The 888 Inner Artist Initiative — February 2023 Update

February is the shortest month of the year, but for the 888 Inner Artist Initiative, it was an incredibly busy and productive month.

The most significant event of February was a major revamp of how we conduct our weekly celebration of art. The most significant element of this revamp was the fact that we restructured the way we operate our weekly celebration of art based on feedback from, and in close partnership with our ever-growing artist community (at the time of writing, we have assigned the Verified Inner Artist role to over 130 artists). We’ve consistently said that we intend to build the 888 Inner Artist Initiative with our artists, and our adjustments to our weekly celebration of art is the strongest evidence of that so far.

Weekly Celebration of Art — A Recap

Our weekly celebration of art has been a crucial part of the 888 Inner Artist Initiative since the beginning, when we announced it in the context of an Emerging Artist fund. As a reminder, here were the key points that were made back then:

• At the beginning of each week, the 888 Inner Circle Twitter will kick off a “submit your art” tweet thread. We will launch with the hashtag #888innerartist.
• Artists should reply to the tweet and post their NFT art and a link to where it can be bought. All art styles, and all formats of NFT art (1/1’s, limited editions, and PFPs) will initially be considered, though this may change on any given week. The art must be for sale by the original artist and not a piece that is being resold on secondary markets by someone other than the original artist.
• Submissions will be curated, and the curated submissions will be posted in a private Inner 8 Discord channel, where our members will select the piece we buy for that week through a community vote. Please note that artistic tastes are somewhat subjective and any vote (or lack thereof) should not be viewed as a commentary on talent or ability. Just keep creating!
• The budget each week will be 1 ETH. The piece that is purchased will then be raffled off to Inner 8 members.
• If your piece is not bought, you are welcome to resubmit that piece in subsequent weeks.

If you are an emerging artist with a piece for sale at 1 ETH or less, please consider submitting your art for this weekly event. See our project Twitter each week for details.

Here is an example of what one of our weekly tweets may look like:

Weekly Celebration of Art — How Things Have Evolved

The basic process outlined above has not changed to this day. However, we have made some changes, clarifications, improvements, and additions to how we executed this process along the way.

For example:

• When we started, we only accepted submissions made on a major ETH marketplace. Through our partnership with Sparkles, as discussed here, we now also accept submissions on the Sparkles marketplace in either the SGB or Flare equivalent of 1 ETH or less.
• After the initial creation of our weekly event, we introduced some new ways to support artists, such as the addition of an artist-spotlight channel in our Discord Server, where we conduct AMAs with the artists that we purchase art from. Such additions have helped to clarify our goals in terms of how we wanted to operate our weekly celebration of art. For example, we’ve decided to only purchase one piece of art a week, regardless of price. The reason for this is because we wanted to give expanded time and attention to every artist that we purchased art from.
• Similarly, we instituted a soft guideline that where possible, we would try to not purchase art from artists that we previously purchased art from. The rationale for this decision was to further our goal of supporting lots of new, emerging artists. At the same time, this guideline is not a hard and fast rule. In the spirit of “celebrating art,” we still encourage all artists (including those we’ve previously purchased art from) to submit their art. Even if we are unable to purchase the art (because, for example, the art is priced above one ETH or does not have a “buy now” price), we hope that the increased exposure of sharing their work in our weekly event will help artists to gain exposure. And there are some special situations where we may purchase art again from an artist, such as if all the curated art on any given week is by artists we’ve already purchased art from.
• In order to support more artists, we’ve also encouraged our Verified Inner Artists, mods, and community members to submit art on the behalf of those who may not have previously known about the opportunity that we provide through our weekly celebration of art. This has helped our artist community grow in an organic and community-driven manner.
• One thing we’ve consistently said is that our weekly event is not a contest. It is a celebration of art. In that spirit, we have deliberately eschewed strict, exclusionary rules in favor of creating a more inclusive environment that welcomes a wide variety of art and artists. As alluded to above, this includes allowing for the submission of art that we may not ultimately be able to purchase. Also, while the “votes” by our Inner 8 are a “strong guide,” they are not the final determining factor for which piece of art we purchase. Final discretion for purchase belongs with the Team. Part of the reasons we may not purchase the piece with the most votes is if we are unable to purchase it (such as only having a “reserve price” and not having a “buy now” price), if the piece with the most votes is from an artist we previously purchased from (as discussed above), if the piece was already purchased by a third party, etc …

Weekly Celebration of Art — A Significant Change

There are currently four phases to our weekly celebration of art: 1) Art submissions on Twitter, 2) Curation, 3) Voting by Inner 8, and 4) Purchase.

