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A training, coaching and mentoring program to become web3 literate to enhance arts and culture.
WAC Museums is an educational program offered to twelve arts and culture institutions by We Are Museums, in collaboration with LAL Art.
WAC Museums is an educational program offered to twelve arts and culture institutions by We Are Museums, in collaboration with LAL Art.
WAC Museums
The Program
As arts institutions navigate social, environmental, and economic flux, web3 offers a new world of challenges and opportunities. While cultural institutions struggle to find their way into web3, a generation of crypto-native collectors have their sights on the legacy artworld, and new protocols challenge the meaning of the word “curation”. But in an ecosystem of $69 million .jpgs and promises to change the world, how can the arts and culture sector see through the hype and build a sustainable institution with the blockchain?
Our Goals
- Educate and onboard eight arts and culture institutions onto web3. We’ll give them a crash course on the blockchain and NFTs, and plenty of good ideas on how to use them.
- Create a body of examples of web3 working for cultural institutions. Not only are these inspiring proofs-of-concept, they’re open-source software institutions can use to build their own future.
Our Areas of Research
- How arts and culture institutions can use web3 technology to further their mission for social good, and a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- How institutions can include web3 in their commitment to environmental justice. This includes frank discussions of environmental justice, sustainable practices, and climate activism.
- How institutions can use web3 to navigate the financial crisis weighing down on the culture sector. We research new models for fundraising, membership, and revenue distribution.
Who was part of the first cohort?
BeFantastic (India), C/O Berlin (Germany), Light Art Space Foundation (Germany), NXT Museum (The Netherlands), Octobre Numérique (France), Signal Festival (Czech Republic), Van Gogh Museum (The Netherlands), Villa Albertine (United States)
BeFantastic (India), C/O Berlin (Germany), Light Art Space Foundation (Germany), NXT Museum (The Netherlands), Octobre Numérique (France), Signal Festival (Czech Republic), Van Gogh Museum (The Netherlands), Villa Albertine (United States)
Who was part of the second cohort?
ACMI - Australian Centre for the Moving Image (Australia), Belvedere Museum (Austria), Haus der Kunst München (Germany), HEK - House of Electronic Arts (Switzerland), French Ministry of Culture (France), Institute for Sound and Music (Germany), Musée d'Orsay and Musée de l'Orangerie (France), Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka), National Taras Shevchenko Museum (partnering with ArtAegis and Modern Art Research Institute) (Ukraine), The Reel Store (United Kingdom), The Royal College of Art (United Kingdom) and the Wooko Makandie Foundation (The Netherlands).
ACMI - Australian Centre for the Moving Image (Australia), Belvedere Museum (Austria), Haus der Kunst München (Germany), HEK - House of Electronic Arts (Switzerland), French Ministry of Culture (France), Institute for Sound and Music (Germany), Musée d'Orsay and Musée de l'Orangerie (France), Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka), National Taras Shevchenko Museum (partnering with ArtAegis and Modern Art Research Institute) (Ukraine), The Reel Store (United Kingdom), The Royal College of Art (United Kingdom) and the Wooko Makandie Foundation (The Netherlands).
WAC Museums Unpacked
- Fellows participating to WAC Museums will have access to live and recorded training sessions via an online training platform. Weekly live meetings with AMA will provide a space for conversations and knowledge-sharing. Dedicated coaches will support the teams on a weekly basis to provide feedback and resources to ensure a smooth web3 onboarding. One-to-one mentoring sessions with top-experts from the web3 art space will provide precious expertise and discussions. Access to a large database of resources will solidify the training.
Fellows can expect to become web3-literate, gain a deep understanding of how the web3 space will affect their sector, learn how to leverage the technology for their institution's long-term advantage, and become part of a network of innovative arts and culture institutions venturing into web3.
The courses cover a range of topics including an introduction to web3, onboarding on web3, security and data storage in the web3 space, DAOs and governance, metaverse for cultural institutions and audience engagement, AI-generative models for cultural institutions, social and environmental impact, blockchain technology for cultural institutions, the web3 art space, embarking colleagues on their web3 journey, communication and marketing in the web3 space, and community building and engagement.
The WAC Fellowship program lasts for a total of 12 weeks, with a commitment of a minimum of 3 hours weekly.
- This program is intended for arts and culture institutions including museums, art foundations, art centers. Non profit cultural institutions are encouraged to apply.
- The successful institutions will need to be represented by 1-4 fellows participating in the program.
- The program will be held digitally, and in English.
Examples include the LAS Art Foundation's "Life After BOB" exhibition and "True Name" NFT experience, BeFantastic's live minting experiment for art fair audience engagement, HEK - House of Electronic Arts' NFT Shop launch, and the Royal College of Art's generative art collections on fx(hash).
Fellows are expected to attend training, co-creation workshops, and mentoring sessions, and will collaborate on a brief for an innovative web3 use-case for the arts and culture sector, which will be submitted to an online global hackathon.
WAC Museums programs are free of charge for fellows.
WAC Lab has been blockchain agnostic from its inception, giving the priority to Tezos and Ethereum. However, WAC Factory, aiming to develop tech projects, prioritised the Tezos blockchain in Season 1 and Season 2.