Avalanche ‘Avaissance’ Backs NFT Creators

Credit: Avalanche

In a blog post published on March 29th, Avalanche announced the launch of a program that will provide mentorship and financial assistance to NFT creators. Called “Avaissance,” the goal of the program is to benefit the non-fungible token ecosystem on the Avalanche blockchain, essentially bringing a Renaissance to Avalanche NFTs.

While Avalanche NFT creators benefit from the blockchain’s features, including fast speeds and reliability, the ecosystem has yet to rival the NFT ecosystems on other top blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon. The Avalanche Foundation hopes that Avaissance will spur growth in the blockchain’s NFT community and take Avalanche NFTs “to the next level.”

Avaissance consists of two programs that cater to NFT creators: Artist-in-Residence (AIR) and the Mona Lisa Initiative (MLI).

AIR is the more traditional program. It will feature 50 or more artists, who will receive substantial financial backing to pursue projects over the course of six months. Through AIR, Avalanche will also make mentors available to these artists, as well as holding virtual workshops.

The Avalanche Foundation has selected three established artists to serve as mentors:

  • Emonee LaRussa, an Emmy-winning motion graphics artist
  • Dave Krugman, founder of the creative community ALLSHIPS
  • Ryan Wen, Chief of Staff at Stacked Studios and Valhalla

“The Avaissance Artist in Residence program hopes to foster an authentic and vibrant creator-forward community within the Avalanche ecosystem,” said Tiffany Lai, Head of Growth Marketing, NFTs, Art and Culture at Ava Labs.

The AIR workshops will cover a variety of topics, including marketing strategies and how to use digital tools. Artists-in-residence will also have the opportunity to network, a crucial component for success in the NFT space, regardless of blockchain. From now until April 28th, artists can apply to be a part of the program.

Mona Lisa Initiative to Involve DAOs

The other part of Avaissance is the Mona Lisa Initiative. Through it, Avalanche will send non-fungible tokens to art-focused decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), placing a real-world value on the works of Avalanche NFT creators. DAOs are member-run organizations, democratic in nature, where individuals meeting a certain criterion can vote on initiatives.

In addition to sending Avalanche NFTs to art-focused DAOs, the Avalanche Foundation will use the Mona Lisa Initiative to establish a permanent Avalanche NFT collection. The Foundation has not announced yet when it will start soliciting works for its collection. In its blog post, Avalanche writes that through the MLI, it wants to cement “the next generation of digital art.”

“The Mona Lisa Initiative is an additional layer leveraging tastemakers and DAO collectors, ensuring diverse voices are seen and highlighted,” Lai said. She added, “I believe that [Avaissance] will elevate the entire NFT ecosystem, and attract the best builders and creators to Avalanche.”

NFT creators will likely react positively to the Avaissance program, given that very few such programs exist currently. And since sales have slowed significantly for almost all NFTs in the bear market, any kind of financial assistance for artists is a big win for the space. Avaissance will also bring attention to the Avalanche NFT ecosystem, possibly spurring growth there as well.

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This article was updated 3/31 to include comment from Ava Labs.