Skip to main content

The Van Gogh Museum launches on WeChat with AI features

News
van gogh museum

The Van Gogh Museum in the Netherlands has launched on WeChat to offer unique AI-powered features that merge technology and art.

The Van Gogh Museum has debuted on WeChat Channels and the WeChat Mini Program, marking an important overseas expansion for China’s most popular social app, developed by Tencent.

The museum in Amsterdam became the first overseas cultural institution to livestream a virtual museum tour on its WeChat Channels account on May 10, paving the way for other museums looking to engage with the Chinese audience.

Willem van Gogh, advisor to the board of the Van Gogh Museum, introduced Vincent van Gogh’s paintings at the museum and spoke about the artist’s life.

Chinese viewers were able to enjoy Van Gogh’s art in the virtual realm, including ‘Sunflowers’, ‘Tree Roots’ and ‘Bedroom in Arles’. They also interacted with the hosts, asked questions and entered a lucky draw for souvenirs.

Van Gogh Museum virtual tour on WeChat Channels

van gogh museum wechat

The Van Gogh Museum also selected 25 of Van Gogh’s most famous works in its collection and digitised them in high definition for its new WeChat Mini Program.

Users can also explore the artist’s life and buy merchandise via six interactive sections, which are ‘Understand Van Gogh’, ‘AI Van Gogh’, ‘Museum History’, ‘Van Gogh Store’, ‘Masterpiece Appreciation’ and ‘Floor Guide’. 

In addition, the Mini Program includes a feature called ‘AI Van Gogh’, which uses custom-made algorithms to create Van Gogh-style portraits from photos uploaded by the user.

The Van Gogh Museum was established in 1973 and houses the world’s largest collection of Van Gogh artworks, including 210 oil paintings and 704 drawings and watercolours.

WeChat is dedicated to empowering museums with digital offerings. WeChat and its domestic version Weixin connect more than 1.25 billion monthly active users globally.

Meanwhile, the British Museum has teamed up with Hello Kitty to open the Egyptian Adventure Pop-Up Store at the Suzhou Centre Mall in China.

The British Museum is growing its brand in China, and has developed a strong social media presence on WeChat and Weibo (via Jing Culture & Commerce).

Images: Van Gogh Museum/WeChat

Share this

Bea Mitchell

Bea is a journalist specialising in entertainment, attractions and tech with 10 years' experience. She has written and edited for publications including CNET, BuzzFeed, Digital Spy, Evening Standard and BBC. Bea graduated from King's College London and has an MA in journalism.

More from this author

More from this author

Related content

Your web browser is out of date. Update your browser for more security, speed and the best experience on this site.

Find out how to update