(last update: 29/05/23)
The Arteztic DAO will act as a decentralised autonomous NGO in service of environmental causes within the arts. We are a group of environmentally-minded NFT artists who have decided to work together to amplify the impact of our artworks, identify and adopt sustainable working practices, and onboard and support the wider community via a donation funding mechanism.
Fully community-led, the DAO will decide collectively on the acquisition of new artworks in its collection, on the distribution of funds gathered from the sales of the NFTs donated by the members, the selection of a list of NGOs to support and the selection of members' projects to support, and more.
The DAO will also have a public facing website presenting the group and its purpose, a permanent online gallery showcasing artworks from the members as well as from the permanent collection, temporary virtual exhibitions, the presentation of our members-led projects and an ongoing call for members.
So far, we have been focusing on composing the white paper, launching our website, raising awareness on environmental art within the web3 art space via online discussions with key artists and curators during COP27, setting up our first acquisition campaign for environmental art and acquired 12 artworks, and finally, opening our online galleries showcasing environmental artworks minted as NFTs on the Tezos blockchain. The next steps are as follows:
and then:
A note on our name: the word Arteztic can be written ArTEZtic for a clearer reference to the Tezos blockchain, on which our artistic project is being built. It also merges with the word Arctic, to reference the environmental nature of our mission, and of course the word Artistic.
The context in which we are creating this project is one of immense, ongoing change in what can be considered the ‘traditional’ art world, a world in which an artist dedicated to environmental causes is limited by a number of factors. The financial stranglehold of the secondary art market, where the artist is absent, is not a viable strategy for long-term sustainability and places an overriding value on financial worth rather than any social or environmental aspects of an artist’s work.
In addition, a variety of costs are borne by the artist in order to represent themselves effectively in exhibitions and art fairs, inc. transportation of artworks, insurance, studio space rental costs, and exorbitant commissions demanded for any sales. There are also critical problems with diversity and inclusion that severely affect the ability of culture to reflect society.
This traditional art world is being disrupted by the challenges posed by the new world of NFT’s, the concept of which can be said to be heading in two alternate directions, in which the differences in environmental impact and social potential are profound. The two broad categories are as follows:
The PoW NFT world could be seen as a mirror of the traditional art world in many ways, including the concept of exclusive clubs with opaque gatekeepers, high costs of entry and financial value dominating above all other concerns. It is also primarily a system catering to, and featuring, artists and collectors from a very narrow section of the global population.
The NFT platforms on the Tezos PoS blockchain, in particular Hic et Nunc back in 2021, have been instrumental in allowing a broad, diverse, under-represented number of artistic voices to gain prominence, voices that would ordinarily be excluded entirely from either the traditional art world, or the exclusive PoW platforms.
The choices we make now, in deciding which future we want to create, are incredibly important, particularly taking into account the environmental emergency dominating the world agenda. Artists have an opportunity to come together to effect real change - socially, environmentally and economically. Our Arteztic project aims to accelerate this search for positive, inclusive change.
Better futures don’t just happen, they are made.
So what are we doing to effect change?
Simply put, we aim to create a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) consisting of environmentally focused, socially responsible and diverse artists to foster an environment of sustainable art practice, outside of the restrictive worlds of both the traditional art market and PoW platforms.
The DAO will act as a home for artists wishing to mix inclusive prosperity and ecological sustainability.
With the conditions in place on TEIA and other Tezos-based platforms, we have seen artists from all over the world coming together. This new community of artists represents the true breadth of the human experience, and they are creating wonderful art across all mediums on a daily basis. This raft of new representation in the arts is allowing new futures to be forged, in which:
The proposed DAO will provide an environment of sustainable practice for artists concerned with the key issues of environmental impact, social impact and diversity, concerns that are not currently prioritised in either the traditional art world or most of the NFT marketplaces or web3 platforms. It will provide an alternative system of support for all artists, negating the old systems of exclusive schooling, opaque patronage, cronyism, and a collector focused economy.
Arteztic is a group of artists experimenting with DAOs and NFT art to find new models aiming to produce, support and amplify the impact of environmental art.
It started in August 2021 while the NFT art community was blooming with new ideas of use cases of NFTs and DAOs. The group gathered in the context of the hackathon launched by Tezos on Gitcoin "Tezos Hackathon: NFT Me, You Can DAO It". The team won the prize of 5000$ at this hackathon in September 2021.
Today, the team is composed of:
Diane Drubay (project lead and artist), Luca Fontana (UI-UX designer and artist), Stijn Jansen (senior creative director and artist), Arne Lanzelot Meier (UI-UX designer and artist), Carmen Danae Azor (artist) and Johnny Dean Mann (copywriter and artist).
Vision: An independent coalition of NFT artists with a shared-goal: prioritising the environment in the message and purpose of art.
Mission: The idea of this coalition is to bring together ‘green’ NFT artists and use the power of community and collaboration to move away from the restrictive models of the conventional art market.
An ideals-driven use of PoS blockchain technology in combination with a governance DAO will hopefully be able to introduce a new form of collective value creation without traditional intermediaries, and promote the decentralised distribution of further value for an expanding community.
This DAO will run on the Tezos Blockchain and be self-sustained thanks to the membership fee and the donations of NFT art by artists - the funds generated aim be distributed in a way as to further the vision of the DAO and encourage new environmental initiatives.
We believe in the power of art, connectedness, inclusion, genuine and fair collaboration. We believe that people, enabled by the decentralised nature of new technologies, are capable of building new systems to prioritise important issues such as the environment.
We believe that alternative models can be created to amplify our impact and shape better futures for all.
We believe that decentralisation can inspire new ways of thinking and acting, creating real and lasting socio-cultural change. We believe these changes will result in a higher value placed on collaborative, supportive endeavours instead of empty consumerism - circularity instead of extraction.
Our ambition serves personal, collective, and planetary goals:
To approach this goal, our means are:
Environmental Art Permanent Collection - supporting artists acting for the Planet through their artistic practice by collecting art
activities: through open calls and art scouting, Arteztic members will suggest artworks to be reviewed by the DAO via an on-chain voting system, and then be acquired by the DAO.
Environmental NFT Art Production - supporting the art production of environmental NFT artists
activities: share earnings from the DAO's pool with DAO's members to commission artists with the production of new artworks, support more collaborations between NFT artists, support collective virtual or physical exhibitions, performances, or projects