"Virtual Niche" - The World's First Crypto Art Exhibition with Kusama Network

Presentation of the Exhibition

BCA x KUSAMA Exhibition .pdf

We are in preparation for the world's first and largest offline Crypto Art Group Exhibition "Virtual Niche" in two prominent Art Institutions: UCCA Labs Beijing and Shanghai JinArt Gallery, from 26th March - 11th April 2021.

The 14 days dual city exhibition is designed to feature Kusama Network and aims to create awareness of its cryptoart capability among the targeted artists group, with the goal of onboarding them to Kusama Network for cryptoart adoption through workshops and a Kusama Network Theme Crypto Art creation competition. Furthermore these events will introduce the art world to the development of Blockchain culture from Bitcoin and Ethereum to Polkadot/Kusama artwork via storytelling curation and workshops.

Given the high profile of these events, we propose they be used as a Grand Opening for the Kusama Network art gallery. Each of the participants will receive a special crypto ticket on Kusama Network as a part of a tech immersive creation experience. From the current pipeline we are looking to showcase:

1. Kusama Network ORMLcrypto pallet and Art Gallery
2. PolkadotAssetJS
3. RMRK.app
4. Unique Network

In Shanghai, a one-day offline cryptoart summit will be hosted prior to the Shanghai exhibition opening to gather the key participants of Tech+Art , Gaming, e-Sport, Streetwear and Blockchain. Kusama Network will be the highlight.

The Problems We Try to Solve:

1. The Cryptoart industry in general is suffering from the demand for high quality artists/ artwork and lack of efficient (non-crypto) buyers.
2. Kusama Network is also a new decentralized network brand in the marketplace for crypto artists that needs to prompt its capabilities after the kick off of the cryptoart Strategy.
3. Cryptoart and blockchain are new concepts for non-crypto background artists in general, and most of them need to understand the rationale behind it and process to create new pieces.

Opportunities:

1. Traditional galleries are not incentivized to promote digital artists due to the lack of technical tools to manage digital editions. While digital Art collectors are unsatisfied with USBs and other tools for file delivery. Galleries and digital Art collectors will be attracted to the cryptoart market if a user friendly solution is developed to help them enlarge sales and client base.
2. We see the potential for onboarding a new generation of young artists with coding capabilities (artists that create crypto art who is also crypto savvy), generative artists (the group of artist that use AI/ algorithms as creation tool eg. Mario Klingeman) and more traditional Artists (digital artists who create art in digital forms, eg. Digiway).
3. The Kusama Network community needs events that help enlarge its art community around and the tools being developed for them and their creations. This is a good opportunity for a first kick-off in this direction.

The Proposal: "Virtual Niche" Exhibition

The project is divided into 4 milestones. The ultimate vision is to brand all cryptoart in the Chinese community first as a genre of contemporary art, opening the door to interested market collectors.

A List of confirmed renowned artists to join the group exhibition and workshop with Kusama Network

• Christiet's First NFT Art Portrait of Mind Ben Gentill
• A Generative AI Video of Mario Klingeman provided a private collector
• Dabeiyuzhou
• Sun Yuan & Peng Yu; Guggenheim Exhibition
• REVA
• Liu Jiaying
• Tian Xiaolei ; Exhibition and Art Review
• RICHARD GILLMAN ；superrare market place
• Alida Sun ; interview
• Water Tian

Milestone 1: Kusama Theme Crypto Art Creation Competition

To Build up the Kusama artist community for organic cryptoart on-boarding. We will host the Kusama Theme Crypto Art Creation Competition two months before the exhibition aiming at 300+ artist participation. And the final 6 Kusama art winners will be incentivized to join by the once in a lifetime chance to exhibit their work in China’s No.1 Museum UCCA and will receive an award in tokens.

Allocation cost: Apply for 8,300 USD in total

• Item 1: Publicity cost: 4,000 USD

  • Artron（The most Chinese authoritative Art media; page view/day 500,000) The 1,300 USD package includes a month of full online campaign from press release , contestant application to award announcement.

  • Odaily (The most popular crypto and crypto art friendly media in China; page view/day 200,000) The 1,300 USD package includes a month of full online campaign from press release, contestant application to award announcement.

  • Poster design, print copies (1000 copies)distributed among Student Union of 6 universities during campus promotion in Beijing for recruitment (4 people involve for a week): 1,400 USD

• Item 2: Labour Cost at 1500 USD

  • 4 people (1 designer) (each 375 USD per week) to coordinate the contest for a month

• Item 3: Bonus Prize for winners in total: 2800 USD

  • 1st：1500 USD, 2nd: 800 USD, 3rd 500 USD
  • 3 place for winners to exhibit their work at UCCA Labs.

