Why collect NFTs — uncovering the true value.
For those of you who are new here, I’m the Program & Community Manager at an NFT marketplace called Voice. My job ranges from creating marketing strategy, to educating people on NFTs, to — my favorite part — working directly with artists in our Voice Residency programs. Some of the artists I speak with are brand new to the digital art scene and some are seasoned experts. Despite their differing NFT experience levels, they all end up asking the same question. How do we expand our communities and convince new collectors to invest in NFTs?
This question doesn’t have a simple and straightforward answer, but the depressed state of the current crypto and NFT market make it all the more urgent to address right now.
The early benefits of collecting NFTs (that is — the potential for flipping and making overnight millions) has died down to reveal a much slower market. We can no longer rely on the hype and favorable markets to do the heavy lifting for us when it comes to targeting new collectors. What we must do instead is focus back on why art matters. In the grand, universal scheme of things, what value does art add to our lives and what can NFTs provide that the traditional art market cannot?
Before I began my journey at Voice, I worked for a number of years managing a contemporary art gallery. It was there that I became acutely aware of, and quickly developed a distaste for, the elitism, pay inequality, and lack of diversity plaguing the traditional art world. What’s more, no meaningful steps were being taken to address and remedy these issues. People at the top just turned a blind eye to it all. The NFT and crypto explosion of 2021 opened my eyes to a new possibility: that an intermediary-less and decentralized market for art could exist…if not in the physical sphere, then at least in the metaverse.
NFTs promised to rid the world of the ‘starving artist’ trope by cutting out the middlemen who would take large percentages of artist earnings, introducing verified ownership of intangible digital assets, and guaranteeing artist royalties in perpetuity. Despite the state of the market, these things do remain true (at least on Voice). NFTs can offer artists another avenue of financial compensation for their work.
It’s abundantly clear that NFTs can be revolutionary for artists — but not unless collectors join in. So how do we make that happen? To put it simply, we need to refocus the conversation away from NFTs as vehicles for financial profit and onto why art matters in the first place. We also need to start talking more about how NFTs are expanding accessibility across the board for artists, collectors, and art enthusiasts alike.
So why does art matter? To me, that question feels nearly impossible to answer but only because there are too many reasons to possibly count in the span of one article. For the sake of brevity, I’ll address just a couple.
Art has proven social, emotional, and even physical benefits. Multiple scientific studies have affirmed that there are long-term and immediate benefits to both making and viewing art. In a comprehensive study on the connection between art, healing, and public health — results demonstrated that art is effective at helping people cope with different types of trauma. “Art helps people express experiences that are too difficult to put into words.” In short, viewing art can help us process trauma, work through complex emotions, construct a positive identity, and build up self-love.
Viewing art expands our worldviews, helping us understand the world around us and how we fit into it. It exposes us to experiences that might be unfamiliar to us, thus strengthening our ability for empathy and compassion. Art is a universal language.
Art is a reflection of what it means to be human.
It is an essential need that we honored long before complex societies even formed — when we were still living in caves and foraging for food. For nearly as long as humans have existed in some form or another, we have turned to art for healing, building social bonds, and processing the world around us.For these reasons alone, it is clear that art is essential. That artists are essential. They protect and preserve our humanity.
So, if we can agree that art is essential, what value can NFTs add that traditional art cannot?
First off, NFTs are accessible to wider socio-economic groups than physical art. For artists, physical artworks can be expensive to produce. Digital art can be produced on a phone or computer with much smaller startup investment required on the part of the artist. Selling artwork in the traditional art world often requires the assistance of an intermediary, like a gallery or dealer, who commonly keep 50% of the sale for themselves. NFTs put the power in the hands of the artists, they can list their art for sale without having to share any of the profits.
Because barriers to entry in the traditional art world are so high, the resulting space is one that is majority white and majority male. Creating digital art is a more accessible process for artists from wider socio-economic groups. An increase in accessibility directly correlates to an increase in diversity and representation — and representation matters. Seeing yourself and your identity represented in art helps people feel comfortable taking up space in the world and existing within a society.
Because NFTs are often less expensive to create than physical artworks, they are often also more affordable. When artists don’t have to factor in the costs of materials, shipping, and storage, they can afford to offer their digital artworks at lower costs than their physical works. Now, anyone can be an art collector — not just the richest among us.
So, why collect art? Because art helps us process complex emotions, expands our worldviews, and builds pride in our communities. Artists deserve our support because they enrich our lives. Why collect NFTs? Because NFTs allow underrepresented artists to have a better chance at success, expand representation and diversity in the art space, and are more affordable and accessible to a wider group of collectors.
