Connecting real life art to Second Life

Have you heard the buzz about Second Life and want to know more about it? What is it and what can it do for you? Well this is our story of how we came to be where we are today in Second Life.
Second Life is a three dimensional online world created entirely by its residents. It is a world with limitless possibilities for creativity, self-expression, and socializing. Although Second Life was officially launched a few years ago, its popularity and number of residence has increased dramatically since the last quarter of 2006. There are literally millions of people living Second Lives in this virtual world or “metaverse”. As of this moment the 5 million mark has already been passed.
In October 2006 my partner Karen and I read about Second Life in a newspaper and decided to investigate this new world. We soon discovered it offered a number of possibilities, and for us, the ability to exhibit art from all over the world for people to admire.

Limantour (228,169,50) are the virtual coordinates of Roy and Karen’s Art Tower.
We started designing what is now well known in Second Life as the Art Tower, a venue where we exhibit virtual art images of real art by professional artists from all over the globe. (See the Tower built from the ground up!). We currently welcome an average of 250 residents per day who stay and admire art.
Significantly, we have art in Second Life from artists that are not involved with Second Life nor do they desire to be. They simply want to connect to our vision of exhibiting their art to this expanding metaverse, and in that way, create exposure for their work. Of course we also exhibit art from artists who are into Second Life, and we make agreements with them within Second Life about “virtual sales” The currency in Second Life, known as Linden Dollars (L$) can be exchanged for real US$

The tower, built from scratch by its creators.
After six months in our virtual environment we can proudly say that the name Irwin & Zohari Arts & Designs is well known, and we are tracked down by artists who want to connect with our projects as well as media interested in writing articles on what we do.
Our vision of “giving to the community” is one of the foundations of the way we think about interacting with the fast growing world called Second Life. With the Second life world growing by around fifteen thousand inhabitants a day we believe it is a wonderful platform to use, and a wonderful way to enjoy art from your home. With the click of a mouse you can enjoy and maybe even purchase that piece of art you admire most. At the same time artists can obtain amazing exposure for their work. Imagine having an audience of 5 million and growing…

Virtual gallery walls are adorned with the work of artists from inside Second Life and out.
Acting as a liaison between possible clients and artist, we have already sold art from the Netherlands to the USA. One reaction was, “I finally found the perfect work of art for my meditation room! Thank you”.
This stimulated us to think of even more and bigger projects to encourage artists from all over the world to exhibit their art in Second Life and let the a whole new world admire their fabulous creations.
One of the things we organize is a weekly event (usually on a Saturday) called the Art Lounge Club. We turn the lobby of our Art Tower into a club where residents, artists and art lovers can interact with each other, dance, enjoy music and discuss experiences.

Once a week the tower becomes an artist networking hub.
We run an art contest, where we encourage Second Life residents to enter with a work of art, let other residents vote for their favourite and offer free exhibition space for 2 weeks to the winner. And then there’s our Coolest Thing competition, where residents enter sculptures and other creations, built out of a maximum of two parts. Once again the residents get to vote for the favourite and we offer cash prizes to the top three.
We also have a unique scripted project where we enable art to be rented in Second Life for a minimum amount of lindens per week. After the rent period expires the art simple disappears without a mess.
Our latest project, Connecting Art, is designed to help even more artists exhibit their work at an affordable price and make it “reachable” for art lovers.
The possibility for artists, from all over the world to have their art exhibited in our virtual galleries in Second Life. For Connecting Art we will build a private island, accessible for all residents of Second Life, that will be dedicated exclusively to this goal. Any artist can obtain a display area in our galleries for 20 works of art. It may be less than 20 but the basic start price is based on 20 pieces or less.
For a fee of US$200 (we might also be offering the possibility to pay the 200 dollars to participate in terms), images of the real world art (provided to us by the artist) will be uploaded to Second Life and displayed in the style that virtual residents have come to know and admire. This fee is for one whole year, with the possibility to completely change all the images once during that year.
We will also provide a possibility within Second Life to link to the website of the artist at the concerning exhibition, as well as a virtual information giver that hands out information to residents if they want to know more about that artist (the information needs to be provided to us by the artist).
We will not be acting as a liaison between these exhibitions and real life sales unless the concerning artist wishes us to do so.
If an artist wishes to exhibit more than 20 pieces or a company would like to exhibit an entire collection of art then arrangements can be made and prices discussed.

A Second Lifer enjoys the work on show.
How does it work? The artist contacts us at royirwin@gmail.com to receive details on how to supply images of their art. After receiving the images and the agreed payment, (Paypal accepted) we take care of the uploads and exhibits. For artists involved in Second Life, they will be contacted in Second Life concerning their display. Artists not involved in Second Life will receive visuals of their exhibition via email. Our next project, Connecting Art, will commence once we have a minimum of 30 entries and it’s filling up. We are able to support an enormous amount of artists because we can simply increase and join the number of sims (servers or private islands) as needed.
Is Second Life a way to make a living or change your career? Well this has led to a partnership with talented artist and marketing expert Joni West. Our real world marketing agency, called This Second Marketing LLC – www.thissecondmarketing.com, is a result of these experience and ventures in Second Life. The agency specializes in helping brand marketers enter the vibrant, fast-growing world of Second Life.
You can learn more about us and our work on our blog: www.irwinandzohari.wordpress.com, or you can visit us in Second Life at the Art Tower. See you there!
www.secondlife.com