Oyster Bay Sculpture Garden and Aquarium

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Oyster Bay, Winter 2007

The Oyster Bay Sculpture Garden and Aquarium was an aquatically-themed, multi-artist gallery that is owned by resident Morris Vig. It is located on property straddling the Oyster and Shepherd sims.

1 Background
2 Sculpture Artists on Display, Past and Present
3 Musical Artists
4 Multimedia
5 Aquarium
6 Management
7 Awards
8 Links

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Background

Formally opened on January 10, 2007 with a dual grand opening event structure to appeal to both the European and North American audiences, Oyster Bay is a unique location in Second Life because of its number of active participants, diversity in content, location and high level of traffic. It has four key goals, listed in order of importance:

The primary goal of Oyster Bay is to expose new Second Life (SL) residents to the imagination and creativity of works created using SL as a medium (sculpture and photography) and marine environments created in SL. (Also referred to as creation artist creations)
The secondary goal is to promote sales of SL-generated artwork and other high quality, creative products for the economic benefit of the creators of the works and Oyster Bay.
The third goal is to grow a community of interest of SL residents around the concepts and ideas put forth in the primary goal.
The fourth goal is to encourage further visitor exploration in the arts (especially sculpture) and marine environments of SL beyond Oyster Bay.

Contrary to widespread opinion, SL's Oyster Bay has nothing to do with RL's Oyster Bay. It was named "Oyster Bay" because it got its start in the Oyster sim and is on the bay of one of Second Life's larger inland bodies of water.

Due to increased Real Life pressures and an unwillingness to compromise his standards in the management and oversight of Oyster Bay, Vig announced the closing of Oyster Bay on February 17, 2008.

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Sculpture Artists on Display, Past and Present

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Musical Artists

Oyster Bay has made the integration of visual and musical arts a staple of its social calendar. Largely eschewing the more traditional "dance parties," Oyster Bay instead tends to hold infrequent, performances with an eye toward quality performances. Artists who have performed at Oyster Bay include:

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Multimedia

Noted SL machinima artisan Kronos Kirkorian made a video compilation of the Spring 2007 Oyster Bay sculpture show, featuring an ambient soundtrack by SL live musician Komuso Tokugawa. It was premiered at a "Black Tie and Blues" premiere party. (Event photos)

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Aquarium

Aquarium with the sea monster

Part of Oyster Bay since before its grand opening, Vig has stocked the undersea environment with marine life from Kaikou Splash's Splash Aquatics and undersea vegetation from Lilith Heart's Heart Garden Center. A favorite resident photography location is the undersea monster. Initial design of the aquarium was accomplished with significant help from Delia Lake, curator of the Center for Water Studies at the Better World Island sim.

The aquarium is not a pure aquarium per se; it instead capitalizes on the undersea environment by teleporting the visitor inside the aquarium facility - with the marine life on the outside. After walking through the facility, the visitor can then teleport outside into the water and take advantage of the unique, immersive environment of SL and directly take part in the marine experience.

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Management

Morris Vig on duty with Petronilla Paperdoll, circa February 2007

A fairly large site in Second Life, Oyster Bay has benefited over the months from the near-volunteer assistance of its managers, including Cyanide Seelowe, Petronilla Paperdoll and Isolde Flamand.

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