Prado comes to Brooklyn in virtual reality for US premiere

Brooklyn is about to get the Prado without the plane ticket.

Powerhouse Arts in Brooklyn will host the US premiere of Masterpieces: A Virtual Experience of the Museo del Prado. The work is an immersive virtual reality exhibition. It is listed to run Oct 1 to Dec 20, according to Powerhouse Arts and Time Out.

Virtual reality here means a headset show. Visitors put on a headset and step inside a digital space, rather than standing back and looking at framed pictures on a wall. Immersive is the term venues use for work that surrounds you with image and sound. No prior knowledge is needed. You follow what you see and hear.

The Brooklyn dates are presented as the first US staging. That is what a premiere means in this context. The show has been seen elsewhere before. This is its first run for an American audience. Powerhouse Arts, the Brooklyn arts organisation hosting the engagement, lists the season as Oct 1 to Dec 20.

The experience was developed by ACCIONA Cultura. Powerhouse Arts credits the company as the developer behind the format. ACCIONA Cultura works as a creator and producer of cultural exhibitions. In this case, its job was to build the virtual visit.

What makes this stand out is the shift in how a museum collection travels. A traditional loan means crates, couriers, insurance and a handful of pictures on a wall. A virtual edition leaves the original paintings where they are. It sends the gallery instead. The room, the scale and the hang are rebuilt in software. Visitors can look closely and move through the space at their own pace.

For fans, this means a different kind of night out. Expect a timed slot. Expect a headset. Expect staff to help you fit it and find your bearings. That is now standard for virtual-reality programming. It is closer to a cinema visit than to a quiet wander through a gallery.

The timing covers autumn into the holiday period. Oct 1 opens the run. Dec 20 closes it. That gives local audiences, families visiting for the holidays and curious first-timers almost three months to catch it in Brooklyn. Check the venue listing before travelling, as headset shows often sell by timed entry and capacity is limited by kit.