1st-in-the-U.S. show at Newfields will let you experience a painting with all your senses – IndyStar

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Indianapolis will soon feel what it's like to walk inside and even listen to and smell paintings in a new experience that takes up a space almost equal to half a football field.

The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields announced Wednesday that it will open The Lume Indianapolis, a cinema-likeinstallation that will comprise its entire fourth floor, or around 30,000 square feet.

Thanks to about 150 high-definition projectors, paintings by Vincent van Gogh will pour over the galleries' walls, floors and every crack in between. Almost 3,000 images pulled from his work will be choreographed to a dramatic classical music score and even time-released aromas.

This is a rendering of The Lume Indianapolis, which will be built by Grande Experiences.(Photo: Photo provided/Courtesy of Grande Experiences)

The Lume will be exhibition companyGrande Experiences' first permanent, immersive, multisensory digital art gallery in a U.S. fine art museum and the biggest continuous exhibition space in the 137-year history of Newfields. A bar and cafe, which will serve cocktails and food that correspond to van Gogh, will be added as well.

The Lume is scheduled to open in June a key month for tourism. Visit Indy foresees summer 2021 as a time when people will look for safe entertainment options after a winter hunkering down to avoid the coronavirus. The tourism bureau is making plans to market it accordingly.

Longer term, the installation is a way to continue inviting new people to the campus, a strategy that Newfields has shown with itspopular Harvest and Winterlights festivals. It's a goal that Grande Experiences, The Lume's creator, shares.

"The thing I always try to remember is that over 76% of Americans do not go to art museums," Newfields CEO Charles Venable said, citing statistics from the National Endowment for the Arts. "We've been looking for ways that we think will attract part of that 76%. We really believe The Lume is going to help us dismantle barriers where a lot of people, they don't think they know very much about art and find museums off-putting."

The first year of The Lume will be dedicated to van Gogh, who's known for ultra-famous works such as"The Starry Night." After that, the installation will offer a multitude of possibilities.

The point of The Lume is to create "an epic visual story," Craig Hartenstine, Grande's chief operating officer, wrote in an email to IndyStar.

It tells the story by beaming high-quality images of artwork and details like the intricacies of van Gogh's brush strokes that can be difficult to detectwhenviewing the originals.Rounding out the visuals are archival footage and images sourced from the time when and place where an artist was working.

This is a rendering of The Lume Indianapolis, which will launch in June 2021 at Newfields.(Photo: Photo provided/Courtesy of Grande Experiences)

"It's like placing a masterpiece under the microscope while walking through it all at the same time!" Hartenstine wrote.

Some details of the artworks are animated as well. For example, a video on Grande's website shows the famous "Wheatfield with Crows," but instead of being stationary, the crows take flight above van Gogh's golden brush strokes.

"Van Gogh probably watched the crows flutter off while he was painting the static painting, of course,"Venable said."We might love the painting, but being able to walk into his mind, walk into what he was seeing vis-a-vis the great pictures he was able to paint. ... I found that extremely compelling."

Layered in with the visuals are gentle scents. Hartenstine said a system has been engineered to synchronize aromas like citrus for a van Gogh still life with the movement of images and the score. For van Gogh, a classicalsoundtrackthat captures the emotional upheaval of his life is shaped to the show. It includes works byAntonio Vivaldi, Johann Sebastian Bach and Franz Schubert.

Visitors can move through The Lume at their leisure. The structure includes a 45-minute main feature, three five-minute features, an area to learn more detailed information about the subject and educational opportunities. The entire experience lasts about 90 minutes.

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Visits to a Grande installation in Rome and to the immersive Atelier des Lumiresdigital exhibition in Paris helped Venable see what could be possible in the Circle City. He and a team spent about five years researching projects in Asia, Australia and Europe, and the CEO said they chose Grande because of its technical prowess and the way it choreographsart. Newfields worked with the Lilly Endowment on the projectas well. Thelatter contributedan almost $7 million grant, which it approvedin November 2019, according to the museum.

