A Conversation on Art, Museums, and Blockchain

Abstract

Museums are places that bring people together from all walks of life to explore, consume, and interact with all types of curated art. These interactions don’t always take place within the walls of a museum. Instead, people may access art and exhibitions through other mediums, such as the Internet, via publications and consumer products. Museums extend their reach with licenses that grant the right to reproduce images of artwork in their collections and utilize data sets about the works themselves. We see the opportunity for data sharing between museums moving their historical records to a distributed ledger backed by blockchain technology. In this format, ownership and copyright data will be complete and shared among cultural institutions and the public facilitating greater access, exploration, and connection of cultural objects and works of art. This Discussion is a conversation on why we see the possibility from a personal perspective and is a broader debate on questions worth addressing individually.

Keywords: art, museums, blockchain, data, copyright, open access