News: Snapchat Rings in the New Year with a Lens Studio Contest for AR Artists

Snap is turning to some light bribery to boost adoption of its new Lens Studio software.

The January Jumpstart Challenge encourages artists to create and share a Lens that celebrates the New Year. One selected winner will take home a Lens Studio Swag Bag that includes an iPad Pro. In addition, the Lens could be featured in the Lens carousel for others to experience.

The rules are easy: First, users are asked to create their masterpiece in their preferred software, and then import the artwork into Lens Studio and build a Lens for it. Finally, users can submit the Lens to the January Jumpstart Challenge (the submission deadline is Jan. 16).

Last month, the company launched the Lens Studio, free software for PCs and Macs that enables developers to build their own AR experiences for Snapchat. The release came within days of Facebook releasing its own AR Studio. Snapchat has already curated examples from creatives, developers, students, and brands who have created their own Lenses.

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Lens Studio isn't the only way Snapchat is catering to creatives. In October, it launched its art initiative, which displays geofenced virtual sculptures from artists. The project began with works by Jeff Koons in New York, and now there are more than twenty locations worldwide hosting virtual artwork.

Last month, as part of Miami Art Week (as covered by Architectural Digest), installations from Deborah Kass, D*Face, Hebru Brantley, Lionel Smit, Nathan Sawaya, and Daniel Arsham were available automatically in the Lens Carousel to all Snapchatters around the Miami Art District and South Beach. Snapchatters could also unlock the virtual sculptures via Snapcodes.

"The possibilities of virtual art are endless. It is such a unique experience as an artist, to see people interact with your work in this way, on such an expansive platform as Snapchat," artist Hebru Brantley told Architectural Digest. "It allows for greater access to work that is usually only seen two-dimensionally by most people."