A bedroom is a person’s most personal place. Entering someone’s bedroom provides a voyeuristic experience, placing you in their physical, emotional and mental space.

So, to connect people with Van Gogh we gave them the ability to experience his bedroom. Now for the first time, instead of just looking at a painting, people could live inside one.

The piece was flawlessly true to Van Gogh’s original, reinforcing the AIC’s reputation as a world –class arts organization.

The painting, originally 29 x 36 5/8 in, was made life-size at approximately 11 feet x 13 feet.

After researching the painting from original documentation, notes and books written on the piece - all supplied by the Art Institute of Chicago - craftsmen spent 4 weeks meticulously bringing the bedroom installation to life. The artists and craftsmen hand milled the shape of the furniture to exemplify their true shape in the painting, down to the last brush stroke, even slightly skewing the window-wall to achieve the same layout and shape of the original room.

On top of making everything visually authentic each piece had to be made durable enough to withstand 3 months of being actually lived in.

Because of demand, guests were limited to one-night stays. Rooms were made available three or four weeks at a time, with each of these blocks selling out within minutes.

Online pre-sale tickets for the exhibit were up 250%.

On average 4700 people visited every day over the first six weeks. Total attendance during this time was more than 200,000–beating business targets by 73%.

“Van Gogh Bedrooms” was the Art Institute of Chicago’s highest-attended exhibit in 15 years.

The room cost $31k to build, and generated over $6M in earned media.

By leveraging AirBnb, we amplified our paid media reach by 950%, scaling it globally.

Van Gogh BnB has been covered in more than 100 countries, gaining 623 million earned media impressions.

The target audience was people living in and around Chicago. We knew art-enthusiasts would already be interested so we aimed to communicate with the wider public. People are familiar with Van Gogh’s painting and the tabloid-esque stories of his life, so we wanted to demonstrate that this was a way to experience Van Gogh in a brand new way.

A painting can only get you so close to an artist. And the stories of Van Gogh’s exploits only reveal so much about the man. We thought the truest way for people to experience Van Gogh’s life and art was to spend a night inside this room.

This bedroom was the iconographic centerpiece of the exhibit, so it made sense to lean into it 100%.

The Art Institute of Chicago was introducing a new Van Gogh exhibit. Instead of being a wide retrospective it was a very focused show concentrating on the artist’s two years living in Arles France.

The intent of the show and the brief were the same: Bring people closer to the artist, not just as a painter, but as a person. The objective was to create interest and excitement around this very focused show.

Being an arts organization, the AIC doesn’t have a lot of money. This project cost $31K, which is a sizeable sum for them.