---
title: Creating your CV
description: "Build a CAA-standard artist CV on Artsume: education, exhibitions, awards, residencies. Import an existing CV, link projects, and download a PDF."
date: 2026-07-07
updated: 2026-08-25
author: Artsume Team
tags:
  - artist
  - cv
  - getting-started
url: "https://www.artsume.com/docs/creating-cv"
type: docs
---

# Creating your CV

# Creating your CV

Your CV is the record of your career: where you studied, where you've shown, what you've won, and where your work lives. On Artsume you build it line by line rather than uploading a finished file, and every line is formatted to [CAA (College Art Association) standards](/guides/artist-cv-guide-caa-format-templates), the convention galleries, grants, and juries expect.

The CV is a tab on your profile. Open **Profile**, then switch to the **CV** tab. Everyone gets one, whether or not you make work, so a curator or an educator builds a CV here the same way an artist does. See [Artists and arts professionals](/docs/artists-and-professionals).

## CV sections

Artsume organizes your CV into the standard sections a CV uses. You don't need lines in every one. Include what's relevant to your practice, and the empty ones stay out of the way.

- **Education**: degrees, diplomas, and formal training
- **Professional Experience**: teaching positions, employment, and professional roles
- **Exhibitions**: solo, group, two-person, and selected shows
- **Curatorial Projects**: exhibitions and projects you curated
- **Projects**: client and commissioned projects you delivered
- **Awards, Grants & Fellowships**
- **Collections**: public, corporate, and private collections holding your work
- **Artist Residencies**
- **Commissions**: public, corporate, and private
- **Lectures, Presentations & Workshops**
- **Publications as Author**: articles, essays, and books you wrote
- **Bibliography**: reviews and press written about your work
- **Professional Service**: committee work, board membership, and jury service
- **Gallery Affiliations**

If you've picked professional roles in **What you do**, the order shifts to put your kind of work first, and **Professional Experience** is renamed **Positions**.

> ℹ️ **Publications vs. Bibliography:** These two are easy to mix up. **Publications as Author** is writing *you* produced (essays, catalog texts, books). **Bibliography** is writing *about you* (reviews, interviews, press). If you wrote it, it goes in Publications; if someone wrote it about your work, it goes in Bibliography.

## Adding lines

The dashed **Add a CV line** row sits under Bio and background, above your CV sections. It opens a two-step picker and reaches every section:

1. Choose what you're adding from a grid of cards (Exhibition, Award or grant, Residency, Project, and so on). This step also offers an **Import from a CV file** launcher, covered below.
2. Fill in the form. A **Back** control lets you re-pick, and **Add to CV** saves it.

Every section header also carries its own **Add a CV line** button, which skips straight to that section's form.

Fill in the fields for that kind of line: year, title, venue or institution, location, and any details particular to it, such as an exhibition's type and curator or an award's granting organization. A preview labeled **Preview · how it appears on your CV** sits underneath and updates as you type, so you can match the CAA format before you save.

![One CV line, formatted for you.](https://www.artsume.com/images/docs/demos/cv-entry-row.png)

Venue, institution, and organization fields search Artsume as you type. Picking a listed organization links the line to them and fills in the location for you. If they're not on Artsume, select **Add "your text"** and the name saves as plain text.

> 💡 **Link the organization if you can:** Only a line with a linked Artsume organization can be verified. A name typed as plain text reads fine, but it can never earn the check mark. See [Getting verified](/docs/verification).

Lines sort themselves. Most sections run newest first by year. Collections sort by collector name and Gallery Affiliations by gallery name, both alphabetically, which is what those sections conventionally do.

## Import an existing CV

If you already have a CV, you don't have to retype it. Open the **Add a CV line** row and choose **Import from a CV file**. On mobile, an **Import CV** button also sits in the action bar on the CV tab.

1. **Upload or paste.** Upload a PDF or Word document (`.pdf` or `.docx`, up to 10 MB) and it starts reading on its own, or switch to **Paste Text**, paste your CV's contents, and select **Parse CV**. Artsume reads the document and pulls out the lines.
2. **Review by section.** The parsed lines appear grouped into your CV sections. Go through them and choose what to keep: tick lines one by one or use **Select all** per section, edit anything that came through wrong, and match organizations to their Artsume profiles. Lines that need attention are flagged, as are ones you already have. If your document included profile details such as a bio, each one offers **Use imported** or **Keep current**.
3. **Import.** The button names what it will do, reading **Import 5 lines** or **Import profile details**. Select it and everything you picked lands in place.

If you leave partway through, Artsume saves a draft on that device and offers **Continue from last import** when you come back. The draft is discarded after 24 hours.

You can run five imports an hour. That is generous for a real CV and it stops a stuck document from being retried forever.

