“There’s an incredible amount of talented digital artists all over the globe,” explains Bell. Displayed above them is Lovers inThe Sun by Indonesian artist TwistedVacancy. I find the best way to help people open their mind to the possibilities on hand is to invite them to reconsider new forms of art."īell and his friend Wesley Sempkin hang out in a corner of MoCA’s gallery space. "People are being forced to change and that scares them. "So many people have tried to find their third place online, but that's just led to a fragmented community and in America we have a real problem of trust," he says. Bell believes third spaces throughout the globe were already in trouble before the pandemic, and that the lockdown pushed the issue further.
Traditionally a place of worship, and often in modern times a barber shop or bar (think "Cheers"), the third place is easily accessible and essential to free-flowing banter and the exchange of ideas.
CRYPTO BAR NYC GREENWICH FREE
Along the brick wall, Bell has hung a mix of acrylic and oil works.īased on a theory first explained by sociologist Ray Oldenburg, a community's third place (after homes and jobs) is where people spend their free time. Restored lamps from Manhattan’s Russian Tea Room add Art Deco flair to the room. It features refurbished hardwood floors, exposed brick walls, and pipes as well as shiplap on the ceiling. On the first floor, the church’s former rectory has been converted into an open-concept living space. "And I also like exploring the idea of the third place." "I've always been fascinated by the reappropriation of sacred symbols," he says. Maybe, suggests Bell, the 7,400-square-foot building, the former Sacred Heart of Jesus, hand built by parishioners, is the ideal location for his particular live/work arrangement. "Because people selling NFTs often also give you the physical piece." Storage, admits the visionary and virtual art collector, is a bit of a problem.īell sees no irony in the fact that he's located the headquarters of his forward-thinking, 21st-century project in a deconsecrated 1884 Catholic church. "I end up with a lot of art," he explains.
And everywhere, lined up along the red brick walls, stacked in corners-some of it hanging-are prints and painted canvases. The gallery space features the church’s 20-foot ceilings, stained glass windows, and rough-cut timber beams.Īt the back of the space, two sliding barn doors hide his bedroom.
In another corner, a workstation with multiple screens and piles of books and papers is where Bell oversees the operations of MoCA and curates his growing collection of NFT art.īell has appropriated the church’s nave as the physical gallery space for the Museum of Crypto Art, which he founded online in 2020. In one corner, the kitchen-caught design-wise between phases in the Rondout's evolution-juxtaposes a suite of modern appliances with an Art Deco crystal chandelier and colorful lamps salvaged from the Russian Tea Room. Bell's abode is in an open-concept, loft-like first-floor space. "I moved here last December and have been traveling like nobody's business ever since." "Here" is an industrial corner of Kingston's Rondout neighborhood, up the hill from Feeney's Shipyard, which Bell chose for it's mix of peace, quiet, and community.Īs well as his home, it's the physical manifestation of the Museum of Crypto Art, which was founded online in early 2020 and dedicated to showcasing the depth and breadth of digital art. "Everything in my life is pretty ad hoc," says the financier and founder of the Museum of Crypto Art. Like the rapid evolution of technology like the revolution posed by cryptocurrency like America's changing notion of where we should all hang out, Colborn Bell's home is in a bit of limbo. A former owner refurbished the church’s locally sourced red brick walls and replaced the asphalt roof with metal and added copper gutters. Built in 1884 to serve the local population of bluestone masons, carpenters, and shipyard workers, the church overlooks Feeney’s shipyard. Colborn Bell’s home, the former Sacred Heart of Jesus church, sits on a hillside in the hamlet of Wilbur in Kingston.
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