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Family outing: Van Gogh Immersive Outing SF

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It’s been months since we’ve had a family outing and Thursday’s afternoon was the perfect time for us! No barfing or sickness. It was astonishing to see my kiddos’ eyes light up with wonder and not rushing to leave. I was certain they’d complain of the loud music and spurts of darkness during the immersive show but nothing of that sort.

Since I didn’t know what to expect, I went with an open-minded attitude and took an Advil before the hour-long drive. Who knows what a traffic heavy car ride and then viewing images in a dark room could do for my migraine?! But to my surprise, I adjusted quickly and appreciated the striking combination of music, shifting paintings, and choreography of the 35 minute experience. Chris and I experienced slight dizziness in the beginning, but you get to sit on a bench, or chair in a lighted circle (that’s already social distanced) Chris and I got tad dizzy when we first went into the room, but once you get adjusted and find the right distance to look at the images, then that made the difference.

A friend recommended taking ear plugs for kids since the music can get loud. I took them just in case, but I think they’re ears have acclimated to loud sounds from watching their favorite YouTube video game streamers, who can give you permanent ear damage, so they did fine.

This SF show was sold out but it was back due to popular demand and with a promotion! Thank goodness we got a chance to have our winter cultural experience and get familiar with Van Gogh’s work and life.

“To understand blue you must first understand yellow and orange”

― Vincent van Gogh, Van Gogh’s ‘Diary’: The Artist’s Life In His Own Words And Art

“The heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths it has its pearls too”

― Vincent van Gogh, The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

Categories: Museum outing

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singlikewildflowers

Welcome to my blog! My name is Esther and I'm so happy you are here. I'm an avid nature photographer and a daydreaming thinker. My posts revolve around photos of nature's beauty, homeschooling adventures with my 2 kids, sporadic reflections on my child's heart condition, Bible reading reflections, gardening feats, and other mish mash things. Hopefully you'll leave encouraged, pensive, or smiling at the simple things of life. Thank you for stopping by and hope you'll find some interesting posts to read!

18 replies ›

  2. It’s back where I live too. I haven’t seen it yet. Van Gogh was such a complex man, but his mind was filled with color and movement which is so reflected in his work. Hoping we can get to view this.

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    1. It’s a wonderful experience!
      Van Gogh was a complex man, very nicely said. His brushstrokes and use of colors are dynamic, which the immersive show tried to convey through music, timing of the colors displaying, etc. I’m not articulating it well, but it was very nicely done.

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  3. How fun Esther – this event is coming here this year plus we had another Van Gogh similar event a year or so ago. I saw videos of the first event – really amazing how they did this and I would have liked to see it.

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    1. This Van Gogh event is traveling around the country, and I was happy to have gone. It was better than I expected and the people who produced the event did an amazing job. I wish they showed more of the popular paintings, like Starry Night and the Sunflowers but that’s just my humble opinion. Another helpful addition would’ve been including print information into the experience.
      If you get a chance I hope you get to go when they come into your town. It’s a different cultural experience that I think you’ll enjoy.

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      1. I saw a few videos people took with their cameras and it looked just amazing. I am not well schooled on Van Gogh’s paintings and would likely only identify Starry Night and Sunflowers, his most-famous paintings. I would like to see it – they keep moving the dates and locales around due to COVID.

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      2. I think the dates here have been in flux too because of Covid. It was worse in the winter with Omicron and I didn’t even bother to check back then. Things have slowed down here so we’re going outside more often these days. I was bummed that the Van Gogh ended in December and then suddenly Chris told me they extended the dates.
        I thought people walked around the space to look at the changing images on the wall, but you sit in one of those circles and watch from that spot. I may have gotten some bad looks walking around by getting in the way of other people’s viewing. If you are VIP, you can sit on top of a raised sitting area…360 view.
        Once again, I would’ve appreciated more commonly known paintings and print information along with it. But I’m a big nerd when it comes to stuff like that!

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      3. I would have thought you walked around too – interesting. They describe it as immersive, so would think it would envelop you. Yes, I’d like to know the names of the paintings too. Today is Vincent Van Gogh’s birthday.

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      5. Thank you – I actually heard it on the news – every morning they give a rundown of birthdays and events and I heard it, then read your post. I am going to send you a website which used to be my home page – it was like going down a rabbit hole as there was so much info there – might be fun for you and the kids, maybe look at one thing every day. I’ll put it in a separate comment in case it goes to your SPAM blocker since it is a link.

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      8. You’re welcome Esther – truly, I could get lost in there for hours clicking away at all the “on this date in history” or photo of the day, history lesson of the day. I thought it would be fun for you and the kids … kind of like trivia.

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