Culture Vault’s Curated NFT Platform Launches With Inaugural Digital-Meets-Physical Exhibition

Culture Vault has an impressive roster of local and international artists including Reko Rennie, Shantell Martin, Serwah Attafuah, Adam Briggs, Romance Was Born and Stephen Ormandy.

Culture Vault – a new curated platform and creative agency that presents and sells high-quality NFTs and helps artists and cultural brands navigate the blockchain – launches its Web3 platform this month followed by a physical-meets-digital (phygital) exhibition called “The Future is Phygital”, presented at Sydney’s Verona Studios from March.  

The Culture Vault platform (Culturevault.com) has been purpose-built to bridge the gap between the traditional art world and the crypto community. It consists of a curated platform and creative agency, offering a one-stop shop for both first-time NFT buyers and seasoned digital art collectors to acquire a curated selection of premium NFTs from some of the world’s leading artists. Culture Vault’s creative agency works with cultural brands and institutions to create, mint, sell and display their NFTs on chain – helping them to drive revenue, and foster community engagement and connection in new ways.  

The platform will include NFTs by artists and creatives including Reko Rennie, Shantell Martin, Adam Briggs, Romance Was Born, Serwah Attafuah, Bianca Beers, Stephen Ormandy, Mona Chalabi, Dan Hong, The Richard Bernstein Estate, Thea Anamara Perkins, Sebastian Leon, Fallen Fruit, Dylan Mooney, and The Huxleys.

The curatorial direction of the platform is led by Arts-Matter, an arts and cultural programming platform which has relationships with many of Australia’s leading cultural figures. Culture Vault curates a selection of premium NFTs created by leading artists spanning the cultural gamut – from fine art to film, music, dance, graphic design, architecture, sculpture, food and fashion. 

The excitement around NFTs is undeniable, and over the last year we’ve seen an increasing number of artists and brands wanting to jump on the blockchain bandwagon. To date, finding high-quality digital art while trying to navigate crypto technology can be frustrating and confusing. Enter Culture Vault – a platform purpose-built to bridge the gap between the traditional art world and the crypto community. We think Culture Vault has the unique ability to combine insider art-world knowledge and accessibility with a deep understanding of crypto technology and the D-gen community

Sean Tolkin, CEO and founder of Aus Merchant and co-founder of Culture Vault

The platform can give artists and collectors crypto advice, tackling the issue of how artists and brands should best manage their royalty payments. “Some of our artists want to keep their newly earnt royalties in crypto and others want liquidity, in which case we give them the opportunity to immediately cash out into fiat,” says Sean Tolkin, CEO/founder of Aus Merchant and co-founder of Culture Vault. Culture Vault’s holding company is Aus Merchant, a Sydney-based crypto currency exchange specialising in investment management, secure wallet infrastructure and a crypto payment gateway. “Aus Merchant’s expertise in compliance means that Culture Vault has a team dedicated to making sure their artist’s funds are secure, and purchases are legitimate and above board,” Tolkin adds.

Culture Vault’s inaugural physical exhibition, “The Future is Phygital”, will present a selection of NFTs created by 12 of its founding artists. The digital artworks will be displayed on framed digital screens, allowing cultural enthusiasts and NFT collectors to transcend the online format. Guests will be able to purchase NFTs through QR codes at the exhibition, while enjoying live performances and music by special guests.

Culture Vault is set apart from other NFT platforms in its dedicated professional support for artists and brands to assist with their entire crypto journey – from setting up their smart contracts and crypto-wallets, to advising them on pricing and edition numbers, paying their gas fees, minting their NFTs, instructing them on how to use Discord (the social media platform preferred by the crypto community), and providing them with an opportunity to cash out their royalties into the currency of their choice.

“When we built Culture Vault’s Web3 platform, we identified a few key priorities – ease-of-use, the environment, putting our artists first, and being welcoming to non-crypto-natives,” says Sam Linas, managing director and co-founder of Culture Vault. “Our site is designed so traditional art world collectors can easily navigate the space, but the crypto natives will appreciate our leading tech and functionality.”

“The Future Is Phygital” will be open to the public in March  at Verona Studios, 17 Oxford St, Paddington, Sydney from 10am-5pm. Works will be available for sale ranging from A$250 (approx 0.05 ETH) to $250K (approx 50 ETH).