Timeline

• 2021.1.06 - 2021.2.28 Target promotion will launch online on Arton and offline in 15+ universities eg. : Tsinghua University & Central Academy of Fine Arts, China Academy of Fine Arts etc. for contestants recruitment. The applicants can submit creation through BCAEX website to join First Round.

• 2021.3.01 - 2021.3.07 First Round 30 (from initial 100) artworks will be selected by the judges panel which comprises of Tech + Art leader with comments (confirmed) : Liu Gang, Qiu Zhijie, Cui Cancan, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, Dai Zhuoqun, Chen Zhuo, You Yang,

• 2021.3.08 - 2021.3.11 Top 100 Artists require to submit their improvement plan based on the judges comments as the reference for the final round.

• 2021.3.12 - 2021.3.15 Final round - 6 pieces will be selected as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd place awards (one for each) and three nominee awards.

• 2020.3.15 - 2021.3.16 Award announcement.

Milestone 2: Official announcement of "Virtual Niche": exhibition in partnership with Kusama Network (Kusama logo on the co-host line) in 40 media covering both Crypto and Art World with an estimation of 100k page view.

Official announcement of "Virtual Niche": exhibition in partnership with Kusama Network (Kusama logo on the co-host line) in 40 media covering both Crypto and Art World with an estimation of 100k page view.

Allocation Cost: Apply for 9,200 USD in total

• iFeng 凤凰艺术(one of the most influential Chinese art media) The 1,600 USD package includes an original story by its senior journalist sent across it 10k follower Wechat account and list Website as headline story during a weekend. Traffic estimation around 40k+ visitors.
• Odaily (The most popular crypto and crypto art friendly media in China; page view/day 200,000 visitors) The 1,600 USD package includes a press release (750 USD), Banner of exhibition on the website for a week (650 USD), crypto community poster promotion, and News Flash (200 USD)
• 6,000 USD in total for 19 Blockchian media and 19 Art media to send across the press release in Chinese:
  • Art Media: Sina Collection，Artnet，Artand，Wallpost, ifeng，artron，Bazaar art, Leap公众号, UCCA, Art newspaper,
  • Blockchain Media: 8btc，bihu，jinse，huoxing，new.bitcoin.com，coindesk，bitcoinist，bcsky，block360，tuoluocaijing，bishijie……

Timeline

• 2021.02.20 Exhibition Concept Poster promotion;
• 2021.03.12 Press release on 20+ blockchain media, curator article on 20+ art media, all the promoting press release and curator article with Kusama Network introduction, offline Kusama Network cryptoart workshop;
• 2021.04.11-04.20 Gather all posted media reports;

Milestone 3: Grand Opening for the Kusama art gallery in Beijing (an important part of exhibition

The Opening of the exhibition in Beijing will also act as the Grand Opening for the Kusama art gallery. 4 Technical Kusama cryptoart workshops (1 hour each) will be held during the exhibition weekend days (2 days) to train 200 artists /coders in Beijing for Kusama cryptoart on-boarding.

Allocation Cost: 16,000 USD

• 2 days of 30% Venue cost budget at UCCA lab 10,000 USD for 2 days ( 2 days venue rent at 30,000 usd) venue
• 6 Labors to install the KUSAMA exhibit area, which including workshop area setup: 1,200 USD;
• Engraved introduction letters with back gum on exhibited walls: 800 USD
• Acoustic system setup: 500 USD
• Equipment cost 3,000 USD for 2 days: 55’LCD display: 10 units, 6 for six BCA x KUSAMA winning artworks display, 4 for KUSAMA pieces display
• Basic snack and drink for 300 people: 500 USD

Timeline

• Beijing exhibition Opening

  • Beijing Exhibition, 26.03.2021 - Opening Ceremony will be on the 26th March (China Online + Youtube)

• A Kusama Gallery technical intro session (20mins)

• Beijing Exhibition at UCCA Labs,26.03.2021 to 4.04.2021.

• Kusama Art Gallery Launch.

• 4 Kusama cryptoart Workshops. Each workshop hosted by BCAEX x KUSAMA will last 1 hour, and will receive around 50-100 attendees.

