Bright Moments is an international organization that blends blockchain technology with in-person art experiences, founded by Seth Goldstein.Organized as a decentralized autonomous organization, it originated the concept of “IRL minting”: revealing an on-chain artwork for the first time in person, in a way designed by the artist.Between 2021 and 2024 the organization held live minting events across ten stops, from Venice, California to Venice, Italy.,
Goldstein opened the first Bright Moments space in Venice, California in 2021, after a career spanning avant-garde theater, web advertising and startup investing, and after minting a first NFT that January.At each stop, the artist Qian Qian designed a pixel-art CryptoCitizens collection based on an anthropological study of the host city, minted in batches of 1,000 and used to govern the DAO.
According to reporting on the venture's early months, a DAO member given tokens for business development allegedly used them to mint, without authorization, the remaining 309 CryptoVenetians, in an incident later valued at $4.3 million.The organization's IRL minting model went on to reach cities including Berlin, London, Mexico City, Tokyo, Buenos Aires and Paris, hosting events such as a November 2022 Bright Moments CDMX conversation between artists Casey Reas and Zach Lieberman.,
The journey concluded in 2024 with the Finale Collection at the Venice Biennale, a single contract presenting new works by more than sixty artists including Maya Man, Anna Carreras and Piter Pasma. The collection traced back to the first Bright Moments project, Portal by Jeff Davis, staged in Venice Beach in 2021.
