Starting now and continuing over the next few quarters, you will see MakersPlace substantially evolving to become a premium brand to better serve the evolving needs of artists and collectors.
What’s motivating this evolution? Let’s start at the beginning.
MakersPlace was founded in 2018 with a simple vision: to bring the best digital art from the best artists to the increasing number of collectors interested in digital art on blockchain.
The excitement of the bull run after we partnered with Christie’s to sell Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days for $69.3MM followed by the sudden and severe dip of the bear market blurred that vision. Once considered to be the premier marketplace to join, we unfortunately opened the door too wide and tried to be too many things. Through this, we lost our laser focus.
We are now beginning a transformation with a renewed focus on returning our brand to premium status. We are doing so as an integrated part of the overall art market, elevating great artists and art that will be recognized and celebrated by both the digital art community and the traditional art world.
Our vision is that the art history classes of the future will teach our great-grandchildren about the artists we work with today. It’s the great art and the passionate community in this space that motivate us.
As we make this transformation we are guided by the following principles.
Digital Art is Art
When MakersPlace first launched in 2018, NFTs were hard for many to understand technically, perceived as wildly different from traditional art and often acquired by a new breed of crypto-savvy collectors totally separate from traditional art collectors.
This landscape is rapidly changing.
We believe that NFTs, which are just digital art registered on a blockchain, are already evolving to become one of the key parts of the overall $67B art market. Many collectors will increasingly acquire a broad range of art, with digital being a category every bit as relevant as painting, sculpture, or photography. Many digital artists will also create physical art and many traditional artists will branch into digital — the lines between traditional and digital will blur.
We believe the traditional art world will also begin to use smart contract technology to register provenance and leverage the transparency inherent in blockchain. We also believe that while purchasing digital art with either crypto or fiat is common today, crypto purchasing of traditional art will become increasingly supported across the entire art market.
Premium Curation Expertise
MakersPlace has always been a curated marketplace but we are working hard to level up and become a premium brand. When we say “premium,” we refer to art that — based on aesthetics, innovation, and concept — could just as likely end up on a gallery or museum wall as in an anonymous collector’s wallet.
We will still work with a wide range of artists — from talented new artists, to emerging, mid-market and blue-chip — you will now see us raising the bar on who will be able to be represented in our marketplace and in our exhibitions to ensure we are the best marketplace for truly premium work, which is what our collectors want.
To accomplish this we need extensive industry and curation expertise and sophisticated processes to follow, and we are now formally launching our Curation Team to manage this effort. To meet the team and learn more about this effort click here.
Premium Design & Storytelling
To support artists and create a joyful experience for collectors, we need to frame every piece perfectly. In this context, “frame” refers to our website aesthetic, our user experience, and our ability to tell the story of why an artist is unique, renowned, and worth collecting.
Collectors want to know how the art is made, what passion and skill went into creating it, and what makes it unique. And artists want to convey this in a beautiful, relatable experience.
You might have noticed we just launched a beautiful new user experience to release new works from great artists that accomplishes all of this. We will continue to lean in on beautiful design and storytelling across all areas of our product.
Innovation
This space is young, and there is much to be done to cater to ambitious works of art and the particular needs of a global collector base and to bring digital art broadly to the mainstream.
We have a long history of innovation in the industry as the first to:
- Offer a custodial wallet
- Enable buying with both crypto and fiat
- Create the concept of an art drop
- Create a smart contract that supports collaborators (working with Hackatao)
- Partner with an auction house (for the sale of Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days with Christie’s)
- Facilitate combining a digital and physical offering together in a coordinated fashion
- Launch a major exhibition (at Art Fair Miami) of physical art with provenance registered to blockchain in partnership with Transient Labs using their T.R.A.C.E chip
- Launch Artwork with the ERC-7160 token (in partnership with Botto) enabling dynamic updating of the token with additional Botto works over time
If we’re going to work alongside the artists who truly push the envelope, we must be ahead of every curve we possibly can in a space that curves daily and we will continue to innovate.
Global Online & Physical Footprint
One of the beauties of digital art, blockchain, and crypto is that, for the first time, an artist can mint and register their works on a blockchain from one side of the world for purchase by someone on the other side, even without a bank account or a credit card and without traditional art middlemen.
However, we do not believe that you can succeed as a premium digital art marketplace with only an online offering. In the overall art market today, over 85% of art is purchased by collectors with some level of personal interaction — going to art fairs, visiting galleries, talking to experts, and meeting artists directly.
Given this belief, you will see MakersPlace continuing to develop and enhance a great premium online marketplace while also leaning into an expanding number of major art fairs and live activations in an effort to get our artists in front of a wider base of global collectors. We are also partnering with creative, forward-thinking galleries around the world to bring new digital works and artists to market to make the greatest use of our extensive digital and physical footprint.
World-Class Services
We will be the first to admit our weaknesses, but as we move forward, we are also leaning heavily on our strengths.
MakersPlace has always offered white-glove services to both artists and collectors, bringing extensive marketing capabilities to the artists and works we launch online — in exhibitions, activations, or both.
The collaboration with artists extends to creative ideation, event construction, packaging, and pricing strategies. By fostering collaborations, community, and storytelling, we work alongside artists, collectors, and managers to craft and implement creative marketing and strategies.
The introduction of the Concierge program positions MakersPlace as the only marketplace with dedicated resources for collector relations. This includes facilitating private sales, proxy bidding, art acquisition (both on MakersPlace and other markets), and even offering guidance on frame selection, purchase, and installation.
MakersPlace has always been differentiated with these world-class services and we will continue to expand them over time.
Eyes to the Future
Our dedication remains steadfast to the artists and collectors who are the heartbeat of MakersPlace, and our focus is clear — to foster an environment where art thrives and connections deepen.
The coming changes, from new features to strategic partnerships, are more than just enhancements; they represent our unwavering resolve to anticipate and meet the evolving demands of the art market, the artists we champion, and the collectors who support them. Our shared vision for the future of art continues to be the guiding light.
For updates on all of our upcoming editorial features and artist interviews, subscribe to our newsletter below.
