#1 The Steemit Art and Fiction Competition. Getting professionals on board.

A Steemit competition for Artists and Creative Writers, judged by professionals and printed in professional print media. Bringing attention, value and prestige to the platform.

Why and How?

Let's deal primarily with WHY in this first post. 

For a number of reasons. 

The speed of technological innovation is increasing exponentially. There is always something new and more cutting edge around the corner. Today's avant garde is tomorrows kitsch. Whilst we can see this as generally a good thing, it has some consequences. In the increasingly swift current of progress it is easy to be swept away. For any platform to survive - even something innovative like Steemit - it needs to put down some sort of roots  in traditionalism; in the things that humans have always enjoyed. 

Why do you think Facebook introduced Timeline? Because it gave something which felt more human back to the Facebook experience. Looking back at your life, life looking at a well ordered photo album.

Like many other cutting edge concepts, with all its innovation and new ways of doing things, Steem currently feels light in one area. If you're a purist you've probably felt it already. Steemit lacks any contact with 'Traditionalism'. We need to bring something well known and well loved to the platform. Something like:

A traditional competition for the creative arts, judged by experts with cash prizes. 

Think about it.

Competitions like this are as old as the hills. Think of Aeschylus beating Sophocles in the Greek tragedy competition in Dionysia in 458BC. Twenty years later Sophocles won it with Euripides placing second. 

Then there is the rivalry between Ghiberti and Brunelleschi, their animosity driving their creative energy to compete for the commission to design the gate for the Baptistry in Florence

Greek tragedy? The artistic heights of the renaissance? Both driven by artistic competitions.

Steemit needs as much positive exposure outside its own sphere as quickly as possible. It would also gain from the prestige and status of being seen on other platforms, and of being known for the quality of its submissions. 

Furthermore, to attract 'normies' to the platform, the whole concept requires expansion and more public credibility. In marketing terms Steemit needs to sell its brand.

What better way to do this than to create a prestigious prize for traditional creativity? Anything which draws positive attention to Steemit helps us, helps our cause and hinders monolithic social media.

Now imagine the newspapers headlines in ten years(in whatever is left of the dying newspaper industry! )

The Steemit prize, one of the most prestigious awards for writers, poets and painters in the world, was awarded today. Uniquely, this award is crowdfunded by 'upvotes' from Steemit, the social media phenomenon widely credited with the destruction of Facebook, Reddit and Twitter. This is the prize every artist wants to win.

Is this impossible? I think not. But we need to make it happen.

So, very briefly, HOW can we make this happen?

• There is a long history of prizes being awarded for art. New ground is not being covered there. The concept is well known and workable.
• We'll need writers and artists to act as judges. And we'll need to interest journals or magazines with a broad and prestigious readership to publish our winners.
• For most projects offering prizes the main difficulty is funding.  However one of the benefits of working on the Steemit platform is that funding options are already built in.

So there's the skeleton concept outlined.

I envisage a further series of posts, each one making suggestions and adding refinements until the concept is finalised, formalised, polished and presented professionally.

We can also collect details from other Steembuddies who would like to be involved.

Oh and if anyone with graphic skills would like to turn the wreath I've used for the thumbnail into a Steemit Prize logo I'd be very grateful.

Who am I?

I'm Nikflossus. A professional writer who believes passionately in Steemit. I'm currently working on three separate projects, all designed to propel Steemit into the stratosphere. Look out for my posts on: The Steemit Prize, Linking Steemin with Paypal, and my upcoming supernatural mystery serial.