This is a rendering of The Lume Indianapolis, which will be the largest continuous exhibit space in Newfields' history.(Photo: Photo provided/Courtesy of Grande Experiences)

Hartenstine said Grandewanted to work with Newfields because the institutions sharea vision. The museum has received extensive coverage in the national media for its rebranding and expansion of experiencesthat emphasize its outdoor campus. Thegoal has been to engage a broader spectrum of people and increase its financial stability.

"Once we had the chance to understand (Venable's) deeper vision for Newfields, we knew it was the ideal place to launch THE LUME in North America," Hartenstine wrote.

Since its 2006 founding, Grande, which is based in Melbourne, Australia,has had more than 190 experiences in 32 languages that have lived in more than 145 cities. An installation that centers onClaude Monet and the Impressionists, for example, submerges viewers in the bohemian flavors of 19th-century Paris. Other subjects include nature and science.

The company will launch TheLume Melbourne, a permanent experiential gallery, in the second quarter of 2021, shortlybefore Newfields. Venable said Indianapolis' version will be the mothership of permanent immersive digital experiences for the U.S.

Those behind the project see it as a destination for people within driving distance and they hope even farther.

When Visit Indy's Chris Gahlbecame involved with The Lume about two years ago, he knew an experience of this size would be another magnet for travelers. Visitors already reportspending multiple days at Newfields.

Now, given the shock of 2020,The Lume will have an even larger role for the city's tourism industry.

"COVID has caused this screeching halt to tourism nationwide, you could argue, globally. What makes this exhibition so special is that it will beunquestionably part of our recovery strategy to get visitors to Indianapolis and bounce back from the pandemic," said Gahl, the tourism bureau's senior vice president of marketing andcommunications.

He said the June launch alignsperfectly with Visit Indy's projections for late spring and early summer. The organization anticipates pent-up demand from those who sheltered in place and who have restless kids fresh off another school year. Venable said driving vacations and day trips could tick up in 2021 because people still might not feel comfortable on planes.

This is a rendering of The Lume Indianapolis, which will debut at Newfields.(Photo: Photo provided/Courtesy of Grande Experiences)

While coronavirus vaccine predictions vary, top health officials and scientistshave said that the U.S. could have widespread vaccine doses by the middle of next year, which are expected to usher the beginning of a transition back to normalcy.

Regardless, the Lume capitalizes on museums' major asset during the pandemic wide-open spaces that allow people the freedom to move.Looking further into the future, Gahl sees the installation as a way to continue to diversify Indianapolis' reputation.

"Someone in New York receiving advertising and marketing about Lume in Indianapolis will take a second look. They'll say, 'Indy has this caliber of exhibit; let's make a trip,' " Gahl said. "Whereas that same consumer, pre-this exhibit, might not give us that look. This might be the distinguishing tipping point that will get someone from L.A. or New York to come visit Indy, experience our product,walk our city and then ultimately come back."

Installing The Lume on the fourth floor will set more changes in motion. The fourth floor has most recently housed contemporary art. Some of those pieces will be integrated elsewhere in the building as interventions that will bring out new dialogues when they're placed next to older works.And in the future, the museum is creating a10,000 square-foot space where the Edward Hopper show is now, whichwill be devoted to contemporary works, Venable said.

This is a rendering of The Lume Indianapolis, which will first highlight paintings of Vincent van Gogh.(Photo: Photo provided/Courtesy of Grande Experiences)

The Lume will offer the opportunity to highlight some of the museum's own collection as well. Its "Landscape at Saint-Rmy," by van Gogh, will be a key piece visitors can examine before or after they enter the digital installation.

The multisensory experience of van Gogh will be just the first part of the technology's capabilities. Not only can the museum bring in more traditional artwork, it also can commission contemporary artists.

"That is the future, to see, 'How do we bring in artists as many artists sort of leave the canvas and they go into technology?' " Venable said.

Contact IndyStar reporter Domenica Bongiovanni at 317-444-7339 or d.bongiovanni@indystar.com. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter: @domenicareports.

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1st-in-the-U.S. show at Newfields will let you experience a painting with all your senses - IndyStar