The word community is tossed around often when it comes to NFTs, crypto, and online spaces as a whole. But what does it mean for an artist, collector, curator, or platform to build a community? And how do these communities benefit those who create them and those who engage with them?
Ultimately, an NFT art community is a group of people who love the work of a particular artist, a series of works by an artist, or NFT art as a whole. They gather in online spaces to engage with art, artists, collectors, and each other. Many individual communities are based on Discord, complete with community guidelines and moderators, but community isn’t difficult to find on other platforms like Twitter or Telegram. Sometimes, a formal community is associated with a decentralized autonomous organization.
When someone new to NFTs thinks of NFT communities, they may think of communities designed around NFT collectibles, like Bored Ape Yacht Club. Many of those communities require someone to hold one of those collectibles to join, but when it comes to art, there is often less focus on the exclusivity of membership, and more focus on appreciating art and interacting with an art community. When someone talks about the NFT art community, they often simply mean everyone who is involved in the NFT art space.
"It's GM time." by Matt Szczur on SuperRare
There are plenty of reasons to build a community. If you’re an artist, building community around your art can help you connect with other like-minded artists and discover relationships that will allow you to grow and develop in your practice. It can also make you more visible to collectors who may be interested in your artwork. And remember, in the NFT art community, most artists are also collectors. There is a strong sense around artists wanting to support one another.
If you’re a collector or a curator, community building is a good opportunity to discover new and under-the-radar artists, build relationships with people who have similar interests and tastes, and learn more about the NFT art space.
Even if you aren’t interested in building a formal community from the ground up, you can still build community by doing what you probably already do online: following artists and collectors, liking, retweeting, and commenting, and sharing artwork that you like. Is there an artist you love? Joining their Discord server may bring you closer to their work. Is there an art platform with a philosophy you admire? Joining its Twitter spaces will likely keep you up to date on what’s happening in its ecosystem. These are the first steps in your NFT art journey, and they’re valuable ones. Community building is how you come to know who artists are, who collectors are, what events are happening, and what’s news in the NFT art space.