The Trops mobile app presents mapped exhibitions with curated art experiences across creative neighborhoods on the east coast. Culturally impactful lifestyle hubs and gathering places are featured as venues that host artwork and performance art from a vibrant community of artists.
How Art Drops Work With The Trops Mobile App
First, go visit the venue!
An art drop happens when art is "dropped" at a host venue. Before arriving at the venue, the art drop detail page only shows the artist's name, an image and the location of the art.
Navigate to the art drops page when you are on location.
On arrival to the host venue, explorers who navigate back into the app are prompted to claim a token that unlocks more information about the art and artist.
Revisit the art memory at any time in your profile.
Each token you claim saves the art drop info to the profile in "My Collection". As the app automatically archives the imagery and info of the artwork and the venue, you can put your phone away and enjoy the art experience in front of you, IRL.
A Treasure Hunt for Art
Explore local neighborhoods and collect art experiences around the city. "Art Drops" can be visual or performing artworks. On arrival, navigate to the Art Drop page to claim a drop token and unlock more information about the artwork. Your profile saves the art memory for future reference, so you can get off your phone and participate in the experience.
Curated Culture Maps
Art Drops are carefully curated to present art as an experience. You can explore all the art drops around you, or visit a curated mapped exhibition. The curated art drops are featured exhibitions, indicated by the purple pins
Browse the highlighted art drops in the city, by date, as individual art drops, as curated mapped exhibitions, or by the specific artist.
Support The Community
Explorers receive one drop token for each art drop visited. These drop tokens are transferrable as "tokens of appreciation". Send to artists by visiting art drop detail page artist profile, or via the recently visited section of The Vault. Transfer tokens to other users using search by username, or by scanning the QR.
The drop tokens earned from visiting art drops can be exchanged for local products, artisanal goods, tickets, and more!
Find and engage with art in the real world!
Frequently Asked Questions
The Trops is an integrative arts platform supporting communities to find and engage with art in the real world. Through pop-ups and “Art Drops,” we produce and amplify interactive moments of gathering and culture with the creative community. Our emerging mobile application archives the where/when/who of art in spacetime.
The app acts as a navigation tool and digital black book for art experiences. We present dynamic mapping of creative events of cultural activity that “pop up” across local neighborhoods. Our platform looks to connect people with authentic culture through art exhibitions in traditional and nontraditional platforms. Upon arrival to experience art in-person, users of the mobile application can ‘collect’ the experience as a souvenir of art in spacetime, as well as a token. These tokens can be translated into real-world goods and services (Local Gems), and transferred between users.
Live artistic performance is a treasure for the senses. In that sense, we have worked to create a mobile application that presents the artists and their artwork in an engaging and “fun” way. Modeled after a treasure hunt, our curated maps present experiential invitations to visit artists, venues, and vendors through “Art Drops” and “Gem Drops”.
The app is a curated system of art and maps. If a user visits artwork in person, the app will automatically “check-In” the user, and present their profile with a collectible “drop token.” This unlocks the Art Drop, revealing additional info about the artwork and saving it to your profile as “My Collection.” Explorers can always revisit art experiences, remember the host venues, and “collect” the moment as a souvenir. Like a Digital Black Book, The Trops mobile application enables users to explore culture and keep digital “souvenirs” of artistic activity in the physical world while also supporting local artists and artisans.
It is important to have community infrastructure that empowers the ecosystem of the arts to present itself independently IRL. Our philosophy is to enable community economics, and to empower individuals and connect creatives by developing our platform and engaging neighborhoods with creative energy that can highlight and engage the human spirit.
