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Immersive Salvador Dali art exhibit opens at Newfields

Immersive Salvador Dali exhibit coming to Newfields

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A new immersive art experience opens at Newfields’ projection exhibit on Sunday.

“The Lume” will feature “Dali Alive,” using projectors and music to show off the work of 20th-century surrealist painter Salvador Dali. It includes one of his most recognizable works “The Persistence of Memory,” which depicts melting clocks.

Jonathan Berger, Newfields’ vice president of marketing and executive producer of “The Lume,” says this kind of show can demystify art for newcomers.

“It’s an introduction to art,” Berger said. “You can bring your family, you can bring kids. You might not be able to convince your kids to look at a static painting on a wall, but coming here and experiencing art this way is great for the family. You can hold (their) attention span for a while.”

The space is about 30,000 square feet and has nearly 120 projectors displaying the Spanish artist’s work moving on the walls, and the floor.

Dali’s evolution as a painter, from his early days making portraits to his later more well-known dreamscapes, will be on display throughout the projection gallery.

“You walk into the mind of Salvador Dali and those surrealist paintings,” Berger said. “We’re really excited about it.”

There are several interactive activities, including photo ops and a station that can make Dali-style art with the help of artificial intelligence.

Toward the end of the exhibit, a traditional art gallery displays four Dali paintings in the museum’s permanent collection.

Berger says the public hasn’t seen these in a few decades.

“These were all commissioned for an opera in Europe. Dali painted these to be enlarged as backdrops and there were four of them,” Berger said. “When the show ended, the producer kept them. Lo and behold, he married a woman and they settled down in La Porte, Indiana. That’s how they came to be in Indiana and our collection then.”

Tickets to Dali Alive start at $29 for adults, $20 for kids, and kids five and under get in for free. Newfields members can buy tickets at a slight discount.

Members can also get a sneak peek of the display on Saturday.

For tickets visit the museum’s website.

Regular admission to Newfields does not include access to The Lume, but a ticket to Dali Alive will get you into the rest of the museum’s campus.

The exhibit runs through the rest of the year.