Kansas City’s ‘Immersive Van Gogh’ exhibit is delayed a second time, finally picked a venue
Have you been getting those ads on Instagram or Facebook for Kansas City’s Immersive Van Gogh exhibit and wondered what was up? Or did you already buy tickets and have been waiting to see if the art show is actually going to happen?
Well, you’ll have to wait a while longer. The interactive show celebrating the famous Impressionist painter has been postponed again until April 21, which is almost a year after the show was first announced in May 2021.
This change comes just weeks before Immersive Van Gogh’s planned opening on Feb. 28, which was already delayed once. Organizers said the delay was because of issues securing an appropriate venue.
“We sincerely apologize to our Kansas City patrons for the delay,” said Corey Ross, producer of Immersive Van Gogh, in a statement.
The show was originally scheduled to open last year on Dec. 1. It’s not to be confused with the other Van Gogh exhibit that just wrapped up at the Starlight.
“We absolutely regret the delay,” Svetlana Dvoretsky, co-producer, added in the statement. “The good news is that we have a solid plan in place, and will definitely open in April. We promise our guests a spectacular show.”
Exhibits from the same company in St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Dallas, and most recently in Detroit, have also been delayed.
SECRET VENUE UNVEILED
The second delay does bring with it some more concrete logistics about the show. Organizers have selected a venue, which had up until now been kept a mystery.
The Immersive Van Gogh exhibit will be in The Grove building at Zona Rosa, 8640 N. Dixson Ave. in the Northland.
Scott Zigler, general manager of Zona Rosa, confirmed with The Star that Immersive Van Gogh is coming to the entertainment center.
“We’re excited to add this exhibit to our robust entertainment options at Zona Rosa,” Zigler said.
The show will go from April 21 until July 4.
If you’ve waited this long, you’re going to see more than 50 projectors illuminating over 14,000 square feet. You’ll be drenched from head to toe in Van Gogh’s brushstrokes and colors, including animated details from works such as “Self Portrait with Felt Hat,” “The Bedroom in Arles,” “Irises” and “The Starry Night.”
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR TICKETS
If you previously bought a ticket for dates prior to April 21, Ross said you’ll be getting an email in the next 48 hours with your new date and options to reschedule or get a refund.
We wrote about the steps to take to switch your ticket last time the show was delayed, as some readers had issues with the process and wrote in to The Star. You can email ticketing@kansascityvangogh.com with any issues.
TICKETS AND ADVERTISING MIX-UPS
Other details around the show have been a bit confusing.
Ross said the delay will impact around half of the exhibit’s ticket buyers. But how many buyers that actually is remains unclear. On Monday, Immersive Van Gogh spokesperson Nick Harkin told The Star that the show has sold about 45,000 tickets, but in November, he told The Star the show had sold “more than 100,000 tickets.”
Harkin said the 100,000 number came from a previous publicist who was working on the project.
“At that time, I was not doing the national publicity,” he said. “It was a different agency and I came on board in this position a little bit more recently.”
Then on Tuesday, Harkin told The Star that the 45,000 number was actually incorrect, and the show had sold 52,000 tickets.
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When The Star asked Harkin why Immersive Van Gogh was advertising to Kansas City residents on Instagram and Facebook about tickets for Valentine’s Day dates, even though the show does not open until April, he said it was a mistake.
“It was actually a national campaign, so it spilled over into our Kansas City advertising,” Harkin said, even though the ads were from the Kansas City-specific account @vangoghkc.
“We certainly stopped those ads,” Ross said of the Valentine’s Day ads. “I will go look further and make sure that there’s not something that we managed to turn off that we missed. That sounds like an old ad.”
HOW TO GET TICKETS
If you’re interested in buying tickets for dates at the confirmed Zona Rosa venue, you can do so here. Prices range from $39-$49 before fees for adults and $24.99 for kids under age 16, but times with limited availability are as high as $70.
“We’re looking forward to welcoming the public and we’re looking forward to doing many more shows in Kansas City,” Ross said.
Do you have more questions, or are you running into issues changing your tickets? Let us know at kcq@kcstar.com.
This story was originally published February 15, 2022 at 12:00 PM.
