When the World Went Dark

The COVID lockdown was a time of great uncertainty for the event industry. For over a year, theaters sat empty, concert halls fell silent, and the pulse of live entertainment slowed to a halt. The shutdown didn’t just pause events—it reshaped the way people gathered, connected, and experienced culture. Across the state, residents were hungry for something more than another screen—craving a sense of presence, emotion, and community that only real-life moments could deliver.

The First Show to Reopen California

Originally slated to open in April 2020, multiple lockdown delays brought Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience to the verge of complete cancellation. But NPU saw the value in this special show, and worked tirelessly with the exhibit and the city to push forward, navigating miles of red tape and new regulations to keep this incredible show alive.

We took the lead on health and safety—rewriting layouts, installing sanitation stations, even crafting distance markers that looked like sunflowers—and secured full approval from the City Attorney’s office and the California Department of Health. When doors finally opened on March 18, 2021, it wasn’t just San Francisco showing it could happen; it was the whole state proving that live events could safely return—and thrive.

And thrive it did. What was supposed to be a 3-month pop-up turned into a 12-month phenomenon. Over 1 million people stepped through the doors of the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit, making it the most-attended event in California’s reopening—and the first of its kind in the state. Behind it all? A bold vision, tireless innovation, and a historic venue turned fully immersive canvas.

Why SVN West Worked

A show as big and unique as the Van Gogh Immersive Experience demanded a special venue to match. Floorplan scale, flexibility, and customization were among the top priorities for the exhibit, and a prime location was key. SVN West was the perfect choice to check all of those boxes.

• Massive Space, Massive Impact: SVN offers more than 125,000 square feet of pure open space to work with. With that, NPU was able to work closely with the exhibit Team to carefully transform the entire venue with more than 500,000 square feet of custom projection surfaces to properly display the classical works of art.
• Location, Location, Location: Sitting at the corner of Market and Van Ness, SVN West is dead center in the city’s cultural core. With a mural out front and projections inside, it became a beacon for art-hungry locals and tourists alike.

Inside the Immersion

This wasn’t just projection. It was walking into an entire world engulfed in pure artistic magic.

• 38 Minutes of Motion: From The Starry Night to Sunflowers, Van Gogh’s most iconic works moved across every surface of SVN West.
• 40 Projectors, 40 Servers: Synced in perfect choreography to deliver 56,000 frames of digital art at scale.
• Sound, Light, Space: Luca Longobardi’s score wrapped the room in sonic texture, while animation and architecture worked in tandem to reframe the way we interact with art.

NPU’s Role: The Quiet Engine Behind the Spectacle

Behind every magical projection was a crew making the impossible feel seamless. NPU wasn’t just the venue operator—we were the launchpad.

NPU:

• Worked diligently for months to develop the city-approved health & safety plan to meet the ever-changing regulations that came along with all things COVID
  
• Handled all permitting, staffing, rigorous cleaning, and real-time ops
• Coordinated floorplans and buildouts to optimize traffic flow and maximize the space, taking social distancing into account. All without taking away from the magic of the exhibit. Distancing markers were sunflowers.  Capacity was limited, but emotion was not. Every design choice – from lobby to show floor – was built to reconnect people to one another through art. Suddenly, 6 feet apart wasn’t quite as far away.

We turned pandemic caution into operational confidence. When demand continued to surged? NPU met it head on by shifting operations and extending the run, multiple times. The Result? What was meant to be a short-term rental became a legendary year-long residence, creating value for our partners and the city alike.

What it Meant

When the exhibit finally wrapped, the numbers spoke volumes:

• 410,000 tickets sold in the first six months
  
• Run extended three times
  
• Overwhelmingly positive reviews
• 1M+ total attendees
  
• Sparked a nationwide movement of immersive art exhibitions, influencing cultural programming in 20+ major cities across the U.S.
  

But the real impact? San Francisco came alive again. Van Gogh brought people out of their confinement, and into a shared, sensory experience. It wasn’t just a show. It was a cultural milestone.

TLDR for Planners and Producers

• Venue Matters
  Don’t settle for four walls and a roof. Let the venue do half the storytelling. SVN West wasn’t just a location—it was a collaborator.

• Use the Bones
  Historic doesn’t mean outdated. With the right tech and a little vision, a mid-century concert venue became the most Instagrammed art space in town.

• Health = Access
  NPU didn’t just meet safety standards—we made them part of the design. That’s how you build trust and fill rooms in a hesitant world.

• Immersion = Emotion
  Today’s audiences want to feel something. Sound, space, and story need to work together. When they do, people show up—and come back.

• Flexibility Wins
  Plans changed. Guidelines shifted. But because we stayed adaptable, SVN West stayed open—and ultimately, iconic.

• Put in the Work
  Keeping up with the always shifting regulations surrounding the pandemic felt next to impossible at times. Days turned into weeks, turned into months. But NPU continued on, working in lock-step with the city to ensure the exhibit could open as soon as possible. Because of that diligence, the Van Gogh Exhibittion was the first live event in the state of California following lockdown, giving it a massive spotlight on the world stage, as a beacon of hope at the end of a dark time.

Immersive Van Gogh at SVN West wasn’t just a comeback. It was a declaration: that bold ideas, in the right hands and the right space, can spark movements. Non Plus Ultra lives for moments like this—when the lights come on, the doors swing open, and the city rushes in.

Ready to make something unforgettable? Let’s talk.