Van Gogh is the Artist the City Needs Right Now

Maria Shclover has devoted her career to bringing inspiring art to New Yorkers. So it’s only fitting that she would be involved in the most buzzed-about installation to come to our city since COVID halted the arts in Manhattan.

A Russian native, Shclover arrived in New York in 1991 as a refugee and enrolled in NYU’s Stern Business School after having studied music back home. With this sound educational background, she founded Maestro Artist Management, which specializes in bringing international music, dance and theater to American audiences. But it was through a family vacation to Paris in 2018 that Shclover fell in love with the concept of immersive art after attending an exhibit created by Italian digital artist Massimiliano Siccardi. What she could have never imagined at the time was she would later be partnering with Siccardi to launch the production startup Lighthouse Immersive, whose first project would be “Immersive Van Gogh.”

This acclaimed 360-degree digital exhibition, which is being described as feeling as though you are standing inside a Van Gogh painting, also incorporates animated film and an accompanying soundtrack for a truly one-of-a-kind experience. It opened in Toronto in July of 2020, and is currently running in both Chicago and San Francisco. After witnessing the warm reception in those cities, Shclover told us that the art attracts diverse crowds, and has hosted everything from family fun days to romantic date nights — and has even been the backdrop to some marriage proposals.

Besides showcasing 40 masterpieces from Van Gogh, other highlights include a three-dimensional “Starry Night” in the lobby, Van Gogh-inspired drinks and desserts, and a gift shop all located on the premises. The Lower East Side venue of Pier 36 was selected because it is conducive to COVID-19 safety protocols, with its vast 70,000 square-foot space overlooking the East River.

As for the 19th century Dutch painter who is the inspiration for this long-awaited event, which has already sold over 240,000 tickets and will bring tourists back into Manhattan, Van Gogh, who died at 37 years old by suicide, is actually an appropriate choice for this post-pandemic-ish spectacle. “He was a gentleman who struggled with depression and isolation,” Shclover said. “This exhibit is actually coming to New York during the time when we were all in isolation for a year, so I think it’s very timely, 130 years later.”

What made you change from studying music in Russia to business in New York?

It’s a funny story because I actually went to NYU and applied for the artist management program, but when I was interviewed by the dean, she said, “You have all this music and art background, but you don’t have any business knowledge. So why don’t you, instead of going here, go to Stern School of Business and get your business knowledge, and then come by.” At that time, I didn’t understand a lot of English [laughs] and I said, “Yes, yes, yes.” And that’s what I did. So I had to learn business from the beginning, but I never regretted it.

Tell us how your involvement with the Van Gogh exhibit came about.

In 2018, I went to Paris with my family, just for vacation, and I happened to go to this exhibit which was very new to me, with my kids and husband. I just fell in love with this immersive art idea. It turns out it was from the same creator that we ended up commissioning later. I was mesmerized; I came back and called my colleagues and said, “I fell in love with this concept and think we need to push that, because we don’t have it in the U.S..” And that’s how we all started to look into that. My colleagues from Canada started to pursue that from Canada and we actually were supposed to open in May of 2020, but, as you know, the pandemic started ... The exhibit in Toronto opened in 2020, during the pandemic, in July, and was very successful. And after that, we started to search U.S. markets and went to Chicago. My partner Irina Shabshis and I opened it on February 11 and it was very successful, and it’s still working. And the exhibit is also successfully working in San Francisco right now.

What does your role as coproducer entail?

I would say everything [Laughs]. We are all equal partners. As in any startup, there is no small role or big role, you need to wear different hats. I enjoy working with my partners on creative projects and I love my job very much. That’s why I work 24/7. But everything from planning, creating to approving stuff and hiring. We created over 100 jobs in Chicago and will create over 150 jobs in New York City. Overall, Lighthouse Immersive is creating over 2,800 jobs all over the U.S. with 19-plus locations opening until the new year.

Explain the venue selection of Pier 36 and why it lends itself to the exhibit.

The venue was chosen with COVID in mind. It’s a state-of-the-art 70,000 square-foot sports and entertainment venue. So it’s a lot of space. Pier 36 is the home of past events including the Billboard Women in Music Awards, Google Partner Summit, NBA Award Show and numerous high-profile fashion shows and the NYC Food and Wine Festival. But the main idea is the safety of interactions during COVID and the venue is spacious, and it’s on the water. And what people can expect is a lot of space and not a lot of people obstructing your view. This venue is important because it provides this wow factor. You really have to have a lot of space to experience this show and be really immersed in it because it’s a lot of music, animation, movement, light.

Tell us something interesting you learned about Van Gogh through your work on this.

What I learned is, I don’t know if it’s true or not, one of the legends of why he actually cut his ear ... Some people say just a part of the ear. The story was that he was friends with another artist and this artist was not talking to him and he cut his ear and said, “Now do you hear me?” But I don’t know if it’s true; this is something that I read.

Give us an idea of what COVID precautions are being taken there.

Since I don’t know what’s going to happen in New York — everything is changing now — but our walk-through installation has been designed with health and safety in mind, of course. Admissions will be according to New York’s capacity; I don’t know what it’s going to be. But we have touchless ticket taking. We have temperature checks — I don’t know if we’re going to be required to do that in June or July, but we definitely have that planned. Hand sanitizer stations everywhere. Social distancing markers, more like circles. We have that and that’s been working really great here in Chicago and in other locations. And it’s digitally projected, if, let’s say they change the distance. Face coverings, of course, are required.

www.vangoghnyc.com