As artists entered the crypto space in 2021, one piece of advice echoed: "Start building a community." Many Discord channels were born, now dead. Combined with the fact that so many Web3 companies and developers are guilty of community scavenging (a business growth strategy that involves using the community's idea and word of mouth only for marketing purposes), cryptocurrencies have now become a graveyard for abandoned conversations in group. .
While the number of crypto communities is overwhelming, the joy of joining a unique and thriving group with healthy discourse is even greater when participants consciously express their reasons for joining. So how do you decide where to invest your time and energy?
Here are eight original crypto artists and the unique communities they fostered and continue to foster. From visual art visionaries to a new New York collective, the inspiration in these communities is limitless:
Casey Reas
Reas is an American artist, professor at UCLA and student at the MIT Media Lab, who uses various types of software as his primary artistic tools. Reas is the creator of Processing, an open source programming language for visual art. His work is in the public collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, LACMA and the Center Georges Pompidou. In 2021, Reas founded Feral File, an online NFT gallery featuring works by artists such as Refik Anadol, Petra Cotright, Rafaël Rozendaal and Tyler Hobbs. The Feral File has brought together a unique community of artists, curators and collectors who have achieved recognition in the world of fine art. At the same time, these creators are not afraid to conduct chain experiments in their work. Feral File's Discord (consisting of about 3,000 members) is a lively place for discussions about art and ongoing exhibitions.
claire silver
Silver is a pseudonymous artist (Claire Silver is a fictitious name) and a pioneer of AI-generated visual art used to create moving images. Claire's work has been auctioned at Christie's New York and Sotheby's London and is exhibited in LACMA's permanent collection. Claire is one of the founders of Accelerate Art, a non-profit organization for crypto-artists. According to the company's website, Accelerate Art focuses on art education, scholarship opportunities and exhibition opportunities for artists working on the Web3. Members include such names as Diana Sinclair, Ix Shells and Matthew Stone.
LATASHA
The musician and producer rose to prominence in the Web3 space in the spring of 2021 with a successful NFT music video sale. LATASHÁ is the founder of Zoratopia, an educational program with digital and offline opportunities to introduce artists to Web3. Zoratopia spawned a whole generation of crypto-native artists in various media. It is one of Web3's newest communities, known for its live events in Miami, New York, Oakland, and Austin. Zoratopia digital events are currently free and open to the public.
Nadia Tolokonnikova
An artist turned activist, Nadya is best known as one of the founders of Pussy Riot, whose members (including Nadya) were imprisoned by the Russian government in 2012. She has released several collections and released individual versions of NFT- widow. In 2022, he founded UnicornDAO, a group of curators, collectors and artists whose goal is to redistribute wealth and visibility. UnicornDAO aims to create equality for female-identified and LGBTQ+ people, especially in the Web3 space. The group has an invite-only Discord channel, and membership currently costs 50 Ether (about $80,000 at the time of writing). While the membership is primarily aimed at art patrons, UnicornDAO often deals with curating artists and is worth checking out.
Magnet Europe
Europa, a local crypto musician and songwriter, has just founded TheHomiesDAO, a wellness community aimed at supporting Web3 artists. The DAO, which stands for Decentralized Autonomous Organization, works on the Name model: an NFT that grants membership is created once a day and auctioned off at a starting price of 0.05 Ether (about $80 at the time of writing). Money from all coins is poured into the DAO treasury and voted by the collective. TheHomiesDAO has already started using the funds to sponsor real-world wellness events to help artists avoid creative burnout.
Park
The Park is an award-winning group of musicians based in Los Angeles. Winner of at least three Grammy Awards, the collective consists of musicians who have collaborated with artists such as Solange, Halsey and Rhye. In the park, intimate jam sessions called "Fridays in the Park" are held, allowing the public to participate in musical improvisations and immerse themselves in a very crib-friendly artistic atmosphere. The collective's mission is to bring musicians together, create a safe and inspiring space to perform and integrate it into Web3. Park is experimenting with chain management (he has his own decentralized autonomous organization, also known as a DAO community) and creates an NFT video every Friday to commemorate the session.
Malcolm Levy
He is a Toronto-born multidisciplinary artist and curator who has previously worked with the New Forms Festival and the Cultural Olympiad. In 2020, Levy founded Refraction Festival and later became a DAO. Part music festival, part DAO and incubation studio, Refraction is the only artists' collective run by the artists themselves. New members and artists first had to apply with a membership form and go through an admissions process. Last year, The DAO launched RefractPass, a collection of 1,000 NFTs that serves as the main gateway to RefractionDAO. The collection description says: "This is an emerging NFT that will provide long-term extended benefit to our members." The permit is currently out of stock and is only available on the secondary market. The price is 0.25 Ether at the time of writing.
movie with feeling
Felt Zine, a New York-based art collective described as the Web3's underground net art collective, has earned a reputation as a countercultural digital art collective. Since the beginning of 2021, it has supported various chain projects. The Felt Zine community meets mostly offline, and most are based in New York (and an addition in Tokyo). Felt Zine parties, unlike other crypto events, are indistinguishable from most of the hot events in downtown New York. Felt Zine Web3 targets a sweet spot of the Gen-Z line chronic community and spends a night at Jupiter Disco in Bushwick sipping an espresso martini.
The role of the community is changing. As our lives have shifted to a largely digital presence post-pandemic, our offline connections are disappearing more than ever. While we may not remember the last time we met for dinner, helped a neighbor, or went to a block party, we've certainly immersed ourselves in online communities. If this change is inevitable, choose your communities wisely and focus on areas where you want to see growth.
Disclosure: I may own the NFT of the artists and projects I write about, all purchased with my own funds.