The Metropolitan Museum of Art launches Art Links blockchain game

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has launched a short session Web3 game, Technical linkswhich invites players to identify common themes between artworks.

This is the first Web3-based experience at The Met. Designed in partnership with Art & Technology Platform TRLabThis mobile-first, browser-based, blockchain-powered game offers a new way to engage with the museum, offering the opportunity to collect in-game non-fungible token (NFT) badges and win in-person and digital rewards.

Art Links launches today and is available at The Met’s Website. The sequential game, which releases new challenges weekly, features more than 140 artworks from The Met’s collection. Upon successfully finding art-based connections — or “chains” — between works, players can earn free NFT “badges” and earn “achievements” by taking on in-game challenges. After launching on January 23, new challenges will be released on Thursdays at 12:01 AM EST for 12 weeks.

The game is available over the web and can be played on screen readers for those with low vision, Brett Renfer, senior product manager for emerging technologies, said in a press conference.

If you’re a gaming fan, you probably realize that there are a lot of people who view gaming as an art form, but that’s hard to say when a museum like The Met is involved in gaming.

The goal is to find missing artistic links: words, materials, artworks or emojis. It is played in three rounds, with each round getting more difficult. You can read the artwork’s poster and a fun fact about the Met and its history. If you get a prize and complete all three, you can get an NFT. It’s a 12-week game, and each week has unique content. There are seven achievements in total, five of which are free and two you can purchase for $15 each. The grand prize is a year of membership or a private tour with a coordinator.

The goal is to attract Web3 fans, art lovers and casual gamers “and show that there’s a place for them all at the Met,” Renfer said.

Players who have achieved achievements are entered to win exciting perks. Themes that players will discover over the 12 weeks include: “Objects in Disguise,” artworks made from surprising and sometimes deliberately deceptive materials, such as Paper Med No.18 by Su Xianzhong; “Art x Tech,” with works examining artists’ dialogue with technological innovation across time, including Matthew Jensen’s “The 49 States”; and rewards, such as museum exhibition catalogues, discounts at The Met Store, and private curator-led tours.

“This pioneering online game is an exciting first for The Met and a unique experience in the world
“By bringing in artworks from the museum’s collections — from modern and contemporary art to Asian art to Egyptian art — players can expand their engagement with and understanding of culture and creativity in a fun and compelling way,” Max Hollin, Marina Kelin, the Met’s French executive director, said in a statement. Links truly embodies how The Met continues to connect audiences to ideas and to each other while exploring emerging technology.

The artworks featured in the game were selected by Destiny Fillmore, associate curator in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, and an interdisciplinary team from the Met’s extensive collection. Each series includes at least one work from The Met’s collection of twentieth- and twenty-first-century art, placing these works in a broader creative context.

Fillmore said in a press conference that the game features four types of connections: “Highlights,” which showcase key acts, artists or movements; “Matter,” focusing on how works are made; “Emoji,” which highlights signs, symbols and visual culture; and “Web3,” which shows how artists over time have interacted with the core concepts underpinning blockchain technology, such as randomization, security, and ledgers. “Harlem as Muse,” features artists who have looked to Harlem as a subject and source of inspiration, including Romare Bearden, Faith Ringgold, and Jacob Lawrence.

“As a company at the forefront of art and technology, we are committed to creating new ways for audiences to discover, engage and immerse themselves in art and culture,” Audrey Au, CEO of TRLab, said in a statement. Partnering with The Met on our first Web3 experience reflects our belief that deepening connections between creators, collectors and fans is the future of art. We combine digital innovation with artistic expression to create truly transformative experiences.

The idea is to make art accessible to wider audiences, Au said at a press conference, and sees blockchain technology to track engagement and reward participation. The goal is to make the game “sticky,” so people will return to it over the course of 12 weeks.

In each game, players create a series of seven artworks and six connections. Links can be words, emojis, or artwork. The series is completed in three rounds, and each round becomes progressively more difficult. Players have four attempts to complete each series correctly. No prior knowledge of art history is needed to play, and the game includes built-in teaching moments – accessed through an icon on each digital representation of the art – to discover more about the work and the artist.

Players can collect 12 free badges, one for each weekly series, with opportunities to earn seven achievements tied to in-game challenges. Five of the achievement tokens are free, while two can be purchased at a reasonable price. (No purchase necessary to enter or win.) Built on Base (L2’s Coinbase), the game accepts payments in cryptocurrencies and credit cards through MoonPay and Stripe.

The game was designed with universal accessibility in mind and features easy-to-use screen reader icon along with visual descriptions of all in-game artwork and images. These features were developed in partnership with The Met’s Access team and individual testers from the Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg School of Music.

Art links will be featured on The Met’s website as well as on social media. The museum is located in two iconic locations in New York City, The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters. Millions of people are also participating in The Met experience online. Founded in 1870.

TRLab unites artists and technologists to develop fine art collectibles that foster deeper connections between digital artists, collectors, and fans. With a mission to make art more collectible through innovative, hybrid experiences that combine digital and physical art, TRLab successfully designs and launches innovative art experiences with artists, properties and institutions. Notable TRLab collaborations include “The Calder Question,” a multi-season educational project developed in collaboration with the Calder Foundation.

TRLab, a women-led company, was founded in 2021 by CEO Audrey Au, a Rockbund Museum of Art board member, and Chairman Shane-Lee Cohen, a non-executive vice chairman of Christie’s.

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