Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are certificates of ownership that represent digital artwork, music, video, audio, memorabilia, and much more. In the last year they have quickly gained in popularity for their ability to allow everyday artists to create and sell content. In fact, OpenSea, the world’s largest NFT market, has recently surpassed $ 1.6 billion in monthly transaction volume.
Like physical works of art, NFTs can also be auctioned for charity or donated to non-profit groups with generous tax deductions. From funding the construction of a school in Uganda to helping frontline health workers, the advent of non-profit NFT can play a critical role in making a positive social difference.
In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, Lisa slominski and Nick Dehadray, co-founders of Moon Landing, a new initiative in favor of neurodiversity in the NFT space, they discussed their upcoming NFT auction in support of contemporary artists with intellectual disabilities and the non-profit studio in which they work. The key theme of the pieces is that of pop culture and nostalgia, intertwined with moments of struggle and perseverance from the artists’ daily lives. The collection is denominates NFToons, which is already previewed and will be available for public auction from January 2022.
We’re Moon Landing!
An initiative for #neurodiversity in the #NFT space thru collabs with nonprofit studios for artists with disability.Our 1st project – #NFToons by @Project_Onward
Preview now @opensea
Sales support the nonprofit studio + their artists pic.twitter.com/CDGd4rW0mE– Moon Landing Initiative (@moonlandingnft) November 24, 2021
Cointelegraph: Please tell me, who are some of the artists behind your NFT project?
Lisa Slominski: Sure, so the first project is NFToons, which are eight artists who are working with Project Onward, which is a non-profit organization in Chicago that supports artists with various intellectual disabilities and social needs. Of these eight artists, one of them is this wonderful artist named Ruby Bradford. I’ve already curated exhibitions with her, and her practice draws heavily on Superman and cats, associating both with caring and belonging. So for NFToons, we take one of her iconic paintings of Superman as a cat, and then we animate it, moving it off the screen, and she actually sings the soundtrack to the NFT .mp4, where she’s doing a cat-like rendition of the theme song. of Superman. This is an example.
Another artist is named Louis Demarco. And actually, I also have one of her drawings behind there (pointing to an artwork on the cloak behind her). But he does really interesting works called “Words for Living.” He makes a lot of tech space works based on mantras that he says to himself. What he has also done is develop his own script like in a band. So he developed a concept for a TV show called “Toasters”, and it’s his own mash-up of “Friends” and “Cheers.” So he has created a pilot episode that we will promote on Twitter and Instagram, for anyone to see. His NFT is his drawing of the set of two of the characters’ apartments. And he has also made his own soundtrack for the series. So that’s the audio for that one.
CT: So, reading the press release. Apparently, a part of the proceeds will go to charity; What organization will it be used for?
LS: Charity is his study. All these artists they work in a daytime art studio, Project Onward. Project Onward is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit charity [entidad legal sin ánimo de lucro exenta del pago de impuestos federales en EE.UU.] in Chicago that supports these artists with disabilities. So 80% of the sales will go to that studio and the artists. Moon Landing plans each project to be a collaboration with a non-profit studio that supports artists with disabilities. We work with your artists creating NFTs and the profits go to the artists and the studios. Our second project will be with the Arts Project Australia studio in Melbourne.
I don’t know if you’ve heard – but we’ve got calendars!
Check our other post to see the general PO Cal, but here’s a SNEAK PEAK of the #RubyBradford original!
️ ️ ️Check ’em out at the link in our bio and catch more info in our latest instagram post! #savethedate # POcal2022 pic.twitter.com/KhfxtotV9z
– Project Onward (@Project_Onward) November 23, 2021
CT: What inspired you, in particular, to work with these artists to help tell your story?
LS: Sure, so I’ve been working in the broader field of contemporary neurodiversity art for three years. I used to work solely on contemporary art, and I worked for an organization here in London called the Museum of Everything, which deals with what a lot of people call “outsider art”, which is a problematic term, but often includes some kind of artists with disabilities, self-taught artists, artists from marginalized positions. Anyway, after I got out of there and started working on my freelance project, I realized that I was exposed to some artists with disabilities. I found the artwork coming out of those studios to be absolutely incredible.
And I started to think that they were contemporary artists, even though they had disabilities. They are just young, contemporary artists, so I started incorporating them into the exhibitions that I curated. I have written some articles about them for Artsy. But specifically, these studios, internationally, there are probably 30-50 different versions of these non-profit studios that create creative and professional development environments for artists with different social needs and disabilities to develop creative practice. And I hooked up with Nick a few years ago; he did some promotional animations for some of the exhibitions that I was curating, and then, yeah. So building on that, I realized that with his interest in NFTs and creative diversity and my interest, it would be a great opportunity to do something interesting and meaningful in the NFT space.
Nick Dehadray: Yes, I think what I saw was the way the NFT space supported self-taught artists and that there was a really strong community around that, and it still is. So I thought I really fit into this kind of work, of neurodiverse artists teaching themselves and creating art for the enjoyment of others. So it seems to make sense that NFTs could be a great space for them to sell, whereas I think that in the contemporary art market, these prices are not really set that high. So they might have a better chance of doing their job in the NFT space.
CT: More of a technical question; With Ethereum gas prices being very high, it can cost hundreds of dollars to mint an NFT. Will you provide financial support to the artists during the auction?
ND: Well, we are going to do it as an auction through OpenSea. So the minting will be done by the people who buy, and we will do it in Ethereum for this one, but we have also considered other coins like Polygon, where there are no gas rates on lightspeed. But for the moment, Ethereum continues to have a higher share of uses. So it seems like it makes sense to go for it for now.
LS: Yes, we are working directly with the studios that take care of all of that in advance.
CT: Would you like to include a statement of intent about your work?
LS: Yeah, just a couple of things in relation to what Nick said. There are some parallels, I mean that diversity in general in the sphere of contemporary art is a struggle, and neurodiversity is a new one. And there are debates right now about, like I went to a talk last night, which was called “Can we be artists?” And it was talking about the neurodiverse artists who make their way into the art world. So I think the NFT space has an opportunity to democratize things and create direct access from creators to the public. It has great potential and can elevate many artists who would otherwise have difficulty entering the art world, which I find very interesting. And then, you know, we’re trying to elevate these artists, elevate these nonprofits. We know that people in the NFT space are asking about diversity, about neurodiversity. But connecting with them is difficult.
ND: Yes, this is one of the difficulties we have. Because there are big influencers, like gmoney, who make comments saying that we need more diversity in the space. But we are not visible at the moment because we have just started. But we try to send a message to gmoney, but it does not respond.
LS: So yeah, that’s pretty much it. Obviously the hope is that NFToons will be the starter project. Later, Moon Landing would continue this initiative. So we have two other supporting studios that we already have in mind to do more projects with the same interest of working with non-profit organizations to support artists with disabilities, letting them create unique NFTs. And make them available to artists and non-profit organizations.
ND: And it’s a pretty good way to introduce you to [inaudible] with whom they could not work. For example, we were looking at an artist, Terry Williams from the Art Project Australia, who has made these astronaut sculptures. But we can scan them in 3D, and with 3D scanning, we can turn them into an NFT. And we couldn’t do that any other way. So there are very good opportunities for artists to use technology that they would not otherwise consider using or would not have access to. “
Artwork Reference: Ruby Bradford, Superman Cat, 2021 NFT, .mp4 | Redrawn in Cointelegraph style.
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