This past Labor Day, the hubs and I decided to visit the infamous Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit located in Phoenix, Arizona and let me just say that it was quite the experience! For starters, I thought that the ticket prices were a little on the high side for what it was, but I will let you be the judge of that! When purchasing your tickets, there are four different ticket options you can choose from that range between $50-$100/per person and obviously the more expensive the ticket is, the more perks are included in your visit. For instance, the cheapest ticket option they offer is the “Basic Timed” ticket that only costs $50 per person but there are zero perks and you have to attend the exhibit at the time you purchased the ticket for, whereas, the “VIP Flex” ticket is the most expensive option that costs $100 per person but has special perks like flexible times and souvenir gifts to take home with you after the exhibit. So when I decided to visit the exhibit, I originally planned on purchasing two of the “Basic Timed” tickets, however, due to limited availability I was only able to choose between the “Premium Flex” tickets or the “VIP Flex” tickets. Since the Premium Flex tickets were the cheapest, I ended up purchasing two of those tickets and paid $143.34 – so you can imagine why I say that the tickets were a little on the high side, but what can you really do about it, ya know?!
If you do plan on visiting the exhibit, there are a few things that I think you should plan for to make sure that the entire experience is a good one for you and everyone else that wishes to attend. First thing is to make sure that you bring a mask with you and that you are wearing it fully covered over your nose and under your chin during your visit, or else you will be constantly reminded during your visit, and in extreme cases, most likely even be asked to leave, so don’t forget your mask! Second, make sure that you are wearing comfy shoes and cozy clothing since you most likely will be standing quite a bit and in some cases, you might even have to walk for parking like I did. Third, make sure that you leave any food/snacks in your vehicle or finish your goodies before entering the exhibit since you will not be allowed to take any of it inside with you. Upon entering the exhibit, they do have a concession stand in the lobby area where you can purchase snacks and beverages from separately if you want to enjoy it while you’re in the exhibit, but absolutely NO outside food or drink is allowed. Also, if you are visiting the exhibit at the location in Arizona, make sure that you are wearing sunblock and drinking plenty of water because it was extremely hot outside the day we went and we had to walk a few blocks for parking. Luckily, there was a free parking garage located within a few blocks of the exhibit so we didn’t have to walk too far, however, I will say to make sure that you plan for anything and everything just in case because you never know!
The exhibit is located in the Lighthouse Artspace Building located in Old Town Scottsdale and you have to go down the escalator/elevator to go inside! Once you are inside the building, before entering the gallery exhibit, you can stop by the concession stand to get you food/drinks and you can also walk up to a separate window close by if you purchased either the “Premium Flex” tickets or the “VIP Flex” tickets to claim your souvenir and/or pick up your rental cushion. Since we had the “Premium Flex” tickets, we were told to do just that and for the souvenirs, you were allowed to choose between either a keychain or a postcard. One per person, of course! Since Sam didn’t care if he got a souvenir at all, I ended up getting a keychain and a postcard, but I would highly recommend that you pick the keychain if given the chance. It’s honestly kind of cute and is much more practical for everyday use than a postcard in my opinion! Also, we were supposed to be given an exclusive Van Gogh poster to take home with us too after leaving the exhibit, but for whatever reason they said they were sold out of them when we left so unfortunately we didn’t get one, but they did give us raincheck slips for us to come back on a later date to pick one up in case we wanted to, although I highly doubt that will ever happen!
Now the exhibit itself is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! It says online that the gallery is made up of over 500,000 cubic feet of projections. has over 60,000 frames of video, and consists of over 90,000,000 pixels! When you walk past the entrance sign to the gallery, you go down a long fun lit hallway that then turns into a large room that is split in two parts that is playing the same 35+ minute projection video that is played on repeating loop all day long. You have the option to either sit or stand anywhere in the gallery as long as there is space available and if you’re worried about people being too close to you during your stay, they have white circle outlines projected on the floor to ensure that everyone feels safe and is socially distanced watching the video.You can also stay for as little or as long as you’d like! As far as seating goes, if sitting on the hard concrete floor is not an option for you, you can always ask one of the security guards to bring you a chair or a stool and if one is available they can assist you with that, however, please note that the “additional seating” is very limited so ask for assistance as soon as possible! To give you an idea of what it was like for us, Sam and I were only able to hang out for about an hour before our bottoms started to go numb and we were starting to lose interest! I will say that the seat cushions definitely helped if you’re debating on whether or not you should get one, but I am sure you can still manage without one too! All in all, I thought that the exhibit was absolutely beautiful and I loved everything about it! I do wish that they offered a separate portion of the exhibit where people could look at additional artwork or learn more about the artist/how they created the exhibit, etc. but it is still something fun to do if you’re in the area and are looking for things to keep you out of this hot Arizona heat!
Here’s a fun video I made for TikTok sharing my experience with all of you and I hope you guys enjoy – feel free to follow me on TikTok as well in case you aren’t already!
Also, please leave me a comment if you have already visited the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit either in Arizona or a different state/country and let me know what you thought of it!
