams have many new and wonderful experiences in creation, ready for release in 2022 and beyond.

Grande Experiences is an Australian company - is there anything else like it in the world, or are we first in this space?

Over the last decade, we have led the movement from artefact-based exhibitions to multimedia exhibitions to now fully integrated multi-sensory immersive experiences, large and small. Since the debut of Van Gogh Alive back in 2011, we have watched a number of similar immersive Van Gogh experiences appear and disappear in various cities. However, our global reputation as the world leaders in this field, combined with the talent of our team, has enabled us to pave the way in this area. With a global track record of over 220 experiences displayed in 170+ host cities to more than 20 million visitors in over 32 languages, it's hard to say that anything else compares!

Don't miss your chance to experience this global phenomenon.

WHEN: 7 days a week from 22 September until 23 October.

VENUE: Foreshore Park, 32 Wharf Road, Newcastle East

TICKETS: www.vangoghalive.com.au