Team Bios
JenJoy Roybal
Co-Founder + CEO
Advisor-Strategist, Partnerships
Curator, Artist, Writer/Editor
JenJoy Roybal is an artist, writer, editor, and award-winning producer/project manager. She is co-founder and CEO of SearchLight.Art, a women-led, community-orientated Web 3.0 organization that provides signature events, performances, and exhibitions. SearchLight.Art helps artists, collectors, DAOs, NFT teams, technology platforms, institutions, and other businesses achieve their goals with innovative blockchain technology through an informed cultural lens. Prior to putting in 1000s of hours into Web 3.0 and NFTs, she was a strategic communications consultant in Web 2.0 for international development and philanthropic organizations. With a degree in Urban Planning and Design from the Spitzer School of Architecture at City College New York, she also has a background in participatory urbanism and public art, having worked for one of the largest and most successful public art programs in the country at the City of San Jose, CA. She was also an urban planning fellow for the City of New York. All these experiences apply very well to ventures in AR/VR/IRL and cultural production associated with blockchains. JenJoy resides in Santa Fe, NM with her two puppies JoJo and Lana-Lu. When she’s not immersed in Web 3.0 she is in her studio, hiking a mountain or gardening.
Pilar Coté
Co-Founder + CDO
Curator, Advisor-Strategist, Partnerships. Artist, Creative Director. Host of NFTMatters
Pilar Côté is a Culture Creator, Curator and NFT Advisor-Strategist with an expansive 20-year background as a Creative Director and Event Producer (entertainment and fashion industries, blue-chip/ A-list brands that include Nike, DKNY, City of Toronto, Burning Man, Versace, Molson, Diesel, Adidas, J.Lindeberg, BMG Records, etc).
-Lead NFT Art Curator, Advisor-Strategist with Searchlight.Art
-Advisor at InvisibleOceans.io
-Racial Equity Fellow with the Civil Rights Center at the Wayne State School of Law
-Council member of the Waawiiyaataanong Indigenous Arts Council
-Co-founder of the Detroit chapter of 'Women in Music' (Vice-Chair of Diversity & Inclusion and Co-Chair of Development & Partnerships)
-2021 Solution Team member under the MIT Solve Initiative that utilizes AI to innovate for social impact and solve world challenges (Digital Inclusion)
Creative Consultant/ NFT Art Curator, Advisor-Strategist. Business Development at Searchlight.Art
Côté is an NFT Artist, Curator, Advisor-Strategist and Evangelist who was part of a Strategy & Drop team that sold out one of the most significant collections in the space due to its DeFi and Gaming utilization (Sidus Heroes). She was also on the S&D team for the Genesis NFT release of IMCMPLX’s ‘The End Beat’s’ (Co-creator of 0N1 Force), for group auctions of various artists (over 120) and more. She has onboarded artists, collectors and brands since April 2021 and has been featured in articles, on panels (IRL/VR) and podcasts. Côté has produced/curated NFT exhibits and events IRL/ VR/ AR (over 14), built VR galleries and brokered partnerships with VR & AR platforms. Also, she project-managed curated, and produced panels & events for Day 10 of Decentraland's Artweek.
The Searchlight Curatorial Group that she is a leader with has garnered an international pool of over 490 NFT artists from 45 countries & was the official curator for NFTNYC 2021 feat. 231 artists (+8 more satellite events & exhibits in NYC -AR/VR/IRL featuring over 431 artists). They also curated an exhibit for NFT BZL (25 artists), an AR one with Illust.space in Miami (150 artists) during Art Basel 2021, produced 5 days of events/exhibits during the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami (141 artists) and have partnered with some of the leading collections and creatives in the space. Their partnership with Vortex gave rise to ‘Domance’, the world's first Immersive NFT Dome Exhibition in the metaverse (AltspaceVR) that features over 65 artists. Also, a partnership with Illust.space and Mint Gold Dust features over 65 global artists at the 2022 SXSW AR PoPArtwalk in Austin Texas. Her NFT exhibit 'Momentum Is Ours - Ending Violence Against Women and Girls' is featured on the UN's global map. Currently, she is finalizing the ‘We The Women’ Digital Art Exhibition in collaboration with 4 other global curators set to launch on March 28th to commemorate Women’s History Month and run for a year. In 2021, she project managed the launch of the Genesis collection of Detroit Photographer Erik Paul Howard titled, 'The Lowriders: From Detroit to LA', now collected by Justin Aversano (Twin Flames success, Quantum Arts). Also, in 2020 she was brought in as the Lead on Music & Performance Programming for the launch of Burning Man’s new virtual platform ‘Withpresence’ (72 hour event). She hosts and produces the NFTMatters podcast where the stories behind leading figures, prolific artists and innovative NFT collections are highlighted.