GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition is kicking off Friday at Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum.
The immersive experience will show off the art in a unique way, without having to book a flight to Italy. SEE Global Entertainment, who runs the exhibit and multiple others across the world, is bringing the show to Grand Rapids for a nostalgic reason.
"That's a special city to me," SEE Global Entertainment CEO Martin Biallas said. “I was born in Germany and I came as an exchange student to Grand Rapids in 1975. And Ford was president at the time.”
The exhibit is a chance for art lovers to delve into the art piece that took Michelangelo years to complete and cemented his legacy as one of the best artists in the world.
“Michelangelo, of course, one of the most iconic artists ever," Biallas said.
The exhibit features zoomed-in versions of every single part of the Sistine Chapel, where tour guides explain the meaning of the art up-close.
“If you're in Vatican City and you're inside of this building, you look up at the ceiling and it's about 45 feet high. You're just packed with people. You're not allowed to take photographs and you just feel like you're a sardine in a can," local art historian Henry Luttikhuizen said.
Luttikhuizen says the piece is complicated in its form and is so much more meaningful than just something to quickly look at.
“There's a lot of things that are going on that aren't just religious, some are going to be artistic, some are going to be deeply political," Luttikhuizen said.
The exhibit kicks off Friday and goes until September 11. Tickets start at $15 dollars for adults, $9 dollars for children and free for children under 5-years-old.
