BMAG invites users to curate gallery space in virtual reality 4 Dec 2020

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is the first museum to collaborate with the game Occupy White Walls (OWW), which allows users to create a fantasy gallery space. 200 assets from BMAG’s collection have been uploaded to the site, with the full collection of its public domain images to follow eventually. As players develop their gallery, AI learns about their taste and is able to suggest images that they might like to add. London based digital start-up Stiki Pixels created Occupy White Walls, which currently has 75,000 players. It is seeking more museums to collaborate and extend its existing art collection. Some public domain pictures from the National Gallery and The Met are already part of the OWW, but not through formal partnership. Linda Spurdle, BMAG’s Head of Digital said “to see gamers from across the world discover and interact with our artworks is exactly the kind of engagement we hoped for when we made our out-of-copyright images available online. We look forward to seeing what the players create.” BMAG, Occupy White Walls, OWW (press release), Museums Journal