The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York has invited the public to participate in what the museum describes as “an experiment in collective creativity on blockchain” in a new digital initiative, MoMA Postcard. This programme comes soon after the museum’s release of free mementoes minted as non-fungible token (NFT) editions, launched during the recent exhibition Refik Anadol: Unsupervised. These tokens continued MoMA’s exploration of and engagement with the technologies of web3, the latest iteration of the internet, built on blockchain technology and controlled by its users.

While the market for NFTs has slowed since its initial hype in 2021, museums and institutions are beginning to step further into web3 through exhibitions and programmes, with MoMA Postcard as one such example. In recent months, HEK (House of Electronic Arts) in Basel presented Exploring the Decentralized Web—Art on the Blockchain, curated by Sabine Himmelsbach and Boris Magrini. NFT-based artworks are also now in the collections of institutions such as Kadist in Paris and San Francisco, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and Deji Art Museum in Nanjing.

MoMA itself recently acquired two notable NFT artworks: Refik Anadol’s Unsupervised—Machine Hallucinations—MoMA (2022), which was on display in the lobby until late October, and an edition of Ian Cheng’s blockchain-based generative artwork 3FACE (2022).

MoMA Postcard takes its cues from mail art, a practice that first emerged in the 1950s when artists began to send and exchange works of art through the US postal service. Key figures such as Ray Johnson sent chain letters inviting recipients to add to what was enclosed and to pass the updated artwork on to someone new, driving forward this format of creative correspondence that has continued to this day. Madeleine Pierpont, the web3 associate at MoMA, sees a “natural synergy” between mail art and blockchain technology, as both “enable global transmission of information”, and for MoMA Postcard to be an opportunity to explore the co-creation and community aspect of web3.

To create with MoMA Postcard, people download Bitmark’s Autonomy app and claim a blank card to start. Users can then create a stamp, or digital image, within a 10 by 10 pixel grid using MoMA’s colour palette, before signing it off in a signature box. Once a stamper confirms their stamp on the blockchain, their token of ownership and contribution is automatically recorded in the postcard’s data on the blockchain. The contributor is then invited to send the postcard on to another person—until all 15 stamps have been filled.

Each postcard is co-created by all its stampers. It is a living and growing artwork that is only complete when all 15 contributions have been submitted. Pierpont says that this is a key aspect of the initiative as it encourages communities to form around MoMA Postcard, with each postcard acting as a micro community of its own, fostering collaboration and exchange. Further, each postcard is co-owned by its 15 contributors. No single person is able to own a postcard on their own or to make any buying and selling decisions without involving all of its owners. This feature makes it difficult for financial and market speculation to form around the postcard, and drives attention towards the collaborative process and community instead.

To introduce the project and illustrate its possibilities to a diverse audience, MoMA released First 15 as a soft launch of the initiative on 3 October, inviting 15 artists to create postcards together. These artists come from diverse backgrounds and practices but are united by their shared engagement with and understanding of blockchain technology. Each artist devised a verbal prompt for a postcard, which was then passed around all the participating artists to create a collection of digital mail art. Sasha Stiles, a Kalmyk American poet and artist, designed her prompt to be: “using only black, dark green, light green and white, please draw your letters: A,R,S,(design blank space),A,U,T,O,P,O,E,T,I,C,A”. “I knew right away that I wanted to do something poetic,” Stiles says, “to pay homage to the long literary tradition of the ‘exquisite corpse’, and so my first question was how to make language work inside the constraints of the pixel grid.”

In asking each artist to draw a letter and thus collectively create a font, Stiles’s prompt also strengthens the personal and intimate touch that MoMA Postcard invites contributors to share in the use of handwritten signatures as sign-offs on each stamp.

Operator, the Lumen Prize-winning duo of Ania Catherine and Dejha Ti, whose work engages with privacy and technology, feel that “it’s an interesting choice to have artists sign their stamps because typically, the artist’s ‘signature’ for a digital artwork is not shown in this way”. In rendering the individual’s signature visible, it reinforces their hand and presence.

