THE METAVERSE–VerticalCrypto Art (VCA), the artist-first community and media hub founded and led by Micol since July 2020, led its first-ever fundraising auction, featuring 13 unique artworks donated by leading NFT artists: Mario Klingemann, Brendan Dawes, Helena Sarin, Kevin Abosch, Luluxxx, Gisel Florez, Luxpris, Lia Something, Mattia Cuttini, RareScrilla, Andreas Sygin, an artist known as “Caesuras”; and an artist who will remain anonymous.
The auction raised a combined total of voer $150K, split between the Ethereum and Tezos blockchains. All the proceeds of this auction will go towards funding an ongoing series of cryptoart virtual residency programs for emerging artists.
The auction lasted 24 hours, starting on Wednesday 15th September and ending on Thursday 16th September. It was held entirely online in Arium Spaces, an immersive metaverse platform, in a custom-built gallery. The building and gallery was created by two of the resident artists from the VCA residency program, Cagri Taskin and Walt Reunamo. These talented artists applied skills acquired during the residency to bring this immersive metaverse experience to life.
A live DJ performance by Eclectic Method, a well-known artist and producer, kicked off the event. Micol, founder of VCA, also led a presentation and curatorial tour. At kickoff, anonymous and well-known NFT collectors had already placed bids on 12 out of 13 artworks.
Over fifty people, from artists, to collectors to curators, attended this dynamic, virtual event. Extensive last-minute bids generated record sales for three artists: Mattia Cuttini and Helena Sarin’s works selling for 8 ETH each and Lia Something for 1.8ETH and artists such as Brendan Dawes, selling for 5 ETH. The auction page of VCA saw more than 5.5K visitors in the course of 24 hours, with over 850 unique visitors.
All of the funds raised will be allocated towards the advancement of VCA’s crypto-art residency, a trailblazing NFT educational program. The goal is to scale this program to support more emerging creators and to on-board newcomer NFT artists into the crypto-art ecosystem by equipping them with metaverse-native skills, tools, connections, and more.
VerticalCrypto Art is committed to building bridges between creators, artists, and the wider NFT community by growing their artist-first community in a diverse and inclusive way, fostering the values of decentralisation and open-source knowledge-sharing.
About Vertical Crypto Art:
VerticalCrypto Art is a hub and artist-first community dedicated to the evolution and advancement of the NFT and cryptoart ecosystem.
Founded by Micol Apruzzese in July 2020, VerticalCrypto Art provides curatorial services and creative and event NFT consultancy. VerticalCrypto Art is pioneering the first ever NFT-dedicated virtual artist residency and educational program, supporting artists worldwide by providing tools, resources, and skills with which to approach the NFT world.
https://www.instagram.com/verticalcryptoart
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