While the NFT ecosystem may be navigating headwinds, there continues to be endless innovation and building happening all around us. This creativity was on display earlier this month when FWB (Friends with Benefits) gathered over 700 creative, web3, tech, and cultural leaders for FWB Fest, a world-class festival consisting of music, panels, art, and experiences. OpenSea sponsored the event by curating an NFT gallery and participating in panel discussions.

OpenSea hosted “An Exploration of Digital Community Origins, Evolution, and Progression,” a conversation on community building in the digital world, featuring our own Chief Business Officer Shiva Rajaraman, and the author of “The Rise of Virtual Communities”, Amber Atherton.

Shiva also joined Deana Burke, co-founder of Boys Club, and Jeff Staple, streetwear icon and founder of StapleVerse, for “Block by Block: How to Build A Brand On-Chain,” hosted by FWB’s Jose Mejia.

The persistence of our community’s creativity underpinned the theme of the gallery OpenSea brought to FWB: Build in Winter.

Our Build in Winter exhibition told the story of 17 drops that are pushing the boundaries of what NFTs can do, both on chain and off.

Each of the collections on display demonstrated a unique use case for NFTs: 

• Parallel showcased a range of avatars that control your identity across different digital universes.
• Physical redemption NFTs like MNTGE’s Patchworks included a physical patch designed by an iconic artist for each NFT minted.
• FC Barcelona had an audio component that made you feel like you were sitting in the stadium at a game. 
• Person, Place or Things by Dustin Yellin x Nouns DAO x FWB headlined the gallery as a collaboration project that started as a proposal to Nouns DAO.

Last April, Dustin submitted a proposal to Nouns DAO to create the physical sculpture which will be on display at Zero Bond. In the sculpture, Yellin hand-painted the 402 Nouns minted in Year 1. 

To commemorate this innovative way of funding the arts across different communities, there was an open edition drop during FWB Fest on OpenSea that included a set of 22 “scenes” from the sculpture.  

Learn more at https://opensea.io/collection/dyppt/drop.

The gallery also served as a space for the community to gather throughout the weekend and to meet the OpenSea team IRL.

Collections & Artists included: 

Cloudmachine by Dave Van Patten 

Crowd by Creature World

Diary by Vinnie Hager

FC Barcelona Empowerment

Flowers, Flowers, Flowers by Philip Colbert 

Folding and Unfolding by Amber Vittoria 

Guttermelo by Gutter Cat Gang x Puma

Haas x Renga

Invisible Friends Physical Collectibles

Long Neckie Vibes on the Go by Nyla Hayes

Mems: Mingle

MNTGE Patchworks

Open Headition by Taylor Might

Parallel Avatars

Person, Place or Things by Dustin Yellin x NounsDao x FWB 

Spring and Autumn by KrisK

All collections were made possible by the OpenSea Drops platform. Learn more at opensea.io/drops.

Working with FWB gave OpenSea the opportunity to showcase emergent use cases of NFTs and to connect with leaders and visionaries from a range of industries and backgrounds.

Thank you FWB team and to all attendees who participated!