When taking part in MoMA Postcard on the Autonomy app, users receive Ethereum and Tezos wallet addresses automatically generated in the app and have access to a glossary of web3 terminology written by the MoMA team, as well as other digital artworks featured on the app’s home page. Stiles sees MoMA Postcard as a “brilliant concept” for how it introduces blockchain technology. “There are numerous historical examples of co-created artist and literary projects,” Stiles says. “But this one uniquely leverages technology as muse, medium and messenger.”

“The museum is still very much in an experimentation and exploration phase,” Pierpont says, “and we want to really think carefully about how we can engage with the space with intention and in a way that provides value”. MoMA Postcard marks the next step in these efforts, and over the following few months the museum will also be launching an online exhibition in partnership with Feral File, a digital art platform founded by Bitmark and artist Casey Reas, featuring artists including Yoko Ono, Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst, and Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley.

• Clara Che Wei Peh is a Singapore-based curator and art writer specialising in emerging technologies. Her curated projects include Art Dubai Digital 2023

December’s First Friday art crawl in downtown Peterborough is celebrating local creatives with a special outdoor holiday market.

Organized by The Neighbourhood Vintage in partnership with First Friday Peterborough, the Neighbourhood Holiday Market takes place in the Commerce Building Courtyard at 383 Water Street from 5 to 9 p.m. on December 1.

The family-friendly and accessible market will feature works from 20 local artist and artisan vendors, live music performances by local musicians Benj Rowland, Brooklyn Doran, and Caitlin O’Connor, and food and drink offered by local eateries Kit Coffee, La Hacienda, and St. Veronus and two local breweries.

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The first winter outdoor market in the Commerce Building Courtyard took place during last December’s First Friday art crawl, followed by a spring outdoor market during June’s event.

“The markets have been such a wonderful way for our community to come together,” says Jacquelyn Craft, owner of The Neighbourhood Vintage at 391 Water Street who organizes the markets, in a media release. “I love being able to create community events that showcase the vibrant creative talent here in Peterborough. From artists to makers, musicians to restaurants, there are so many talented members in our community and this has been a really great way for the public to discover them.”

The vendors participating in the Neighbourhood Holiday Market include Burn Island, Marrs Brand, Meowlinda, Olive Cedar Studio, Habitual Moon, 8th Troupe, City House Country House, Steaped Slow Ceramics, Keetarella, Take Cover Books, Whimsy & Wonder, Open Sky Stories, Away Designs, Miguel’s Art, The Artful Apricot, Ella Mollie, Well Grounded, TSC Studio/Gallery (Marcia Watt), Cheesecrafts, and Knitsbymich.

VIDEO: First Friday Peterborough December 2022 Outdoor Market

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The Neighbourhood Holiday Market is a great opportunity to find unique holiday gifts produced by local creatives while supporting both the arts community and the local economy.

“We get really excited about our outdoor events for First Friday since they always feel extra special,” says First Friday Peterborough marketing and events coordinator Melissa Wilson. “There’s music and food, and the energy and atmosphere is always so positive. It’s always so gratifying to see our hard work pay off when the community gets together to enjoy and celebrate the arts before the holiday season.”

Run by volunteers, First Friday Peterborough is a monthly art crawl event showcasing local artists at downtown galleries, studios, shops, and cafes. Admission to all locations is free. For more information and to keep up to date on future art crawls and markets, visit First Friday Peterborough on Facebook and Instagram.

Passion does not pay the rent. Entry- and mid-level workers at US art institutions often earn wages below the cost of living. A pay equity project in the Berkshires is attempting to change that pay to a living wage.

