Paris Hilton Spearheads Digital Artwork Fund by LACMA, Supporting Women Artists

NFTs have shaken up the art world, and major institutions are getting in on the action.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has announced the launch of a fund created to support the acquisition of digital artworks by women artists. None other than Paris Hilton — who’s been an early player in the NFT space — is behind the project.

“As an activist and entrepreneur who likes to push the boundaries in many male-dominated fields, I immediately identified the need to support women in Web3,” Hilton said in a statement. “There are so many incredibly brilliant and creative women innovators in the space.”

“We are grateful to Paris Hilton for her initiatives to bring more digital art by women artists into our collection,” said LACMA chief executive officer and Wallis Annenberg director Michael Govan. “LACMA has always been interested in experimentation and risk-taking in art, and this initiative will help the museum — and Los Angeles — continue to evolve into an important center for digital art.”

Along with NFTs, the acquisition fund aims to support works with artificial intelligence, augmented reality, animation, graphics, multimedia instillation, photography, performance, software, sound and video art.

Alongside the launch of the fund, two artworks have been acquired for LACMA’s permanent collection: “Continuum: Los Angeles” (2022), a gift from Canadian-Korean artist Krista Kim, and “The Question” (2022), by British artist Shantell Martin. The first “depicts a vibrant color gradient that evolves over a 40-minute loop,” while the latter, “uses digital technologies to engage drawing,” according to the museum.

It was in the 1960s that LACMA began highlighting digital art (photography, video and the like).