By: Chris Cummings, CEO & founder of Iconic Moments
Museums and cultural institutions are in trouble. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, these institutions learned that the typical business model of earning revenue through in-person ticket sales, event rentals and once-a-year galas was too fragile to be sustainable. In March 2020, it was estimated that 15 percent of the world’s museums would be forced to permanently close. By spring 2021, this number reached 37 percent, and today, 25 percent of U.S. museums have less than four months of funding to survive.
So how can the ‘Metaverse’ help? The ‘Metaverse’ provides cultural institutions a way to step outside the traditional four walls, providing them with the tools to explore and expand their reach in a digital environment. The result? Increased revenue and a chance to avoid permanent closure.
What is the ‘Metaverse’?
The ‘Metaverse’ refers to a host of virtual worlds encased in a technology called blockchain. And while the ‘Metaverse’ is referred to as an ‘emerging’ space, it’s simply a rehash of a concept that has been around for a long time: a virtual world that includes the ability to create a virtual self and interact with others in this world.
The ‘Metaverse’ became increasingly important during the COVID-19 pandemic as audiences turned to digital worlds rather than the physical. And although much of the world is living in some sort of ‘post-pandemic’ society, the use of virtual worlds (and ‘Metaverses’) can continue to encourage engagement in new ways.
‘Metaverses’ function using blockchain technology, a distributed digital database that stores information about any transaction that’s taken place in its network. A Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is a type of token exchanged within this network that can store information about assets such as artwork or artifacts. We can use this distributed database as a resource to authenticate tokens and identify who owns a particular NFT—which is really just a receipt or certificate of ownership. A blockchain provides a decentralized means to store these receipts.
‘Metaverses’ provide a playground in which to display and exchange NFTs. These NFTs could represent digital assets, such as pieces of virtual land or artworks that could be displayed in a virtual gallery. In other words, ‘Metaverses’ present NFTs in their natural (digital) environment.
Solving A Problem
The ‘Metaverse’ allows us to create a new model to support the culture & heritage industry. Through it, heritage organizations, museums and cultural institutions can engage new stakeholders digitally, while showcasing the stories of archival assets, creating sustainability within the industry and preserving history permanently on the blockchain.
This combination of digital ownership and online interaction highlights an opportunity for museums. Iconic Moments guides cultural institutions into this space by asking them to rethink the museum experience and provide a new digital and creative environment for audiences to explore the collections.
We also support cultural institutions in creating an alternative dynamic revenue stream through NFTs. This will give institutions the much-needed income lost during the pandemic. NFTs will also provide audiences with a way to own and interact with different pieces of history and culture.
Two examples of cultural institutions and organizations looking to the ‘Metaverse’ to generate revenue through NFTs are the National Broadcast Museum in Chicago and the Universal Hip Hop Museum planned for Brooklyn. The National Broadcast Museum holds assets of the most meaningful moments in television and radio in our country’s history. Iconic Moments is working with this museum to create NFTs of significant broadcasts that can be sold to patrons and consumers, such as President Truman’s radio address announcing the end of World War 2.
Meanwhile, Iconic Moments is working with the Universal Hip Hop Museum to explore alternative methods of fundraising, as this much talked about institution is employing an NFT campaign to raise the capital needed to build the museum. Because Hip Hop is itself a multifaceted experience involving both music and art, the NFT is an ideal format.
As the museum industry continues to explore the ‘Metaverse’ and benefit from NFT technology, consumers will find new ways to engage with the culture and history that is meaningful to them while providing much-needed financial support to the institutions they cherish.
