Arium

Between late 2020 and 2023, I co-founded Arium, a web product and studio supporting museums, galleries and artist collectives in creating engaging 3D virtual art exhibitions and live events.

Within this short period of time, we supported artists, gallerists and curators in dozens of countries in presenting their work to global audiences, hosting inventive live events and building and sustaining their creative communities through Arium. Our product included a real-time collaborative web-based 3D environment builder with uniquely broad support for visual media, real-time video and audio and deep customizability. And our studio focused on direct support for curatorial teams at museums and galleries, artist collectives and individual artists in ideating, designing and implementing these exhibitions and events.

Product Features

Our product offering was designed to support curators and artists without 3D experience to design and host their own exhibitions, while retaining customizability for teams with 3D designers. It included features such as:

• Collaborative 3D Editor - a web-based editor allowing curators to customize their exhibition spaces, environments and lighting, link multiple environments together through portals, upload, place and interact with images, video, animations, 3D models and text. For deeper customization, we supported integrations with open exchange 3D formats and workflows including external software such as Blender.
• Hosting Features - supporting live events with audio and video for events with up to 100 people, high-quality broadcast video and audio, and performing within the space in real-time.

Studio Offering

Our studio worked directly with clients at museums and galleries to implement custom exhibitions using our product. What follows is a case study of a series of 7 exhibitions we held between 2021 and 2023 with Italy’s National Museum of 21st Centrury Art (MAXXI).

Case Study: MAXXI L'Aquila - Following L’Aquila’s devastating 2009 earthquake, Italy’s MAXXI planned to restore and open a second branch of the museum in the 18th century Palazzo Ardighelli located in the central square of this city. In the midst of an ongoing pandemic, the curatorial team at MAXXI needed to find creative solutions to:

• engage their established Roman and international audiences
• build their regional audience
• support artists presenting in this new space

I worked closely with curators and their presenting arists to design custom 3D spaces and interactivity and host performances, opening parties and panel discussions in remote and hybrid formats.