  • Students of Tsinghua University & Central Academy of Fine Arts
    • Department of Experimental Art
    • Digital Media Arts Department
    • Department of Sculpture
    • Oil Painting Department
    • Department of Design from Academy Arts and Design
    • New Media Art Department
  • Technical Workshop Content:
    • Kusama cryptoart pallet and Art Gallery
    • PolkadotAssetJS
    • RMRK.app
    • Unique Network

• Parity Asia team, is confirmed to support the Kusama cryptoart/substrate Workshop if the proposal approved, and after approval will co-develop the workshop content with NFT strategy group*

• 2 Non Technical Workshops: exhibition guided tour and the development of Blockchain culture from Bitcoin, Etherum, to Polkadot/Kusama.

Milestone 4: Grand Opening for the Kusama art gallery in Shanghai

On The Opening day of the exhibition in Shanghai, we will host a 200-people cryptoart forum joined by art, culture, blockchain world stakeholder which Kusama Network will be introduced as cryptoart solution and also as offline forum co-host with 2 sessions for technical introduction.

2 Technical Kusama cryptoart workshops (1 hour each) will be given during the Shanghai exhibition weekend days (2 days) to train 100 artists /coders in Shanghai for Kusama cryptoart on-boarding.

Allocation: 16,500 USD

• 2 days of 30% Venue cost at JinArt Gallery 10,000 USD for 2 days ( 2 days venue rent at 30,000 USD) venue
• 6 Labors to install the KUSAMA exhibit area, which including workshop area setup: 1,200 USD;
• engraved introduction with back gum on exhibited walls: 800 USD
• Acoustic system setup and rent for the chair and table: 1,000 USD
• Equipment cost 3,000 USD for 2 days: 55’LCD display: 10 units, 6 for six BCA x KUSAMA winning artworks display, 4 for KUSAMA pieces display.
• Basic snack and drink for 300 people: 500 USD

Will add an after movie video and live photo to display the Kusama art part, exihibition and workshop participation (the cost will be around 1000usd- this part will apply via tipping function later) Beijing video can deliver around 9th of April

Timeline

• Shanghai Exhibition, April 8th, 2021.
  • An offline cryptoart forum in Shanghai at JinArt Gallery;
    • A Kusama Network intro session (20mins)
    • Gallery technical intro (20mins)
• 4 Kusama Network cryptoart Workshops on weekends. Each workshop hosted by BCAEX x KUSAMA will last 1 hour, and will receive around 50-100 attendees.
  • The Students of China Academy of Fine Arts(Hang Zhou)
    • Department of Experimental Art
    • New Media Art Department
    • Digital Media Arts Department
    • Oil Painting Department
    • Department of Sculpture
    • Department of Design

Team And Roles

Producer and initiator:

• Bohan Sun, Founder of BCA (Block Create Art) Twitter @BCAEX
  • Lead a team of 14 for planning and on-ground execution

Curators(one of them):

• Sun Bohan
• Qiu Zhijie
• Sun Yuan & Peng Yu
• You Yang

Budget and Request For Funds:

We request 20% of the total Budget as fund support around USD 50,000

Total budget of the events, exhibitions and cryptoart forum

• Venue: USD 200,000;
  • Beijing UCCA Labs: USD 100,000
  • Shanghai Jinart Institute: USD 100,000
• Transportation of equipment (screen, projector, art pieces) and insurance: USD 2,500;
  • Transport: USD 900;
  • Insurance: USD 1,200;
• Workshop: USD 3,000 (electronic devices rent: VR, computers, audio, screens, etc): 2k,)
• Catalog, design and print: USD 6,000.

Payment condition:
We apply for 833 KSM in total as usd 50,000 ( each ksm as 60usd, 1 month average price)

4 milestones being developed in parallel to reach the date of events because each of those are closely connected (Art competition generates Kusama art to be exhibited in the show) and exhibition requires 3-4 months to prepare and book the venue, do the curation and write cataloge. Once proposal approved, will start all 4 milestones in parallel

About BCA:

Established in 2018, Block Create Art (BCA) is China’s first cryptoart brand dedicated to the research/creation, scholarship and promotion of cryptoart. BCA with its innovation workshop BCA Studio, premier rare digital art marketplace BCAEX, international standard art space BCA Gallery, and cryptoart terminal hardware BCA Display, creates a multifaceted and vibrant environment for people to enjoy and benefit from the cutting edge contemporary art, as well as injects artistic and cultural power into the whole blockchain ecosystem. Now we have a team of 14 people, all of whom are from first-line companies in the blockchain, art, and financial fields.

BCAEX (Asia’s first CryptoArt marketplace): https://www.bcaex.co/#/home

BCA Twitter: https://twitter.com/Blockart6

Fund Manager: BCA