RECAP 🍃 ONBOARDING & BATCHES
Our goal at Mint Fund is to empower creatives. Largely, that has been through the thoughtful practice of onboarding global creatives to mint their first NFTs.
We've onboarded artists from 18 countries including the Philippines, Indonesia, Mexico, Venezuela, South Africa, Nigeria, Malaysia, and more. Selected artists complete onboarding and attend a series of workshops to then receive a grant. To date, Mint Fund has received ~42 ETH from ~74 contributors, and we have distributed ~12 ETH in total to artists. With gratitude to all who have contributed to the fund, 44 NFTs have been successfully minted by artists representing a diverse range of perspectives, practices, locations, and identities.
Some of the incredibly talented artists to join Mint Fund include: 3D artist Rimbawan Gerilya, multimedia artist Moyosore Briggs, photographer Ashmit Galav, designer Ravi Vasavan, musician Eddington Again, performance artist Niall Ashley, 3D artist The Glad Scientist, designer Gian Ferrer, illustrator O’Plerou, animator Tigris Li, concept artist Tondji, and so many more.
Behind-the-scenes, our core team continues to review applications based on curation criteria prioritizing BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ creators. With care and intention, we onboard batches, host workshops, and work closely with each artist throughout the minting process. Since we onboarded Batch 01 of 35 artists in late-February, we’ve reworked our process and took new learnings with us through to our latest Batch 04.
We also want to take a moment to thank all of the contributors who have volunteered to host educational workshops with us including Cooper Turley, Osinachi, Paris Rouzati, Gabrielle Micheletti, Shawna X, Sven Eberwein, and Bria Thomas.
INITIATIVES 🍃 SOTHEBY’S & THE DIGITAL DIASPORA
As our work to support a global network of artists progresses, we’ve garnered interest from organizations to further our mission. In May, Sotheby’s auction house organized Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale. As part of the lot, a percentage of the artwork sales will be donated to Mint Fund. We also had the opportunity to work with Michael Bouhanna, Deputy Director at Sotheby’s, and Ben Gentilli, founder of the Robert Alice Project, to identify an alumni of Mint Fund’s artist roster to participate in the auction. Brazilian artist, Ikaro Cavalcante (occulted), created a new work for the show—Perennial Links. Inclusion of work by an artist from Mint Fund gave us an important signal and glimpse into the future we are aiming to build, one where artists are able to achieve unimaginable heights by having access to minting NFTs alone.
Along with our schedule of onboarding new creators through batches, Mint Fund was presented with the opportunity to provide support for The Digital Diaspora. Curator Diana Sinclair of Towards Utopia organized an exhibition of NFTs from 18 artists across the African diaspora to be released on Juneteenth. A portion of funds raised through the NFT auctions were donated to G.L.I.T.S. and herstoryDAO. Similar to the Sotheby’s project, Diana selected South African photographer Ayesha Kazim to represent Mint Fund in the dual exhibition and auction fundraiser.
FUTURE 🍃
The Digital Diaspora marked two inflection points for Mint Fund’s future: providing support for large-scale community-organized efforts, and collecting and preserving NFTs.
In the rapidly shifting and emergent space of NFTs, we are also evolving to further our mission of supporting and uplifting underrepresented creatives. We are proud to fund and support initiatives like The Digital Diaspora and look forward to utilizing the treasury for like-minded projects in the future. By participating in auctions and collecting Double Vision by BLACKSNEAKERS, we want to permanently record this moment in time and double down on our support for creators and initiatives that are pushing culture forward.
We will continue to onboard batches, but are now opening up applications for group shows and larger-initiatives to have access to Mint Fund’s treasury. Apply here.
MINT FUND MISSION STATEMENT 🍃
Mint Fund is a community dedicated to uplifting, supporting, and creating the next generation of global talent through NFTs. Mint Fund's goal is to create frictionless support for cultural communities to position their creatives for artistic success, longevity and becoming influential tastemakers in their own right.
By changing the state of play, we positively impact creativity, give larger agency for cultural communities to make their best works, leave rich histories for those who come after us, and build toward a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable future.