50 Ugandan Artists Attended Our NFT Workshop

Our NFT Workshops for African Artists are getting better with each event.

The Series recorded its second session on Thursday, 25 March 2021, in Kampala, Uganda.

This event comes after a successful engagement with artists in Tanzania in October to form the nucleus of the Network of African NFT Artists (NaNa). As part of the NFT Africa Initiative, ABU is running a series of NFT Workshops for African Artists across the continent to secure African artistic expressions through Blockchain Technology.

Once again, working with Yield App as headline Partner, we had on board the kind sponsorship of Celo and Paxful; the event recorded 50 participants compared to the Tanzania session in October. The attendees ranged from Visual Artists, Musicians, Music Producers, Photographers to Videographers.

As we have always maintained, African Artists must better understand Blockchain-related technologies like Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) to secure their intellectual property to earn sustainable benefits. Alas! We did justice to that, and a new crop of artists began a journey to equip themselves and their communities through the Training of Trainers (ToT) Workshop.

Most African artists live in penury as they are not receiving the maximum benefits from their work due to counterfeiting, lack of mechanisms to track royalties, and the absence of robust markets. This miserable situation is coming to an end as NFTs have the answer.

Background of Attendees

We selected our Participants for the workshop from Art Schools, National Musicians and Producers Associations, Collectives, Cooperatives, Art Studios, and centers. With visual artists, we gave room to both digital and non-digital artists.

At least there was more than one artist from each group. The motive is to assist them in designing an action plan for outreach among the various organizations to which they belong.

It utilizes the Training of Trainers concept to spread the idea behind NFTs and expand the Network of African NFT Artists (NaNa) beyond those who participated in the workshops.

We are pretty thrilled to announce that 10 participants came from two art centers in refugee camps. We are planning to launch a collection with them and mint it soon on Celo to support their studios, which are poorly equipped.

Exploring Blockchain Related Tech Solutions

The event mainly featured facilitators at the location with a few presenting via video, engaged the artists to explore areas like:

• Blockchain & Cryptocurrency
• Smart Contracts
• Fundamentals of NFTs
• Tools to Start NFT Journey
• Crypto Wallets/Setting Up A Metamask Wallet
• Beginners Guide To Minting On Celo
• Investing Your Art Work on Yield App
• Cashing Out Crypto To Cash On Paxful
• Branding Your Art Work

The workshop is practical and immersive, with participants divided into groups to mint two artistic works per group. Sessions were conducted with presentations, video screening, and role play.

The goal is to set the artists on a continuous learning journey, practicing, and passing the knowledge to their peers at their studios, cooperatives, collectives, and associations. There will be follow-up meet-ups with these groups that the participants will initiate to teach other artists about NFTs.

Facilitators

We utilized local synergies to make sure a few lectures were online. Our facilitators were from local Blockchain organizations like Crypto Savanna, Celo Uganda Ecosystem, Uganda Blockchain Association, and the ABU team.

Those who presented via video link were from Yield App, Paxful, Africa Digital Art, and Bictory Finance. These personalities are well-versed in the space and understand the local needs, especially those from local outfits mentioned above.

Some of them have been in the Blockchain space since 2012 and have worked on several projects. Their experiences enriched the workshop immensely.

Media Interaction

We hand an impressive media outreach before and after the workshop with mainstream radio and TV stations. The president of ABU was on the Spirit FM Morning Show on Wednesday, 24 November, for an hour, discussing NFTs, the workshop, the role and business model of Yield App, Paxful, and Celo.

In the afternoon, Umar Sebyala, Celo Ecosystem Uganda Lead, joined the president on Spirit TV to discuss the same issues and the evolving prolific NFT market. Here is the link to the show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ht9RYuEOvQ.

Again, on Monday, the 29 November, the two figures were on the Morning Show of MCI Radio. They delved slightly into the African music and art scene and deeply into NFTs, their future, Blockchain, Africa, and our partners’ role in the workshop and education.

Appreciation to Strategic Partner And Sponsors

Without our partners, the workshop wouldn’t have come on in the first place. These companies’ benevolence went a long way to bringing our artists into the NFT ecosystem.

We are very grateful to Yield App, our strategic partner, and headline sponsors. They gave us funding, technical support, and media exposure.

Yield App is a safe and secure digital wealth management platform anyone can use to invest and earn. We can’t thank them enough as they have been with us from day one.

Celo as a sponsor has been very phenomenal for the success of the Uganda workshop. Their kind sponsorship and the role of their Uganda Ecosystem Lead, Umar Sebyala, cannot be over-emphasized.

Using their NFT Marketplace, which has nothing to next gas fees in a period where exorbitant transaction fees thwart innovation to train the artists, was considerably priceless. We appreciate this kind support and look forward to working with them again.

Paxful, the thriving Marketplace for the world’s unbanked and the leader of p2p Crypto Exchange and Remittances, again demonstrated their commitment to Africa by sponsoring the event. The Paxful Kiosk mounted on our Website to allow our community to cash out Crypto to cash at a discount fee is fantastic.

They are working with us to help the artists cash out their earnings safely and securely on their platform. We salute you, Paxful!

Next Stop

We have two more NFT Workshops for African artists before 2021 ends. Our next stop is Lagos, Nigeria, and Accra, Ghana.

On 15 December, another workshop will take place in the mighty city of Lagos. As usual, we are targeting 50 participants, and on 17 December, the train will stop in Accra with the same number of students in attendance.

If you’re in these two cities and are interested in exploring Non-Fungible Tokens, don’t miss these events. It is time for Africa to shine without any blemish!