Digital art and blockchain lab launched in Beijing

A digital art and blockchain lab was launched earlier this month by the art development center affiliated to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in Beijing, marking a high-level attempt to apply blockchain technologies into the cultural industry.

In May, the State Council launched a regulation to encourage the application of digital technologies in promoting China's culture and art. The establishment of the digital art and blockchain lab is to echo such national-level encouragement, according to Yao Youchao, director of the art development center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

"The lab is to serve the country's strategy, to build a healthy cultural ecology and to push a quality development of the nation's cultural industry," says Yao.

About 20 universities and cultural organizations have cooperated with the lab to build the "cultural and art chain", which will work as a platform to integrate blockchain technology with art and culture. Tsinghua University, Peking University and China's top art academies including the Central Academy of Fine Arts are all engaged in the "chain".

Wang Zhong, director of the lab, says the lab will organize a digital art showcase later to present art in the digital era.