Young Denver Art Museum Students Learn How To Create and Sell Virtual Art

Denver Art Museum summer camp students take a fun break in the Asian Art gallery

‘Lean into the technology,’ Denver Art Museum summer campers are told

The Denver Art Museum

Amid the hum, Harper White, 10, sat at a workspace sketching an intricate design of swirls and flowers while Harrison Ivanoff, 10, was fast at work molding blue clay into a sculpture, not sure yet what the creation would become. As Harrison’s imagination let loose, Harper contemplated turning the pen and paper sketch into something else entirely — a non-fungible token.

Behind the young artists, a large projector screen displayed a group of NFTs created by the class of 9- to 11-year-olds, already posted to a virtual gallery and waiting for bids. From 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. the week of July 11, the class of nearly 20 children came to the Denver Art Museum to learn the art of making — and selling — NFTs.

NFTs have gained more recognition in recent years, particularly within the digital art world. They are a digital image or asset, typically one-of-a-kind and often bought and sold using cryptocurrency.

Harper dreamed up a collection of doodles portraying tacos, burgers, and sushi then brought them to life with bold colors and animal faces. Gray converted the drawing into a digital image, and it became the class’ first official NFT.

“I like ramen and cats, so that was the first one I drew,” Harper said.

Harrison created the class’ last contribution to the gallery, making splatter paint art that Gray also converted into a digital image.

“It’s like cryptocurrency,” Harrison said.

The Denver Art Museum’s youth programs coordinator Komal Dhruv said she wanted to incorporate various kinds of literacy into this year’s camp course offerings. The courses include topics people might expect at an art camp — such as art fundamentals, or sketching and drawing — while striving to look toward what skills children will need in the future.

Young student artists take the spotlight at Denver Art Museum

Children are going to hear about bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and NFTs. She wants them to be able to learn about the Metaverse and new technology in a safe space. NFTs might be new, but summer camp is a familiar and fun venue to introduce the subject, she said.

“I think tech literacy is just an undeniable reality, that it’s a skill that kids need and it doesn’t have to only happen in schools,” Dhruv said.

The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With encyclopedic collections of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and the world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums between the West Coast and Chicago. It is known for its collection of American Indian art, as well as The Petrie Institute of Western American Art, which oversees the Museum’s Western art collection. and its other collections of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and the world.

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