Commission 1-of-1 Artists for Nouns Art Open Editions

tl;dr
Curate 5 NFT artists with at least 10K following ➠ Prop goes on-chain ➠ Commission pieces up-front ➠ Artists create Nounish art pieces ➠ 5x Weekly open editions minted from Nouns ➠ Split funds between artists and Nouns DAO

I am seeking a sponsor to put this idea on-chain.

Description
Commission 5 highly-respected NFT artists to create artworks which incorporate Nouns in their own way. Artists will be chosen by myself and Max Kulchinsky, who has beautifully curated several NFT galleries for IRL events. Artists will agree in writing to terms before on-chain prop. Once art is complete, one piece will be sold as an open edition every week via a Zora contract, with revenue share between Nouns and the artist.

If we mint at a 50% split, .05 ETH for each edition, and each artist sells 100 editions (imo, a low estimate for artists we are targeting + one-week timeframe), Nouns would recoup half of their investment on this experiment.

Artist Criteria
Prefer artists with SuperRare sales and/or significant (aiming for 20K+) social media reach.

With the final piece, they must include at least a one sentence description on why it is Nounish — no other requirement for the art itself.

Ideally the artists span across multiple styles of work to get varied results. Artists create the work after they are selected & funded.

open for discussion: should the artwork be required to be CC0? should we trade off missing out on some artists who won’t do CC0?

Budget: 25 ETH
Artists: 4 ETH x 5 artists for commission up-front + 50% (or more) of auction price going to artists
Admin/Marketing: 5 ETH to create marketing materials, reach out to artists, curate selections and manage the auctions over a month.
Will work with Max Kulchinsky to curate & source artists. Max is a NY based artist and curator who has previously worked with Zoratopia, NiftyGateway, Bitski, Dcentral, and has put on several of his own art shows.

We plan to mint these five pieces + future iterations (if successful) on one Zora contract.

This is a first run of costs … open to chat more. Before going on-chain, I will clear up expectations with the admin/marketing costs & itemize.

Timeline
once we have a sponsor for this prop…
2 weeks to curate and reach agreements with five artists (could be shorter)
6-8 weeks for artists to create the art (overlap with marketing the auctions) - we will confirm this number with artists we select
1 x 5 week auctions

total: 13-15 weeks (3-4 months)

Brief Rationale
Artists are the greatest source of joy, excitement, and creativity in the NFT space. This is an effort to say “Nouns see you, we support you” and steer the attention of several incredible creatives to Nounishness and the power of DAOs. It also is an extension of minting NFTs from Nouns DAO, as recently seen by the This is Nouns video.

Many of the artists Max and I are connected with have significant followings that extend far beyond the NFT space, so # of new eyes on Nouns is built in.

Open Edition rationale: Artists are already shifting toward open editions and minters are noticing - and minting more pieces too. Combine that with recent success of the “This is Nouns” open edition mint (176 ETH total raised) and the success of Marc Horowitz short stories prop which will be minted, and it’s a perfect match.

Some footnotes + comments

  • While I expect this first Nounish Art commission to be completely online to reduce costs, it could easily extend IRL in future iterations. With collaborations with other Nounish companies (i.e. Zora, Nouns OTG, FWB), we could have a Nounish gallery & auction at major IRL events i.e. NFT NYC, etc. Food for thought.

  • I have considered whether they should be capped or open editions. But for first iteration we will stick to the open editions, as it does have momentum in both communities right now (artists and Nouns). Can iterate/experiment more in the future.

  • I have considered adding a commissioned 6th piece that is not for sale, but gamifies the experience — buy all 5 pieces and hold by x date to receive the 6th piece. Would add 5 ETH to the cost (Adding an 1 ETH since there will be no auctions for the artists).

  • Planning on no royalties. If we add royalties, they will be sent to the artists.

  • Not planning to make the artwork CC0 unless community is adamant that it should be.

You can always reach me on Twitter @ByHardy or Discourse, byhardy#8888. Again, I am seeking a sponsor to put this idea on-chain. Thanks for reading!

This is a re-post of a previous prop discussion that I could no longer edit.

4 Likes

Will Price brought to my attention the way these would be minted would have to be a bit different. Instead, we would have two proposals: one to commission the artists, and one to mint the pieces. So it would look like…

Curate 5 NFT artists with at least 10K following ➠ Prop to commission them goes on-chain ➠ Artists paid up-front ➠ Artists complete Nounish art pieces ➠ Prop to mint all pieces goes on-chain ➠ 5x Weekly open editions minted from Nouns ➠ Split funds between artists and Nouns DAO

1 Like

In support of this, Max has curated some of the best IRL NFT galleries I’ve been to in 2022, would like to see more curators and 1 of 1 artists introduced to nouns

I want to also introduce the idea that the NFT does not solely need to be minting through Zora each week,

you can deploy NFTs on SuperRare, Manifold, and even Sound Protocol as well which may even broaden the themes of commissions each week.

You can take a look at the process of deploying drops as DAO here: DAOs Doing Drops · ZORA Create

thank you so much for the support & thoughts! max is awesome at what he does and it very well connected to a lot of the top artists in the space.

on the minting point: i agree, definitely don’t need to always mint from Zora, especially with the creator fee off the top of all mints. however Zora has been a big proponent of open editions (along with Manifold) and hold 20+ Nouns as well. so for the time being I think it makes sense.

We have found a sponsor for the proposal, and are in the process of talking to artists to get them on-board.

Most we’ve talked to are ecstatic about the opportunity to work with Nouns, and are in support of what Nouns are doing.

However, we are looking for ways to further incentivize them beyond the upfront payment. Why? It’s likely that the artists we’re targeting would receive more $$ by minting on their own, and forgoing a split with the DAO.

Here are a few ideas to further support them. Would love to hear others:

  1. Establish a Nouns Artist Collective - The Nouns Acquisition Committee send a Noun to the Artist Collective. All artists minted by Nouns will co-own and govern the Noun (and possibly future Nouns sent to the collective for future work), held in a multi-sig. This collective would grow as these Nouns Art commissions & subsequent mints continue.
  • Pro: Artists get ownership, are further connected to the Nouns ecosystem, & have an avenue to propose ideas in the future
  • Con: Nouns are expensive & this complicates an otherwise straightforward proposal.
  1. Send each artist a Nounish gift pack, including Nouns Brand clothing & Nouns Vision NFTs.

Appreciate any additional ideas, as I want these artists to be more deeply connected to Nouns for the long haul.

1 Like