The metaverse is opening up at an exponential rate with global tech and telecommunication giants putting money into the development of this interconnected 3D virtual universe where it is projected that a lot of human social and commercial interactions will be carried out in the near future. And this cannot get more exciting for African artists looking to market their art to a global audience.

Several forward-looking creatives and enthusiasts are hedging their funds with this new world reality by investing and/or setting up a marketplace on the various metaverses in operations. Big corporations including Microsoft and Facebook are already heavily invested in building their versions of the metaverse, while South African telecom giant MTN bought a vast amount of real estate from the first African metaverse–Africarare. 

It is no surprise that artists and other creatives make up a significant percentage of the early adopters of this integrated universe technology as the metaverse is one of the best alternatives for independent artists looking to promote and sell their artworks to a wide global reach at a good value and holding onto a large percentage of the sale money. This raises the pertinent questions: How can the metaverse better promote African art and how can African artists key into it to promote and sell their art? Cheryl Ankrah-Newton wrote a LinkedIn article in December from which I have highlighted five(5) succinct points to this effect.

1. With tech giants backing the next generation of the internet, African creatives have a game-changing opportunity to focus on creative collaborations and revenue-generating experiences through the metaverse. This provides a great opportunity for artists of African origin to emphasize innovation and propel economic development through the merits of using decentralized blockchain technology.

2. In the traditional art world, digital artists are the underdogs, however, in the realm of the metaverse, the opposite would be true as nerdy creatives who can create immersive collectibles and moving-image artworks would find great success in exchanging their works for cryptocurrencies. NFTs would allow people in the metaverse to take ownership and hold their digital assets in their digital wallets.

3. Through NFTs, artists can share a digital asset in the metaverse that will grow in value. Of course, the value would fluctuate similar to how an investment value changes over time. However, beyond that, creatives could take what they have earned and borrow against it. Essentially, they could use their imagination and art to earn an asset and get access to capital.

4. Through the use of blockchain, a unique signature is added to a digital art file. This is known as tokenizing or mining it on the blockchain. Tokenizing would allow creatives to add monetary value and uniqueness to their artwork and save it from forgery. In this way, blockchain technology would allow digital art to be bought, sold, and collected in the same way as physical art is.

5. What’s more is that NFTs would bridge the gap between artists and the consumer, something that is absent in the real world. Artists and collectors will be able to collaborate directly without the need for industry gatekeepers as is the case with the traditional entertainment industry.

There is a sense of optimism that the new metaverse concept would bring a higher sense of economic equality and potential across the board through the use of decentralized marketplaces. The hope is that African artists can leverage the existence of the Metaverse to propel the rich history of African art forward and take a prominent place in the global art market.