gm

Matty here. Again…

And, I am sure some of you are tired of hearing from me (a *mostly* straight, white, male) each week.

So, we are asking anyone who wants to write the forward for this newsletter to step up and share in the #volunteer channel. MGMT will take your text and plug it into the newsletter going forward.

That said… here is a list of some other cool things going on…

The winter build team painted a building pink in Tucumcari this week.

We might be doing something called TMFA Punks to fund the treasury for our DAO and its ongoing activities in 2022 — think newsletter, magazine, programming, education, projects, etc. Right now we lack “revenue-generating” activities and need to solve for that to make this community sustainable. More on TMFA Punks, the importance of revenue-generating activities, and how those holding $ART might be able to trade $ART for TMFA Punk(s) in the future. Still early. No promises. Not financial advice.
We are coming to the close of the year and Messari just dropped their Crypto report. Read it. Especially #7 on “surviving winter”... Basically, don’t let your gains in 2021 leave you with a huge tax bill you can’t pay if the market dips in 2022. Again, not financial advice. Just ART frens helping ART frens not get screwed.
The November issue of our magazine is out. Good job Vasco and team.
Also, here is a post of me manifesting hard for TMFA Community going into 2022.
New WAGMI + GM merch out. And we got socks. Stay warm. Stay comfy.
We are a few members shy of 1,000 artists in our Discord. That was our goal for 2021. Let’s make it happen. Invite your friends.
Kincaid has been overhauling our Discord onboarding. Check out our Server Overview. Great work Kincaid.
Ry did a branding exercise for TMFA. It was insanely good. Watch it.
I did an interview about TMFA Community and Art Cities. Oh, and I dug up this interview I did 7 years ago about the community. Same mission 7 years later. Crazy.
Amac has 3 new NFT onboarding workshops this week. It’s a very good way to get into NFTs. Tell your friends to join if they want to learn about NFTs.

That’s all from me. Have a great week.

-Matty Mo

In this week’s edition of the Art Brew we’ll read about:

interesting news and links
community updates
notable tweets

Let’s get into it.

Subscribe now

🎨 Art News

Art Basel Miami Beach: Highlights From Miami Art Week 2021
A primer to the first IRL Art Basel week in the COVID era, featuring Virgil Abloh's final show, underwater NFTs, a $20 million Rothko, and enough creatives and collectors to keep the blockchain mining for glitz and glamour ad finitum.

Want to be great? Just be good, repeatably.
A thought piece on what it takes to truly be great and what that even means in the first place, by Steph Smith: growth marketer, writer, and indie maker focused on continuous improvement, women in tech, and learning to code.
Pro tip: “Make every day and don't ever stop. It's the easiest way to get and keep momentum. “If I were to continue this every day for the next year, would I be in a better place?” If the answer is yes, keep at it.” -davidpita (TMFA Community Member)

Crystal’s Tenth Birthday: What Do You Get The Museum That Has Everything?The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art turns ten years old this year. To celebrate, Mary Lynn Buchanan flew out to Bentonville, Arkansas to see their special exhibit, Crystal Bridges at 10, as well as hang out at its sister museum -- The Momentary. This video features an excellent walking tour, including stunning film & stills of paintings, sculptures, architecture, and trails surrounding the museums. Mary Lynn Buchanan creates and publishes a new video each week covering various parts of the art world.

OBSESSED: Building a brand people love from day one
As artists - building a brand is one of the most important things we can do. One of the hearts of a great brand is community. Build community and you're set. Just look at Red Antler, the Brooklyn-based agency founded in 2007, is behind some of the most memorable campaigns of recent years and is responsible for branding now-household names (Casper, Allbirds, Snowe, Hinge). Red Antler co-founder Emily Heyward’s new book draws from her years of experience in the marketing industry and dives deep into making a brand that people love and trust.

Want to sell your art? Sell more of it? Share your story.
Most of us have heard, “before you can sell anything, you have to sell yourself.” But in an (Open)sea of creative businesses, how do you stand out? By sharing your story. Writers of the new guide for arts entrepreneurs, Designed to Sell: The Unconventional Guide to Creative Freedom, spoke with dozens of independent creators who all had one thing in common: a penchant for transparency and including the customer in their creative journey.

💎 Web3 News

CryptoZombies: Play a Game, Learn the Blockchain (For Free!)
CryptoZombies is an interactive school that teaches you all things technical about blockchains. Lots of people are interested in learning how to write smart contracts or develop their own decentralized apps (dApps), but the barrier to entry (especially for non-coders) can seem high. Learn to make smart contracts in Solidity or Libra by making your own crypto-collectibles game in this Balaji-endorsed platform.

Spotlight on VTubers: Will the next generation of YouTube stars be digital humans?
Tune in for this introduction to Virtual Youtubers (VTubers) -- online entertainers who use virtual avatars and digital personas through computer graphics and real-time motion capture technology. With more than 10K active VTubers as of 2020, the popularity of avatar-based content may have huge implications for NFTs and metaverse populations.

Get an (almost) free NFT from Damien Hirst
“I imagine that inside the 12 bellies are 12 gifts representing infinite possibilities. Like Pandora’s box.”says Damien Hirst, of the set of 12 pregnant emojis now for sale as 1/1 NFTs based on cover art he created for Drake’s album “Certified Lover Boy.” Want yours “free”? No problem -- you just have to hold a piece from Hirst’s earlier collection.
Editor’s Note: One of the least expensive NFTs for sale listed here is about $3k -- which is a mere $250. per pregnant emoji if you’re into math.

What do you wear to an interview in the metaverse? or The Web3 Job Board
Featuring some of the most exciting job opportunities in Web3, the companies listed are all high-growth companies picked as good bets for energizing & high-upside places to work,” according to curator Gaby Goldberg -- a TCG Crypto investor who writes on culture, identity, and ownership in web3.
Note: All of Gaby’s “homies work in Web3,” so there you go.

The Artist’s Portfolio (the other one)
What does a modern DeFi portfolio look like and how does one construct one? What about cryptostocks? Chris Hutchins (Head of New Product Strategy @Wealthfront and Host of All the Hacks podcast) rejoins Kevin Rose's Modern Finance podcast to discuss portfolio construction in the current world of crypto and NFTs, Bitcoin-backed credit cards, and a hack to hold crypto in tax-efficient retirement accounts.