I attended the Van Gogh immersive experience, created by The Exhibition Hub, at its latest location in London (as it has been touring since 2017 all over the world) on the 19th of February 2024.

In the first room of the art gallery there was a guide board that talked about the three different sections of the art gallery and what each room was about. After ascending a flight of stairs there was a large room with what seemed to be an even larger amount of people inside who were all either admiring the printed replicas of Van Gogh’s artwork, reading an army of information boards or watching documentary’s about some of his most famous works, despite all these people it was actually rather quiet. Thanks to this room I now know many new things about Van Gogh, such as that when he shot himself it still took him 2-3 DAYS to actually die! This section is probably 4th best in my opinion as it was good but not as good as three of the others but it did teach me lots of new things and ideas!

Through to the next room there was multiple 3D recreations. One of Van Gogh’s ‘Bedroom’, a ‘Japanese style hanging art’ and finally a view out from his window. There was not that much else in that room as the majority of it was taken up with the giant recreations of his art except a bench and a board that said about how he did three different variations ‘Bedroom’ which had small but noticeable differences such as the floor and the chairs. 
This is honestly my 5th favourite because even though there was some impressive things in it, it wasn’t as big or varied as some of the others but it was still good nonetheless.

Down another staircase was a three-way split where one way led to the vr part of the experience whereas the other two led to the colouring part and to the final room. We first went into the vr room where they had aisles of vr headsets lined up and ready to be used, but less than half were in use but that made some sense as it cost extra but well worth it. We were guided to our headsets and placed them on our heads before waiting a few seconds for the experience to begin. Once the experience had started I saw that they had made a vr experience which portrayed many different artworks that had been meticulously and seamlessly fused together. I believe this lasted for 10-20 minutes but I lost track of time in the landscape and beauty of the experience. This is my 1st favourite as I am absolutely fascinated with how they managed to put so many different paintings into just one experience and how serene and well crafted it was as well!

Across the hall was the colouring in part which was simply there for those who liked colouring in, but they put lots of effort in anyway! The walls were adorned with hundreds of pictures, if not: thousands, that had been pinned up as well as a projected wall that projected varying pictures and drawings that people had done! This is my 2nd favourite as I do a lot of drawing and I like how a whole section was dedicated to just drawing with a variety of colours.

Down even more stairs, in the final room they had a spectacular 360-degree video, light and music experience that was not limited just to the walls but also the floors and doors! It would show many different works such as ‘sunflowers’ and ‘crabs’ with music that could rapidly change between river calm and WHAT ON EARTH IS HAPPENING WHY IS THE MUSIC SO LOUD AND FAST AAAAAAAHH!!! (That is the only way I could describe it). This is my 3rd favourite as it was very relaxing and calm but it also had very quick and stressing moments that made it unavailable to people with epilepsy with no way around it, but I wish that it was available to all.

Upon exiting the room after 30 minutes or so after one loop of the video we found ourselves in the gift shop and they had posters, headphone cases, cups and a LOT of random things with Van Gogh prints upon them, including possibly the best thing there: a starry night umbrella. While leaving we were stopped by a member of staff who saw our vr passes and said that we get a free A1 poster with the pass which was very kind and exciting that we get to take a part of the experience home, so we chose a starry night poster that we promptly hung up on our wall the day after because we were in London, London’s exhausting! 

I honestly think that this has been one of the highlights of the year so far and a surprising amount has happened so far! It must have been very difficult to make but to see it not just made but made spotlessly is very enjoyable and so relaxing to view; would recommend this unique art gallery any day! It has also inspired me to do a few artworks of my own.