Date: January 2023
Project Team:

• Jeni Barton (ArtsWave), Program design and panel moderator.
• Lisa Wolter (ArtsWave), Program manager
• Mz. Icar, NFT artist and speaker

Abstract

For the 2023 Women’s Leadership Roundtable Symposium, ArtsWave sought to explore the intersection of emerging technology and the arts. Our team developed a presentation on the future of art collecting through non-fungible tokens (NFTs), featuring a diverse panel of experts and stakeholders: digital artist and NFT collector Annie Burke, artist collective Mz. Icar, and Associate Professor Jordan Tate from the University of Cincinnati.

Event Highlights

The symposium included an enlightening talk followed by an interactive workshop. Attendees learned to set up a digital wallet and received a collectible NFT from Mz. Icar. They were also guided on how to discover and purchase additional digital artworks.

Possibly Connected by Mz. Icar

Design Process

We aimed to provide a comprehensive view of digital art collecting by featuring an artist integrating AI and NFTs into their work, a digital art collector and an educator incorporating AI and NFTs into their curriculum.

To enhance the experience, we included an interactive workshop where attendees could engage directly with digital art. We commissioned Mz. Icar to create a limited-edition collectible NFT exclusively for symposium participants, which they received upon setting up their digital wallets.

Outcome

The 2023 symposium marked one of the highest attendance rates in its eight-year history. A total of 106 participants eagerly set up their wallets, with one excited attendee sharing, “I can’t wait to tell my grandson I have an NFT!”