A region where tourism is largely fuelled by the arts, drawing millions of visitors annually, the creative corridor involved in the pay equity project stretches from Berkshire County in western Massachusetts, to Columbia County in eastern New York state’s Hudson Valley. Only 39% of entry- and mid-level workers can imagine a future employed by an art or culture institution in the region, according to the recent Berkshire/Columbia Counties Pay Equity Project Report.

“We’re seeing this conversation across the country,” says Janis Martinson, the executive director of the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. “Non-profit organisations are contributing to the [gross domestic product] far ahead of its compensation to its employees. It’s on the organisations to do better for the employees who work so hard and with such dedication.”

Attracting and retaining talent to keep a creative economy afloat requires a “narrative shift” away from viewing arts and culture workers as luxuries and instead as essential workers, says Aron Goldman, the report’s author. “As long as working in the arts is considered a privilege, only the privileged will work in this field.”

Among the 38 organisations that submitted data for the report—institutions with annual operating budgets ranging from $4,000 to $19m, including Art Omi arts centre in Columbia County, New York State and the Berkshire Art Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and collectively employing almost 1,000 people—nearly one third (29.5%) of employees are full-time but earn less than $50,000 annually. This is well below the average annual salary in Massachusetts this year of $76,600 and, in New York, $74,870, according to Forbes data.

All sacrifice, few benefits

Only about half of respondents reported that their pay completely covered their housing, transportation, food, healthcare, utilities and recreation costs. Between 25% and 48% of entry- and mid-level workers lack even the most common types of benefit, such as health insurance, retirement plans, dental insurance and paid time off. As a result, most entry- and mid-level workers have multiple jobs—not by choice, but out of necessity.

A significant portion of the 67-page report is devoted to anonymous employee responses to open-ended questions. Respondents across the board expressed a sense of conflict between their love of the arts and the financial realities of trying to survive on pay that comes in below a living wage.

“Paying someone so little puts them in a perpetual state of worry, unease and hopelessness,” one respondent said. Another said the ratio of “rent to income is becoming more impossible… Owning a house seems impossible.” Another said: “I love working for the arts, but as I get older, I need to be saving more money, and it’s very hard to do with my salary.”

Martinson says she expected comments about employees having trouble making ends meet, but did not expect “to hear about the physical and mental health effects and relationship stress” caused by this economic precarity. “Those are very real symptoms of something we need to fix. It calls on our conscience to fix that.”

“We can’t just say, ‘Oh, it’s too hard to do it’,” says Jeremy Adams, the co-executive director of Art Omi. “We have to hold our feet to the fire to say, ‘This is going to happen.’ We know we’re not going to be able to flick a switch to get salaries where we want them to be, but [we must] start the work to get to more than just a liveable wage, more than just the bare minimum for survival.”

Rich culture, poor reward

At Jacob’s Pillow, a performing arts centre, residency programme and school in Becket, Massachusetts, the administration’s focus for the next three years will be on creating a structure of salary grades matching the market equivalent. “Our business models need to be adjusted,” says the organisation’s deputy director A. J. Pietrantone. “It’s not a one-fix thing, but a long-term evolution we need to take on.”

A pay equity summit to track what changes the region’s arts organisations have made is in the works for 2024. “Organisations can share their stories over the past year—wins, challenges and where they crashed and burned,” says Kristen van Ginhoven, the co-founder and artistic director of WAM Theatre in Lenox, Massachusetts. She and Aron Goldman are taking the report on the road and are already scheduled to make presentations on board meeting agendas at the invitation of regional arts and culture institutions. “Because we’re getting regional momentum and speaking as a group, we can apply for grants and advocate as a cohort for financial aid for each organisation,” says Van Ginhoven.

For Martinson, the report has underlined the discrepancy between the region’s rich cultural offerings and the poor compensation received by many of the people making it possible. “It’s important for people to know that the arts they are enjoying are being created in a way that is respectful of the people working to create it,” she says.“I genuinely believe that is the expectation of people consuming the art and if we don’t tell the story, they won’t know any difference.”