Van Gogh exhibition makes $56 million mark on Melbourne

The record-breaking Van Gogh and the Seasons exhibition held at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) during the winter months generated almost $56 million for the Victorian economy.

Part of the NGV’s Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series, the exhibition attracted 462,262 visitors across its 76 day season, making it the most popular ticketed exhibition in the gallery’s history.

With an impressive 103,342 of these visitors were from interstate, and 17,456 visitors from overseas, the event evaluation also revealed 9.4% of all attendees - 40,000 people - came to Melbourne specifically to see the exhibition, while 5,000 international and interstate visitors extended their stay to see Van Gogh’s works.

Economic impact evaluations calculate the accommodation, travel, hospitality and retail expenditure of exhibition visitors.

Overall the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series has now generated more than $495 million for the state since it was established in 2004.

This year, in addition to Van Gogh and the Seasons at the NGV, the series brought the Australian exclusive Wallace & Gromit and Friends: The Magic of Aardman exhibition to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. The exhibition was recently extended at ACMI and will run until 29th January 2018.

The NGV has already announced its 2018 Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition, Masterworks from MoMA, which will open on 9th June 2018.

Commenting on the value of the exhibition, Victoria Minister for Creative Industries Martin Foley stated “Van Gogh and the Seasons was a true blockbuster. It strengthened our reputation as the creative state and showed that investing in creativity and cultural events is an investment in Victoria’s future.

“The NGV is a tourism magnet - it’s Australia’s most popular gallery, one of the top twenty most visited in the world and a place to see the best art and design all year round.” 

Image: Van Gogh and the Seasons at the NGV.

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