Up until this month, curation was largely done by the mods, with assistance from the Inner 8. Artists were only really involved in step 1 of the process.

However, after a long discussion with our Verified Inner Artists, we realized that there were ways we could improve the transparency, engagement, and quality of our process.

To that effect, we have created a new curation channel in our Server and now invite our Verified Inner Artists to help with curating the pieces that the Inner 8 will ultimately vote on. Mods will no longer participate in the phase 2 curation process unless assistance is needed in reaching a certain curation quorum.

This change has been a significant change, as it now gives artists a much bigger voice and direct engagement in terms of deciding the art that we purchase. This change reinforces the fact that artists are not just contestants in some sort of contest. They are participants in our celebration of art. More than that, they are now direct agents in helping to run and execute our weekly process. The weekly celebration of art is no longer something that we “do for artists.” It is something that we “partner with artists” to do. That is a notable paradigm shift.

Weekly Celebration of Art — Purchased Art

Despite our change in policy, one thing has not changed. We continue to purchase art. Here is the art that we have purchased since our last update.

Week 24

(Ayo?) Mumbles (video performance) by @Throwlights

Week 25

ÆTHER by @Anarkoiris71

Week 26

Monkey Avatar Rebellion (piece with movement) by @gnmocchi

Week 27

Earth (piece with movement and music) by @crownandpalette and @cedricfangeat

Spotlight Artist AMAs

We also continue to offer the artists that we purchase art from an Ask Me Anything (AMA) interview in our Artist Spotlight channel.

Here is a sampling of the AMAs that we had this past month (slightly edited). To see the complete interviews, please visit the artist-spotlight channel in our Discord Server.

@JayJay__92 (who we previously purchased this amazing piece from)

Question:

Please tell us about this piece that you submitted for us. What was your inspiration for it?

Answer:

The inspiration came from a photo I saw of a man in a beach in a sunset background, so I was fascinated by the sun in that photo, cos immediately I saw the sun I imagined Scar from the Lion King animation chilling behind that Sun, cos I love that movie so much and that was how that magical piece was created and it’s my favorite from the collection as well.

And the message of that piece is about taking some time off from the daily pressures of life, we all need to rest our heads and calm our minds cos even the Lion as majestic and powerful as it is, it still takes some time off from hunting so why shouldn’t we do the same for our mental health.

Here is another piece by the artist:

To learn more about @JayJay__92, please visit the artist’s Twitter and linktr.ee.

@Anarkoiris71

Question:

You have an interest in philosophy. Who are some of your favorite philosophers? How does your interest in philosophy impact and influence your art?

Answer:

Philosophy is an important part of this life journey, learning to think and discern about my reality and my present have been fundamental pillars in my development as a person and artist. I believe that philosophy constitutes, elevates and unifies the human being as an artist and wise man of his own life. Some of my favorite and influential philosophers or thinkers are Gurdjieff, leon tolstoy, krishnamurti, neville goddard, marcus aurelio, carl Jung etc… and many more who have been part of my process.

I found a lot of similarities between art and philosophy in my process. I believe that the purpose of art is to project an internal vision in the world, to manifest in an aesthetic creation the personal and more deeply psychic experiences of being.

For its part, the individual philosophy of the artist, our way of understanding or not understanding the world and life, springs from our feeling about life itself, then it can be understood that the philosophy of each man, including that of the artist, is found in the base of an artistic creation, the product is that reflection of his philosophy.

Here is another piece by the artist:

To learn more about @Anarkoiris71, please visit the artist’s Twitter and Instagram.

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As a reminder, the 888 Inner Artist Initiative is not just a single program. Rather, it is a comprehensive and ever-increasing set of efforts and endeavors designed to celebrate, empower, and support artists. Our goal is to meet the various needs of various artists, in a wide variety of ways, wherever they may be on their artistic journey.

For more information, please join our Discord server, follow our Twitter, and view our Medium. Also, as a reminder, if you are an artist, we encourage you to apply to become a Verified Inner Artist. No token purchase is necessary, but you will need to join our Server and be verified as a community member in order to receive the role.