Museums and NFTs — a win-win-situation?
More and more cultural institutions are using NFTs in different ways: For crowdfunding, as artist editions, as DAOs or in merchandising. In addition, NFTs are in the collections of important art museums and are increasingly shown to the public in exhibitions.
1. NFTs in art collections — from d1cks to punks
Smaller and specific institutions such as the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (ZKM) and the House of Electronic Arts Basel (HEK) make purchases themselves. ZKM began to explore the topic of blockchain on the occasion of the exhibition “Open Codes. Living in Digital Worlds”. In context of this project, ZKM acquired 2017 CryptoPunks, CryptoKitties and an artwork by Harm van den Dorpel. HEK has a long tradition of acquiring and maintaining digital art. But not until the year 2022 that the first NFTs found their way into the collection. The NFTs were from the group Ubermorgen, handcrafted pixel drawings of penises.
https://objkt.com/asset/KT19gWnTdsLQVuhdZgMBpTuXHh1JWGciPtiJ/7
Major art museums benefit from donations. In February 2023, 22 artworks from the Cozomo de’ Medici Collection have been added to the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), including a CryptoPunk. Also in February 2023 a CryptoPunk joined the collection of the Centre Pompidou Paris through a donation by Yuga Labs.
The CryptoPunks are thus represented in at least 3 museum collections. This underlines the importance of these collectibles. The 10'000 unique pixel heads were minted on the Ethereum Blockchain in 2017.
And recently, in October 2023, the Museum of Modern Art New York (MOMA) was made happy with the generative artwork “Unsupervised” from Refik Anadol. It was a donation by Ryan Zurrer of 1ofart.
Conclusion: Every well-run museum has a collection concept. The collection is selective. It is therefore understandable that not every museum relies on digital art and NFTs. There are also technical and regulatory issues involved in the acquisition process. Who has access to the wallet, who has access to the seed phrase, is the work stored on-chain or off-chain? The handling of NFTs must be practiced and regulated. 2 CryptoPunks were lost when an employee of ZKM transferred the NFTs to the wrong wallet address!
2. NFTs in merchandising — like a postcard, only limited
After a tour of the exhibition, the museum shop usually awaits visitors. Postcards, posters, tea cups and much more are on offer. Most items are printed reproductions of artworks on physical material. The Belvedere Museum has offered digital reproductions of The Kiss by Gustav Klimt as NFTs in 2022 Each piece of 10’000 NFTs is a unique fraction of the high resolution image. It was sold for a price of 1'850 €.
The British Museum and the Leopold Museum had a collaboration with “La Collection”. They help museums to issue and sell authenticated limited digital editions of original artworks. Like a limited edition “digital lithography” collectors are able to own certified digital twins of fine-arts masterpieces.
https://opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0x405ca66eb6215ecc7941ebffd6d391f1845438ee/290006
Conclusion: Digital copies of original works are nothing more than merchandising items. The Kiss collection was released on Valentine’s Day in February 2022. The museum took advantage of the NFT hype to sell the digital files for a hefty price. Today, this would no longer be possible or people would no longer spend such a high amount on an NFT. This is also shown by a look at the collection’s sales statistics. NFTs from The Kiss are currently selling for less than 150 €.
3. NFTs as DAO — the right to vote
Would you like to curate an exhibition or have your artwork featured in the program of the House of Electronic Arts Basel (HEK)? HEK launched in summer 2023 his own decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). By owning a membership token (NFT), you have the opportunity to actively participate in the decision-making process of the institution.
Friends of HEK offers unique opportunities for both artists and curators alike. The HEK token replaced the yearly membership, so free museum entry is included as part of the token benefits. Aside from this, there is a varied and exclusive online event program for holders of the NFT.
It was up to the NFT owners to decide which artist would design the member token and which artist would have a virtual solo exhibition next year. Chosen were Auriea Harvey (for the member token) and Maya Man (for the virtual exhibition).
https://opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0xadc9adc3b057cc1536a706ffee3c6eb794cb95a3/18
Conclusion: The larger the organisation, the more members it has, the more difficult it is to reach a democratic decision. In the case of the HEK — with 206 members (as at 13 November 2023) — a member token is worthwhile. Because your vote counts.
4. Participatory and interactive NFTs — Every person is an artist
MoMA Postcard is a global community project. With 15 blank stamps, each postcard is an interactive NFT adventure waiting to be unlocked.
By scanning a QR Code and follow the instructions in the Autonomy app, you can design and sign your pixel-art-stamp. This stamp is the token of ownership, confirmed on the blockchain. Then you can send your postcard to another person. Continue this process 15 times and all 15 stamps are added to the postcard.
Kicking off this postcard project MoMA asked 15 artists working at the intersection of art and technology to create their own set of cards. Sasha Stiles was the first artist who created a stamp in August 2023.
https://objkt.com/asset/moma-postcard/1691866028546
My postcard is still on the road. I did the first stamp on 31st of october 2023 and sent it to Argentina.
While the digital postcards from the MoMA can be designed from anywhere in the world, the project playrecordmint was only possible on site. A screen and sensor was installed 2022 in the Kunsthaus Zürich that allowed artists to invite an audience on site to co-author animated sequences or still images within an artwork. Visitors could record and mint these interactions as NFTs in real time.
During the exhibition, playrecordmint was used by three different artists: Zach Lieberman, Sasha Stiles & Nathaniel Stern and Leander Herzog.
https://objkt.com/asset/haystacks/312
Conclusion: In most cases, playing is more fun than just watching. If no special knowledge is required to create the picture and the results are surprising, the project can be successful. So everyone quickly becomes an artist 🙂
5. NFTs as Crowdfunding — it may work
Kunstmuseum Bern takes on a pioneering role and ventures into innovative and experimental fundraising. The institution is raising money for the renovation of the museum with the project INFINITE. The digital artworks created specifically for this project pay homage to works from the collection and can be purchased as NFTs . The first series was created by Sasha Stiles (if you have read the article up to this point, you will have noticed that this is the third time this artist has been mentioned!). She let her inspire by the color theories of Bauhaus artist Johannes Itten.
https://kunstmuseumbern.tokengate.app/projects/2b81c27d-e05c-4d57-be11-251c3ad9ea62/drops/1bc282ff-1a14-47c9-933b-5806bc2ca86a
Conclusion: Crowdfunding can be a means of reaching the masses and generating funds. One condition is that there is demand for the artist and the artwork. On the other hand, no special technical knowledge is required to acquire the NFTs.
6. NFTs as Artists Editions — still uncommon
Again, the HEK is mentioned here. This institution is experimenting with NFTs in various ways. So far it has 2 editions on offer, from Urusula Endlicher and from Leander Herzog & Milian Mori.
Kunstmuseum St. Gallen also offers an NFT edition, from the artist Alexander Hahn. The edition can be purchased directly from the marketplace rarible.
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1CLc22oxbKotDNnbHt4xMeswzzW41Md7Ln/2
Conclusion: What applies to crowdfunding at NFTs, applies even more to editions. Here, the charitable purpose no longer applies and the artwork must be convincing and available for purchase at a reasonable price.
