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  • Contributing $ 5

    The Art Lover

    Show your support with a small, simple donation and we will thank you on our dedicated patrons page.

    > 13 Backers
  • Contributing $ 31

    Have a drink with us!

    Keep our gallery thriving and reward yourself with a tea or coffee in your very own VanGoYourself mug, beautifully printed with our logo.

    > 10 Backers
  • Contributing $ 38

    Sponsor a painting

    Help us to add another fabulous painting to VanGoYourself so that more people can discover the amazing collections inside museums and galleries.
    We will contact you to let you know which painting you have sponsored and you will see your name credited on the paintings page of our site. You can then check back regularly, at any time, to see how your painting is doing and look at any recreations made.

    > 13 Backers
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    The VanGoYourself SuperFan

    Get everything in one beautiful package for a special price.

    THE ART LOVER + HAVE A DRINK WITH US! + ADOPT A PAINTING = SuperFan.

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  • Contributing $ 189

    The Cosmopolitain

    Support us to release paintings from more countries. Your donation will allow us to build an exciting set of images from a range of countries and collections across Europe. Tell us which countries you would like to see represented on VanGoYourself and we will focus our efforts in that direction. We will contact you to let you know which set of paintings we have added and your name will be credited alongside ALL the paintings added as a result of your donation.

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  • Contributing $ 406

    Your very own Pop-Up VanGoYourself event

    Have your own exclusive pop-up VanGoYourself event, designed to take place for you and your friends or colleagues in Brighton, Barcelona or Berlin.

    On an afternoon of your choice, members of the VanGoYourself team will arrange everything for you to recreate a famous painting in a fabulous historic location in one of the three cities. We will bring all the props and costumes, take all the pictures, do all the organising and bring the drinks and snacks! All you need to do is turn up with your group, have fun and create your own art.

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  • Contributing $ 757

    Putting your company in the picture

    VanGoYourself and your team at your next staff meeting, conference or party. We will help you by providing top tips and ideas on how to make your recreation fun for everyone and get the best result for your team. We will feature your re-enactment in our VanGo’d gallery and credit your company with a logo and link to your website so everyone knows how much you love the arts.

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  • Contributing $ 2,704

    Sponsor VanGoYourself

    Is your business looking to support the arts? Do you believe in the power of art to transform lives? Do you want to be associated with a fun, friendly, creative art project that is transforming the way people connect to culture? This is a unique, one-off opportunity to become the VanGoYourself headline sponsor and get your company logo on our site and all our associated communications with both the public and our community of hundreds of museums and galleries across Europe.

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Everything in Moderation

12 | 07 | 2015

As anyone who’s never eaten pizza or double chocolate chip ice cream knows, moderation is key to most things. With VanGoYourself, we get a daily stream of recreations from people all over the world. Moderating them could, strictly speaking, be described as a job, but usually it’s more like an entertaining way to start most days.

I used to very mildly agonise over this: someone (or a few people) have taken time out of their day to come on to our humble site, pick a painting and join in. Is it too dismissive not to republish their recreation in all its glory? Then again, if someone’s taken a grand old painting full of dressing-up potential and uploaded a selfie of themselves staring blankly in the exact opposite direction of the sitter (which no-one has done yet, but you get the drift), it doesn’t make sense to publish that alongside all the really high-quality impersonations we receive.

On the main site, theoretically it should encourage ever-more creative takes if we keep the quality control relatively high (I’d be particularly keen to encourage more people to get their pooches involved, as those have been some of the funniest ones we’ve had so far.) Fortunately, the submissions that don’t make it through to the promised land still get to glow in the wild and untameable garden of our Tumblr, which remains as unmoderated as a forage in the fridge after six months on Weight Watchers.

Aside from the occasional shouts of “look at this one! Make sure you publish this!” emanating like excitable honks from the enclave behind me at VanGoYourself headquarters, I think my favourite part of the submission process is the Tips and Tricks bit. I’m not too sure who writes these, but they’re perceptive and frequently pick out elements of the painting you might not necessarily notice at first. They appear to the right once you’ve picked the painting you want to recreate. For example, on Isabella and the Pot of Basil, painted by William Holman Hunt in 1868 and held at the Laing Art Gallery all the way up in Toontown, the description says: “Attention to detail, earthy colours and luxurious fabrics will capture the essence of this masterpiece. Skulls on the pot refer to Lorenzo's death, and dying roses on the ground symbolise the end of love.” For Girl in a White Kimono, at the Rijksmuseum in the ‘dam, it suggests using a spare pair of curtains, and asks you to imagine yourself as “a silky cloud hovering lightly over a mountain of heavy, earthy fabric in serene contemplation.” Now that’s escapism. Makes me want to try them more. Visit vangoyourself.com and click ‘Go’ to pick your own. It’s all about the props. A firm hat tip, too, to those who gave it a go on our little trip to Vienna: this one, featuring a grand piano (from the 19th century painting Mozart in Vienna, naturally) hits the right note.

Scores on the doors on this windy Sunday evening in thrall to Novak Djokovic’s eye for a baseline: €2,154 in, from 55 backers. Marvellous scenes. Eight days to go, keep getting involved – at the risk of sounding like a record with a finger-sized crack in it, we’re equally chuffed whether you pose as a painting, become a VanGoYourself advocate or fling a few notes at us. Links to the right. #VanGoForIt.

Ben Miller

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