Powerhouse Arts in Gowanus, NYC: Step Inside Five Prado Paintings in VR

Powerhouse Arts (PHA), a not-for-profit creative production center in Gowanus, Brooklyn, is showing the US premiere of Masterpieces: A Virtual Experience of the Museo del Prado from October 1 through December 20. Developed by ACCIONA Cultura in exclusive collaboration with Madrid's Museo Nacional del Prado, it is billed as the first multi-user, location-based VR experience produced with the museum.

The guide is not a curator or scholar but a security guard on his final night shift before retirement. His animated vision comes from decades of attention to these paintings and service to the museum and its public. The piece is meant to highlight the often-unseen insights of museum workers, and to ask how original artworks might be experienced in an increasingly virtual world. Static canvases become three-dimensional, theatrical spaces that visitors enter together, moving past the frames into the narrative worlds inside.

Five paintings are featured: The Sense of Sight by Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel (1617), Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez (1656), Venus and Adonis by Paolo Veronese (ca. 1580), Witches' Sabbath by Francisco de Goya (1820–1823), and Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights triptych (1490–1500). The Prado rarely lends the Rubens and Brueghel work and strictly prohibits loans of the others, so a trip to Madrid has been the only way to see them in person.

Visitors walk through the space for 40 minutes wearing a VR headset. The exhibition advises against taking part for anyone prone to motion sickness or sensitive to flashing lights or sudden loud noises. It is recommended for ages 8 and up, with adults supervising children at all times. Afterward, a self-guided activity table provides materials to build a portable gallery diorama imagining museums of the future.

The show is in the Loft on the third floor at 322 3rd Ave; there is no onsite parking. Timed tickets are sold in advance or onsite: adults $30, seniors 65+ $20, veterans/military $20, visitors with disabilities $20, students 13+ with ID $16, children 8–12 $8. Groups of 10 or more get 15% off, and the code HALLOWEENPRADO takes 10% off through November 1. Open Wednesday to Friday 11am–7pm (last entry 6:30pm) and Saturday and Sunday 11am–5:30pm (last entry 5pm); closed Monday and Tuesday. Related programs include the Powerhouse Arts 2026 Staff Art Show on November 5 and the free family workshop Crafternoons: Crafting a Miniature Museum on November 14. The on-site Turbine Café & Bar is open during the exhibition, Tuesday–Thursday 9am–7pm, Friday 9am–8pm, and Saturday and Sunday 10am–8pm.