A closer look at WAC Lab and the work they’ve been doing with Season 3 cohorts to bring sensible implementations of blockchain technology to cultural institutions.
WAC Lab has been running consecutively for almost three years, tracing its roots back to December 2021. During that period, they have onboarded thousands of art professionals and dozens of cultural institutions to blockchain.
This has been accomplished through WAC Lab’s unique program, which teaches cultural institutions the basics of blockchain and provides hands-on support for projects and mentors. This latest season has been no short of a stellar turnout, with over eight hundred art professionals participating in weekly discussions and twenty-four museums participating in WAC Lab’s training programs.
Let’s highlight more of WAC Lab and some of the projects unveiled at their upcoming demo day on May 30th!
What Goes Into The WAC Lab Programs?
Museums today face several hurdles, such as attracting younger, tech-savvy audiences, securing financial support, and remaining relevant in an increasingly digital world. Web3 offers a compelling solution to these issues by integrating blockchain technology, generative AI, and immersive digital environments. This new framework can reshape how museums engage with their visitors, creating captivating and interactive experiences that appeal to a wide range of people.
WAC Lab’s free programs provide education, resources, and mentoring to help institutions understand and apply blockchain technology. In an area still relatively under-explored by the traditional art world, these resources are crucial for starting a journey into the blockchain and web3 space.
Some of the programs organized by WAC Lab are as follows.
WAC Weekly: An online discussion forum for knowledge exchange on Web3 and the arts. This program is open to all art and culture institutions without restrictions.
WAC Museums: A six-week educational and mentoring program focusing on blockchain and Web3 technologies for arts and culture institutions.
WAC Factory: A four-week accelerator program for developing Web3 projects in collaboration with Web3 tech integrators.
WAC Resources: This is a compilation of information and tools to help start a Web3 journey in the arts. A great example is their third handbook, which is available for viewing or downloading here.
By offering free access to education, resources, and mentoring, WAC Lab empowers museums and cultural institutions to embrace innovative solutions that enhance visitor engagement, create new revenue streams, and ensure their relevance in the digital age. WAC Lab’s impact has been more than evident in the success stories emerging from its cohorts, which we have covered in length.
In the next section, we’ll highlight some select cultural institutions that will utilize Tezos and the others involved in the season 3 cohort.
WAC Lab Season 3 Projects
The cultural institutions developing projects in WAC’s third season feature another exciting lineup. Most notably, Château de Chambord, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and the Swiss National Museum collectively attract over a million visitors annually.
221A (Canada)
Château de Chambord (France)
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (United States)
Goethe-Institut Lisbon (Portugal)
Museo de Arte Popular José Hernández (Argentina)
Museum Ulm (Germany)
Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico)
Swiss National Museum (Switzerland)
The Royal Danish Collection (Denmark)
XR HUB Bavaria (Germany)
Over half of these institutions will utilize the Tezos blockchain, be sure to check out the full demo day recap to hear about them all!
In no particular order, the projects/institutions utilizing Tezos are Museo de Arte Popular José Hernández, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, The Royal Danish Collection, XR HUB Bavaria, Museum Ulm, and Goethe-Institut Lisbon.
Each of these projects will utilize live minting, experimenting with different types of art and audience engagements. Per a press release, here’s a little more information on how each project is utilizing Tezos.
Museo de Arte Popular José Hernández (Argentina), in collaboration with HASHTAG and supported by fxhash and KERU, is integrating an AI-generated poem performance inspired by the famous Argentinian poem ‘Martín Fierro’ with a unique NFT souvenir that will be minted as a gift during The Night of The Museums in November 2024.
The Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico), supported by fxhash and KERU, is planning a live minting experience with the artist Gisela Colón for their 25th anniversary, featuring generative art and interactive displays.
The Royal Danish Collection (Denmark), in collaboration with the artist Martine Jarlgaard and supported by creative coder Aldrovanda, presents the art piece “Minimum Viable Human Nature.” Reviving a unique collection of historical royal porcelain and botanical prints through interactive generative mechanisms and NFTs, the installation will offer visitors a personalized digital experience.
XR HUB Bavaria (Germany), supported by objkt.com and KERU, uses blockchain technology to reify virtual creations and create a personalized digital souvenir with Deutsches Museum in Munich.
Goethe Institut Lisbon (Portugal), supported by Nimi, aims to set up a token-based membership system using proof-of-attendance tokens, offering benefits to members and exploring the potential of DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations).
Museum Ulm (Germany), in collaboration with NRW-Forum/Kunstpalast Düsseldorf and supported by Nimi, is building the foundation of the future operational DAO for the nexmuseum.io platform starting with a token-based engagement system.
Key Insight From Diane Drubay
I chatted with Diane Drubay, founder of WAC Lab and We Are Museums, about changes happening regarding the perception of NFTs, Tezos utilization, and more with cultural institutions.
She shared some really interesting comments, especially about how museums are approaching NFTs from the standpoint of tokens and how they can utilize them.
Museums use tokens to distribute part of an artwork and engage differently with audiences on-site. They’re working on expanding the visitor variance. For instance, The Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico collaborates with Gisela Colón. Visitors on-site will be able to collect one part of a large video artwork produced for the occasion by the artist.
So, it’s a bit like sharing ownership with the audience and inviting them to bring back something — not just a memory but part of the artwork.
We have another similar project, the Museo de Arte Popular José Hernández, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. They are working with an artist, Helio Santos, who will represent the body of work of a famous illustrator in Argentina. He will revisit the new version of these works, which will be turned into generative art and offered to visitors on-site. If you remember what f(x)hash did on the Tezos screens in Art Basel, this will be similar. Visitors will be able to collect one edition of this work.
So, it’s pretty interesting to see that museums are supporting a generative artist from today and allowing them to revisit the body of work from a well-known illustrator. It’s not about NFTs; it’s more about tokens and how we can use these mechanics to distribute part of an artwork or invite visitors to interact.
There’s also an exciting dynamic involving token-based memberships being explored. Basically, many projects are trying to see how they can create new types of communities, shared governance, and even operational processes with different types of audiences.
Final Thoughts
Seeing the continued level of cultural institutions’ adoption of blockchain technology is fantastic. Even more interesting is how they’ve begun approaching it, such as token mechanics about distribution and on-site live minting experiences. WAC Lab continues to provide an excellent resource for art professionals and cultural institutions to enter the blockchain world and embrace technologies like the Tezos network. I can’t wait to see the next season of projects arising out of WAC Lab using Tezos!
WAC Lab Boasts Impressive Season 3 Turnout was originally published in Tezos Commons on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
