Art Basel in Miami Beach is known for its VIP lists. Nightclubs like LIV at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel have ultra-exclusive lounges that operate not unlike the fair’s own VIP lounge. Yet something unusual is going on in the art tech world during this year’s Miami Art Week: an outbreak of openness and generosity.
Both the Tezos blockchain community and Arcual, a platform promising resale royalties and provenance tracking for physical artworks, are taking a different approach to Miami this year. It is worth considering how a more generous, open, and community-based ethos might have its roots in the structure of Web3 technology itself with its emphasis on distributed knowledge and data bases.
Both Arcual and Tezos are built on blockchain technology and have worked hard to be accepted by the traditional art world. Within the last year, both have had installations within the Art Basel tent: Tezos at last year’s Miami and Arcual in Basel.
Scavenger hunts and free shows
This year, however, Trilitech, a London hub of the Tezos ecosystem, is working with Refraction Festival to organise an augmented reality (AR) scavenger hunt along South Beach, with seven works to be found. From 6 to 8 December the community is also hosting Tezos @ South Beach, which includes exhibitions, panels and performances at the Nautilus Sonesta Miami Beach hotel as well as an NFT sale from which a share of proceeds are being donated to the Trevor Project, a US non-profit devoted to supporting young LGBTQ people. The events are free and open to the public, though capacity is limited so do come early.
More charity at Art Basel
While philanthropy and their resultant tax deductions have long been a part of the art world, they don’t usually surface at art fairs. Arcual, which has been working to make payment flows and provenance standards for physical art works automatic in the art world, will be launching a new online sales platform, Access by Art Basel, that automatically includes a donation pledge. The Miami Foundation and their Collective Impact funds and The International Committee of the Red Cross will receive part of the sales price of works available on the platform between 27 November and 10 December.
As with all payment flows in Arcual, this donation does not have to be managed or trusted to a middle man. It goes automatically and traceably to the charity.