- The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Brooklyn Museum and Dunhuang, a UNESCO World Heritage site, will work with ARTiSTORY on licensing their cultural IP
- The announcement comes as ARTiSTORY launches its global art and cultural IP themes for 2022: a series of style guides based on the world-famous artworks and artefacts held by its renowned Museum partners
September XX 2021, London: Leading cultural IP development firm ARTiSTORY continues to expand its client portfolio with the addition of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), The Brooklyn Museum, and a landmark deal with the Dunhuang Culture & Tourism Group (DCTG), making ARTiSTORY exclusive rights holders to the abundant cultural and tourist resources of the Chinese city of Dunhuang, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The news comes as ARTiSTORY launched its global art and cultural IP themes at an event for the licensing industry earlier this month, featuring presentations by key Museum partners including the National Gallery, London, the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, the MFA, Dunhuang and the Brooklyn Museum (see below for further information).
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The MFA’s global collection ranges from ancient to contemporary and provides ARTiSTORY with nearly 500k works of art to license, including works from Hokusai, Kandinsky, Mondrian, Gauguin, Monet, and Cézanne, which will become design inspiration for ARTiSTORY’s themes of design assets, including patterns, prints, icons, stories and immersive experiences.
Debra LaKind, Senior Director, Intellectual Property and Business Development at the MFA, comments, “At the MFA, we believe in the power of art to bring people together and foster cross-cultural understanding. ARTiSTORY is uniquely positioned to help expand the MFA’s global presence in creative and engaging ways through storytelling and merchandise, bringing art into the everyday life of the consumer. We are thrilled to be working with the team at ARTiSTORY.”
Dunhuang Culture & Tourism Group
The partnership with DCTG is one of the first partnerships of its kind where Chinese cultural IP is to be licensed to global retailers and consumer brands outside China. Centred around Mogao Caves, the art of Dunhuang covers more than a dozen major genres, while the partnership with ARTiSTORY embodies DCTG’s commitment to preserve, exhibit, and stimulate appreciation for the art of Dunhuang and present it to the world.
Sun Xiaoqiang, Chairman of Dunhuang Culture & Tourism Group comments, “Dunhuang culture is so profound that it requires our lifelong time to research and pass it on to our future generations. The Group, together with ARTiSTORY, will bring refreshed narratives of Dunhuang culture to a broader range of industries, blooming more brilliant light.”
The Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum in New York is the latest world-renowned Museum to announce its partnership with ARTiSTORY. With global rights, ARTiSTORY will license designs from the Museum’s 1.5 million works of art, craft, design and artefacts, to bring the likes of John Singer Sargent, Utagawa Hiroshige, William Morris, Charles Sheeler, Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt to the global market.
Sharon Matt Atkins, Deputy Director for Art at The Brooklyn Museum comments, “We are excited to collaborate with ARTiSTORY and to share our collection with a global community. We have been impressed with ARTiSTORY’s commitment to creating dynamic opportunities to engage with art and its histories. Moving beyond traditional licensing programs, ARTiSTORY appealed to us as a partner of choice due to their dedication to providing art historical background and context on source images while also developing new and innovative ways to use art to inspire new audiences.”
ARTiSTORY’s 2022 Global Art and Cultural IP Trends and Themes
On 13th September, ARTiSTORY presented its Global Art and Cultural IP Trends and Themes guide for 2022 during an online event held for the branding, retail and licensing industry, where ARTiSTORY revealed four key themes – Gathering of the Greats; Botanical Affairs; Let’s Play; and Dunhuang – Ode to Glamour. Each theme consists of an array of design assets inspired by some of the greatest artwork, historic artefacts, stories, and legends held by ARTiSTORY’s museum partners that are now available to licensees. Through its themes guide, ARTiSTORY hopes to change the face of cultural IP licensing with a wealth of new ideas, designs and takes on well-known, loved and yet to be discovered artworks.
ARTiSTORY, co-founded by licensing trailblazers Yizan He and Natasha Dyson, is a specialist in IP development and works with the world’s leading museums, galleries, science centres and libraries. Launched in January 2021, ARTiSTORY’s vision is to extend the reach of its cultural partners to engage a much wider global audience via a comprehensive licensing programme with global retailers, manufacturers, direct to consumer brands, and online retailers.
Partners to date have included the National Gallery, London, home to over 2,600 of the world’s most renowned paintings and the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, which has nearly 700,000 artefacts representing 8,000 years of dynastic history.
Building on its existing relationships and partnerships with the world’s leading cultural institutions and supported by Sinofaith IP Investment Company (SIPIC), an entity that embarks on a unique “IP+Investment” business model, ARTiSTORY is determined to build a genuinely global powerhouse and eco-system of art, cultural and science related IP.
The partnerships with the MFA and DCTG represent the next exciting chapter of ARTiSTORY’s development into the leading licensing business focused on the art and cultural sectors. The programme reflects ARTiSTORY’s core capability of turning “Artefacts to Merchandise” and extends beyond with storytelling content through hybrid, digital exhibitions and immersive experiences, each supported by narratives that resonate with their targeted audience.
Yizan He, Founder and Managing Director of ARTiSTORY comments, “I am excited to see our themes and creatives launched. This marks ARTiSTORY’s new milestone as we build ARTiSTORY into a global art and cultural IP player. We look forward to sailing out on this voyage with our museum partners, global retailers and consumer brands.”