Could you become an NFT Curator?

5 min readAug 24, 2022

The idea for this topic came to me while listening to Fuelarts’ webinar 'NFT Curators vs. Physical Art Curators' (link at the bottom). The speaker was Alina Gordienco, a producer and video director with over 15 years of experience in art management and curating. Alina Gordienco is best known in the NFT community as the curator of the exhibition at the CryptoArtMuseum that featured artwork by Grimes (2021).

Although the term ‘NFT Curator’ is relatively new, it encompasses some of the oldest values of art curation and plays an important role in the development of the NFT industry (the most important, some would argue ). As previously discussed in my article 'Is Crypto Really Eating Art Up?', the complete separation of crypto art and physical art is inaccurate. Many, myself included, assign crypto art to the ‘Ultra Contemporary’ art movement that is simply a continuation of all previous art movements (take Realism, Art Nouveau, Dadaism, etc.). And yet, an NFT curator is different from a regular art curator. First, we’ll discuss what connects these two roles, and then how the NFT curatorship differs.

NFT Curators are Curators

Defining the term. What is curatorship? The term “curator” comes from the Latin word cura, which means 'to care for'. So originally, curators were hired to take care of works of art.

Here are some other definitions of a curator that I found on google:

‘a person who oversees or manages a place (such as a museum or zoo) that offers exhibits’;
‘a curator is a manager or overseer’;

Alina Gordienco claims that every art curator must be a copywriter, philosopher, art historian and strategist. Personally, I prefer Alina’s definition. Although an art curator is still hands-on in taking care of artworks, being an art curator today is much more than that.

You have to keep track of both the big picture and the complexity of your exhibitions, as well as the artists’ intentions, but also bring them down to earth with understandable, clear texts. Artists often expect the public to understand their art, but it’s the curator’s job to explain it.

Art Curator, Erin Remington | Picture via Shoutout LA

2. Fundamentals. An art curator's specialty is putting everything into context. Unavoidably, you must be familiar with the global and local art history and development.

3. Time machine. Either you must have one, or you have to be able to follow current trends and predict what’s coming next. A few practical tips on how you can get around this:

Listen — What topics and concerns are people talking to you about, what's discussed on Twitter, in a form of memes or TikToks?
Observe — What social shifts are currently happening in society?
Track — What exhibitions recently blew up, and which artists were involved?
Have an opinion — Who’s not currently recognized and in your opinion is a great artist and why?
Go to that party — Acknowledge that big waves start in small circles. Don’t underestimate the next underground hipster performance in your neighborhood basement.

Curators with a little bit of spice

So all the above points apply to both art curators and NFT curators. But how are NFT curators different from any other kind of curatorship?

Key ingredient: Concept. Without curatorship, the NFT industry would cease to exist in its current form. As Gordienco explained during the webinar, behind every successful NFT project is a person who runs the concept. For the first time in history, the curatorship is more important to the success of a (digital) art collection than aesthetics.

According to Gordienco, platforms that are curated sell the most expensive artworks today because curation for the NFT collector equals quality, uncurated NFT platforms are regarded as lottery.

Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza, Art Collector and Philanthropist | Picture via World Investment Forum

2. Community building. NFT and Web3 are worlds heavily community-driven. This point coincides with the ‘Listen’ and ‘Observe’ tips above, but an NFT curator mustn’t only listen and observe, but also have a strategy for building and maintaining the virtual community.

Therefore, a certain level of tool knowledge (see my article 'NFT Discord communities are not working — what can we do today?') for community building is a must for an NFT Curator. This includes knowledge of virtual exhibition spaces and a technical understanding of how to navigate and troubleshoot them. If you’d like a more in-depth article on this, let me know in the comments!

3. Collective work. For most NFT projects, an NFT artist is not enough: you need a team that consists of at least 3–5 people: At least one artist, a curator and/or a community manager, and a programmer.

Without the combination of these capabilities (so most likely — without these people) you can’t release a successful NFT collection, which means that all key parties involved become decision makers. I could even extend this thought by claiming that all key members are artists/creators of the NFT collection. The responsibility for creation and production is shared between the parties involved and isn’t solely on the artists' shoulders anymore.

AI-generated piece, screenshotted Luciano Abriata. Picture via LucianoSphere

4. Dealing with skepticism. Don't get me wrong — physical contemporary artists and curators are questioned and criticized enough. However, NFT art oftentimes receives a whole new level of skepticism coming from both novice art admirers and experienced art collectors.

Alina Gordienco mentioned a rather precise notion that in the art world we subconsciously evaluate 'the pain' put into the physical artwork. 'Pain' refers to learning the craft, executing the craft, or even the actual physical pain the artists bring themselves through. In the absence of any kind of pain, we find, that art is just not as valuable or respected today. As an NFT Curator, you might have to ask yourself: how do I induce respect? How can we prove that pain is no longer necessary to deliver a message?

This was a glance into the harsh yet very exciting reality of an NFT Curator. If you have other points to add, do not hesitate to leave them in the comment section.

So, do you think you can become an NFT Curator?

Links:

Could you become an NFT Curator?

NFT Curators are Curators

Curators with a little bit of spice

Written by ArtAdvance