The Replica turned 2 million square feet of The Metropolitan Museum of Art into an immersive educational metaverse playground. With Art education on the decline across NYC, The Met and Verizon turned to technology as an incentive to inspire kids, bridging the current education gap in their community.

Appealing to kids’ love of gaming and the importance of a unique metaverse persona, The Replica allowed kids to “replicate” 5,000 years of art into wearable, playable, and educational Roblox items.

The Replica serves as a paradigm shift for how museums worldwide can engage kids to learn about art.

Art museums aren't known for being tech-forward. It’s typically an analog experience. Quiet, look-but-don’t-touch, not exactly kid friendly. So if you’re a parent, you’re accustomed to major resistance and a quick visit “expiration.” The Met’s primary goal was to bridge the art education gap that has occurred due to budget cuts in New York. In order to create an engaging educational experience outside of the classroom, one that kids had to choose to engage with, Verizon knew the status quo would not suffice. We needed to be honest about what inspires kids by creating a tech education experience that could draw kids into the halls of the museum, and lean into what they’re really into: phones and gaming. Roblox is one of the most popular online games for kids 8-14 and, like Verizon and The Met, Roblox shares a brand goal of supporting education for today's youth. With over 400 million users in the metaverse, 80% of whom are younger than 16, it presented us with an exciting socially responsible and unique cultural opportunity.

It’s no secret that the arts have been consistently cut from our nation’s schools.

In fact, the New York Department of Education has decreased spending on the arts by over 47% over the past 7 years. If art is no longer in the classroom, then the Metropolitan Museum of Art wanted to give kids in their community a unique opportunity to bridge the gap in art education.

Verizon and The Met have an existing partnership and a shared goal to inspire learning. For years, Verizon has been at the forefront of the effort to provide tech education to schools across America, ensuring that kids expand their worldview using our technology. Together, Verizon and The Met looked to create an art experience that could inspire a generation of new art lovers.

Visit The Met. Enter the metaverse.

The Met Replica. The first ever real-world Roblox art collection at The Met.

The Met Replica is an interactive metaverse learning experience using mobile gaming as an incentive for art education. Find the original artwork IRL. And replicate it in AR. As the art transformed from real to Roblox, kids created their own personal avatars that became walking pieces of art history, mixing and matching with other virtual items to create something artfully one-of-a-kind. Replicas moved beyond the physical walls of The Met and into Roblox, living on and inspiring art education throughout the infinite space of the metaverse.

Not only did family visits increase exponentially, teachers throughout the Tri-State area were able to use the exhibit as a field-trip destination and a non-traditional way to bring back art education.

The New York Department of Education alone decreased spending on the arts by 47% over the past 7 years. Our strategy focused on bridging the gap for students in NY, giving them access to art education in their own backyard: The Met. Verizon and The Met have an existing partnership and a shared goal to inspire learning. Verizon has been at the forefront of the effort to provide tech education to schools across America, ensuring that kids expand their worldview using our technology. In order to draw kids to the museum for learning, the status quo of analog educational platforms would not be enough. Verizon leaned into the network to reach tech-savvy Gen Zers. Online games like Roblox are some of the most popular platforms for ages 8-14 . Today, with over 400 million users in the metaverse, 80% younger than 16, it was a good place to start.

The Replica was a first-of-its-kind exhibit, seamlessly capturing and replicating artwork in real time, in AR, into avatar skins for kids to bring into the Roblox metaverse.

The experience began with a unique app that turned 2 million square feet of the largest museum in North America into an infinite metaverse playground.

The app gave kids over 150 clues around the museum to find one of 40 original artworks or artifacts IRL and replicate in AR. Like magic, 5,000 years of art transformed from real to Roblox items. For close to two years, we worked with curators and 3D artists, to painstakingly ensure that all 426,000 collectable Replicas were designed with realistic proportions and details.

For the first time ever, kids created their own personal avatars that became walking pieces of art history, taking each Replica beyond the physical walls of The Met and into Roblox.

Families across the Tri-State area came to The Met to experience Replica and learn about art in a whole new way. Typical time spent for young museumgoers tripled, as kids raced to collect as many Replicas as they could within one visit. Many returned to collect them all. Children love the experience so much, The Met has chosen to continue the exhibit indefinitely.

With zero paid media:

Drove a 35% increase in foot traffic

Over 200,000 new Met visitors

426, 0000 Replica’s collected

1.4 billion impressions