> 💡 **Nothing is imported until you approve it:** The importer does the heavy lifting, but the review screen is where you have the last word. Treat it as a first pass: fix dates, split misread lines, and drop anything stale. Cleaning it up here is far faster than typing every line from scratch.

## Your bio

The CV tab also holds a short **Bio**, a biographical statement of up to 500 characters for grants and applications. Select **Add bio** to write it, or select the bio card to edit. This is separate from the longer artist statement on your About tab.

If you make work, the same dialog holds **Birth Year** and **Birthplace**. Filled in, they render as a discreet line the way an artist CV opens, for example "Born 1990 in Toronto". Leave either blank to keep it off your CV.

## Linking projects to CV lines

If you make work, every form lets you attach projects from your portfolio, so a line connects to the pieces behind it: the works shown in an exhibition, made during a residency, or acquired into a collection. The row belongs to the artist side, so a professional-only account does not see it.

In any form, find **Link projects (optional)** and pick the relevant ones. On your CV, the line then carries thumbnails, and someone reading it can see the work itself. Each line can also carry one image of its own, which is a separate field and has nothing to do with featuring the line.

You link from the CV side, here in the form. To add and organize the projects themselves, see [Building your portfolio](/docs/building-portfolio).

## Verified by organizations

Organizations you've worked with can vouch for the lines on your CV. A credit the organization itself has confirmed carries weight with a jury.

Lines can show three kinds of organization involvement:

- **Verified.** The organization confirmed the line. It gets a blue check mark, hovering shows "Verified by [organization]" with the date, and selecting it opens their profile.
- **Disputed.** The organization flagged the line as inaccurate. It shows a "Disputed by [organization]" badge, and a banner appears when you open it to edit, including any note they left. Editing and saving clears the dispute, and they can then confirm it again to restore the check mark.
- **Proposed.** An organization has suggested a new line for you. Proposals appear in a **Pending proposals from organizations** strip, showing exactly how the line would read. Choose **Accept** to add it, or **Decline**, where you can leave an optional note explaining why.

You can also ask. A line with a linked organization that nobody has confirmed yet carries a **Verify** button, which sends them the request and then reads **Requested**. A confirmed line no longer offers it. A proposed line only lands on your CV if you accept it. [Your artists](/docs/your-artists) covers the organization side.

## Controlling what's public

Visibility is set **per line**, not per section. Inside every form is a **Shown on your profile** switch, with the note *Turn off to keep this line just for you*. Turn it off and the line stays in your CV: it still appears in your downloaded PDF and can be used in applications, but not on your public page, where it's marked **Hidden from your profile** for you alone. There's no panel for hiding whole sections. You decide line by line.

## Download your CV

When a gallery or grant asks for your CV as a file, use **Download CV**. On desktop it's in the **···** menu at the top of your profile. On mobile, it's in the action bar on the CV tab. Artsume generates a clean, CAA-formatted **PDF** ready to send or print. That's the only export format. Your CV lives on Artsume and updates in place, so there's no separate Word or plain-text file to keep in sync.

## Frequently Asked Questions

**Q: What file types can I import from?**
A: A PDF or Word document (.pdf or .docx), up to 10 MB. You can also paste your CV text directly and select Parse CV. Artsume reads it and pulls out the lines for you to review.

**Q: Will importing overwrite my existing CV?**
A: No. Import only adds the lines you tick on the review screen, and nothing is saved until you confirm. Your existing lines are untouched, and anything you already have is flagged as such.

**Q: How do I hide a line without deleting it?**
A: Open it and turn off 'Shown on your profile.' It stays in your CV, including your downloaded PDF, and can still be used in applications. It just won't appear on your public page.

**Q: What does the check mark mean?**
A: An organization you worked with has confirmed that line. It's a trust signal for juries and galleries, and one confirmed line earns the seal on your profile. Organizations can also dispute an inaccurate line or propose a new one for you to accept.

**Q: Why can't I ask an organization to verify my line?**
A: The Verify button only appears once the line is linked to an organization on Artsume. Open the line, search for them in the venue or institution field, and pick them from the list rather than typing the name.

**Q: Can I export my CV to Word?**
A: The download is a CAA-formatted PDF. Your CV lives on Artsume and updates in place, so the PDF is always current.

## Verification

When an organization confirms one of your lines, your profile earns the
verified seal. [Getting verified](/docs/verification) covers how it works,
and why editing a confirmed line pauses it.

## Next steps

- [Building your portfolio](/docs/building-portfolio): add the projects you link to your CV lines
- [Applying to programs](/docs/applying-to-programs): put your CV to work in applications
- [Your artists](/docs/your-artists): the organization side of CV verification
- [Best practices](/docs/best-practices): presentation tips for a CV that reads well