The Groove Issue 54 - The New Business of Bringing Old Art to The Masses
THE NEW BUSINESS OF BRINGING OLD ART TO THE MASSES
We live in the era of “experiences”. In fact, it’s the currency of millennials, which has expanded to both ends, dragging Gen Z and Gen X alongside to things like “The Museum of Ice Cream”, “The Color Factory” and other places where people line up and pay an entrance fee just to take a picture inside of a room that matches their outfit colors.
Now the experiential has expanded to old art, generating dozens of businesses that are capitalizing on the many months that people were locked down and craved cultural enrichment.
First it was Klimt
The Gustav Klimt immersive experience at Atelier des Lumières in Paris, 2018.
In May 2018, I was in Paris for work and saw tons of ads in magazines and on the street for a Gustav Klimt exhibition at a place called “Atelier des Lumières.” I was intrigued and looked it up online. Timed tickets were sold out for the next two days, but I was able to find a spot on the third.
When I got there, the place seemed like a theatre from the outside. I really didn’t know what to expect. After crossing the door, I got into a gigantic, renovated foundry with massively tall ceilings, where projections and animations with Klimt’s art were playing on a 20-minute loop everywhere: floor, ceiling, walls, stairs.
The music was loud - contemporary classical tunes, composed especially for the exhibition and synched with the imagery to perfection. It was immersive, novel, spectacular and it got me. It really got me. I thought: what a new lease on Klimt’s work and such a fresh way to portray his genius to so many new generations!
At the end, I also saw how droves of tourists congregated in the gift shop buying books, magnets, puzzles, you name it. This thing was really good business while providing a cultural moment for the masses, who may be more inclined to partake of this experience than to spend the day at a museum.
And Then Came van Gogh
The van Gogh experience at The Lume at Newfields, Indianapolis.
A year later in the summer of 2019, I went back to Paris with my kids to the same place, but this time, they had us engulfed in van Gogh. His sunflowers bathed us all up, his digitized brushstrokes could almost be felt. The place had added more rooms and levels, there was even a bar and a different projection room toward the back.
Fast forward to 2021, there’s this craze with van Gogh around the world. There are almost 40 different van Gogh experiences happening in parallel in the United States alone. For example, “Immersive Van Gogh,” opened in NYC, Houston, San Francisco and 16 other cities in this country plus Toronto and Dubai.
According to Ticketmaster, “Immersive Van Gogh” is the most successful experience in the world. It has sold more than 3 million tickets. Prices vary from $40 to $70 depending on the city and the type of access and perks you get, which means the company that runs “Immersive Van Gogh” has generated sales of $192 million not counting merchandising and rental fees from private events.
For comparison, last year the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the largest and most comprehensive art museums in the world, received only 1.12 million visitors. Ticket prices are $25 for adults, $17 for seniors and $12 for students. You do the math.
But there’s more: “Imagine Van Gogh”, “Van Gogh Alive”, “Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience” and many others, are all running in parallel, in many instances in the same city, and they are all owned by different companies.
Here’s what makes using van Gogh or any other famous artist who has been dead for more than 70 years so enticing: there are no copyrights.
The photos of the artworks these artists made are in the public domain and can be used without paying fees or royalties. What’s needed is to find or send someone to photograph in the best high-res possible. Of course, all the other expenses - projectors, designers, engineers, rents, utilities, salaries, etc. - add up, but the intellectual property they are profiting from is free.
The Conundrum
The Dalí experience at Atelier des Lumières in Paris, 2021.
For many years, several museums and cultural institutions have banged their heads against the wall trying to figure out how to increase attendance consistently and not just during a blockbuster show à la Yayoi Kusama. Could these types of experiences provide an answer?
The Indianapolis Museum of Art, rebaptized as Newfields, closed an entire exhibition floor, moved the artworks to storage and turned it into an immersive theatre: The Lume. It has 150 digital projectors covering 30,000 square feet of space and is also projecting a van Gogh experience. Tickets are separate from the museum.
Of course, this trade-off has been frowned-upon by the art purists and historians, curators and art police of the world: how could the Newfields museum dare to close an entire floor to create immersive experiences? Even if such an inelegant solution saves the place from bankruptcy.
Although I do love a museum and prefer seeing the real van Gogh paintings, it doesn’t have to be an either/or proposition. There are overlapping audiences, people who like me, enjoy both the real thing and the creativity and innovation that goes into making the digital one, and there are younger audiences whose first encounter with van Gogh may not be at The Met but in the “Van Gogh Alive” digital extravaganza in Kansas City.
The business of bringing old art to the masses is a novel and profitable one. Even making so much money from copyright-free imagery has allowed Atelier des Lumiere and its sister company in the South of France, Carrières de Lumières (which is the pioneer and started producing immersive exhibitions in 2013) to move into the space where royalties are paid.
The Paris one is currently running a mesmerizing and surrealistic digital exhibit with Salvador Dalí’s works accompanied by Pink Floyd music. The Provence location is having two exhibits with the works of Cezanne and Kandinsky.
Most of the time, creativity and innovation are all about upgrading and improving what exists, because truly there’s nothing 100% original. We are always building upon what has been done before.
That's why we didn’t get stuck with Graham Bell’s 1867 telephone and why waiting for a taxi in the middle of the freezing winter became a thing of the past when Uber and Lyft revolutionized the way we go from one place to the other.
The digital art experiences and their undeniable commercial success, are just cementing the fact that when you want to stay relevant, it’s always a good idea to pay attention to the times and the audience you want to serve and meet them where they are.
I loved being a guest of Wine and Chisme podcast and chatting with the super cool Jessica Yanez, about the experience of building a business as an immigrant and what it means to start a life from scratch. You can listen here.
Thank you for reading this far. Looking forward to hearing from you anytime.
There are no affiliate links in this email. Everything that I recommend is done freely.
THE CURATED GROOVE
A selection of interesting articles in business, art and creativity along with some other things worth mentioning:
An installation that was 60 years in the making but only up for 2 weeks.
An in-depth analysis of how art funds have changed throughout the years and if it’s worth investing on them.
Scientist have invented the whitest paint ever, certified by the Guinness World Record.
Five leadership habits for unleashing innovation.
The best exhibition I saw in New York City last week.
“Mediocrity is the worst sin”, a quote from this documentary featuring the life of a cultural icon who inspired millions and left this world too soon.