Creating your profile
Set up your Artsume profile: handle, headline, what you do, location, disciplines, contact links, photo, and artist statement. Plus privacy and progress.
Your profile is your home on Artsume. It's what organizations see when they review your applications, and what other artists and organizations see when they come across your work.
There's no separate "publish" step. Your page goes live the moment you claim a handle during setup, at your public address /a/your-handle. Every edit you save shows up there right away. To see exactly what visitors see, open the ··· menu on your profile and choose View as public.
Where you edit
Your profile has two faces. Profile in the left rail is where you make changes. The public page at /a/your-handle is what everyone else sees.
Your profile is organized into tabs:
- Portfolio: your projects. This tab appears once you turn on Artist in What you do. See Building your portfolio.
- About: your About text, your artist statement, a details summary, featured work, and your recent CV.
- CV: your professional history. See Creating your CV.
The identity fields live in one place: the Edit profile button in your profile header opens a single dialog for your headline, what you do, location, contact links, and handle. Your About text and your artist statement are edited on the About tab, covered below.
The line under your name
Your header prints two short lines. The first is drawn from your picks in What you do: one discipline and one role when you have both, or up to two from whichever side you have. A sculptor who also teaches reads Sculpture · Art Teacher.
Priya Raman
The second is your headline, in your own words. Pick nothing in What you do and the first line simply does not print, leaving your headline under your name on its own.
Artists and arts professionals covers the control itself and what your picks do.
Choose your handle
Your handle is your unique username and the address of your public page (/a/your-handle).
The rules:
- Lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens (-), and periods (.) only
- Between 3 and 30 characters
- Must be available (no one else is using it)
Open Edit profile and type into the New handle field. Artsume checks availability as you type and shows a checkmark when the handle is free. When you save, your profile URL changes to match. You can also change it from Settings → Account.
Handles change once every 30 days
Changing your handle updates your profile URL, and your old links stop working. Because of that, you can change it once every 30 days. The handle you claim during setup doesn't start that clock, so your first choice is free. While the 30 days run, the field is replaced by a note telling you how many days are left.
Headline, what you do, and location
The Edit profile dialog holds these in order:
- Headline: a short tagline shown on your profile, like "contemporary painter exploring identity." Up to 100 characters, with a live counter.
- What you do: turn on Artist, Arts professional, or both. Each switch opens a list of its own, and a live preview under them shows the exact line your public page will print.
- Location: search for your city. Your location appears on your profile and helps organizations and other artists find you.
Your disciplines live inside What you do, in the list the Artist switch opens. Select up to 5, or type your own and press Enter to add it. Lead with your primary practice, because the first one is what prints under your name.
Contact and links
The same dialog holds the ways people can reach you, under Contact & links:
- Contact email, with an Email visible to choice of Anyone, Your connections, or Only me. New accounts start at Your connections.
- Phone number, with the same three choices under Phone visible to. New accounts start at Only me.
- Website. Type it without the protocol (for example
example.com) and Artsume addshttps://for you. - Social links. Pick a platform, then type your username. Artsume prints the rest of the address for you, and pasting a full profile URL fills both in. Up to 10 links.
Only add links you're happy for organizations to see. If your personal accounts are casual, consider keeping separate handles for your practice.
Add your photo and cover
Your profile photo is the picture shown wherever you appear across Artsume. Select the camera button on your photo to open Edit photo, which has two tabs: Upload for a new file, and Your portfolio to reuse an image you've already added. Square images work best. Artsume takes JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP, and AVIF files up to 25 MB, and crops whatever you give it.
If you don't add a photo, Artsume draws your initials on a color picked from your account, so you're never a blank gray circle. To take a photo back off, use Remove in Settings → Account.
Your cover is the wide band at the top of your profile, and it comes with the artist side of your account. Select the camera button on it to open Edit cover. Wide images work best, around 1500 × 500. Remove clears it and the band falls back to a color drawn from your account. A studio shot or a strong piece of work both make good covers.
Add your About and biographical details
The About tab opens with an About block, separate from your artist statement. Everyone gets one. Select it to open Edit About, where you can add:
- About: a short paragraph about who you are and what you do (up to 2,000 characters). Where the artist statement is about your ideas, your About is the factual paragraph a jury expects.
- Birth year and Birthplace: optional context. Your About shows them, and your CV export opens with them. Artist CVs traditionally open with "Born 1988 in Toronto, Canada." Leave either blank to keep it off your CV.
Write your artist statement
Your statement sits under your About on the same tab, and it comes with the artist side of your account. It introduces your practice in your own words. Select Add statement (or the existing statement) to open the editor. You can write up to 2,000 characters.
What to include:
- What you make
- Why you make it
- How you work: your materials and process
- The ideas that drive your practice
Write in the first person and be concrete. "I build large-scale installations from found textiles" says far more than "I explore themes of memory." Revise it as your practice evolves.
How you appear elsewhere
Away from your page, Artsume prints you as a compact row: your photo, your name, and a detail or two.
The same row carries you through search results, network lists, an organization's roster, and the applications a jury reads. It draws on the same fields, which is why a photo, a location, and a clear first discipline are worth the two minutes.
Track your progress
A checklist card sits in the right rail of your profile, and below the tabs on a phone. Everyone gets the same list, whatever you do in the arts.
Five steps put you in Explore: Profile photo, Location, What you do, About you (a short bio or an artist statement), and Your first work (a work or a CV line). Four more complete your profile: One-line intro, Links, one work in your portfolio, and One CV line. The card links straight to each step and disappears once you're done. Nothing on the list stops your page from being live. It's a guide.
Control who sees what
Your profile is visible at /a/your-handle. There is no public-versus-hidden switch on the page itself. What you control is the content: hide any individual project or CV line and it comes off your public page everywhere (see Building your portfolio), and you can block someone to stop them following or messaging you.
Browse privately lives in Settings → Privacy & visibility. It's reciprocal. When you turn it on, you're not named as a viewer on profiles you visit, and in return you can't see who viewed yours. Leave it off to appear in other people's viewer lists and to see your own in Insights.
No public / private / unlisted tiers
Artsume doesn't have a three-way profile visibility ladder. Your page is live at your handle. The setting above shapes viewer attribution, not whether your page exists.
Manage notifications
Artsume sends four kinds of email, and each has its own switch in Settings → Notifications. Push alerts are a separate, shorter list. Settings covers both, and everything else in the panel.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to publish my profile?
No. There is no publish button. Your page is live at /a/your-handle as soon as you claim a handle during setup, and every saved edit appears there immediately. Use View as public in the ··· menu to preview it.
I can't find an available handle.
Handles use lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens, and periods, and run from 3 to 30 characters. If your first choice is taken, try adding your discipline or city, like @maria-sculptor or @maria-nyc. Availability is checked live as you type.
How often can I change my handle?
Once every 30 days, and the handle you claim during setup doesn't count. Changing it updates your profile URL and breaks your old links, so the wait protects people who have already saved or shared your page.
Can I approve who follows my work?
No. Following is always instant and there is no private-account mode. You can hide individual projects and CV lines, and you can block someone entirely.
Can I hide who I've viewed?
Yes. Turn on Browse privately in Settings → Privacy & visibility. It's reciprocal: you won't be named on profiles you visit, and you also won't see who viewed yours in Insights.
Do I have to use a photo of myself?
No, but a photo has to be a photo. Artsume no longer offers illustrated avatars. Leave it blank and your initials show on a color drawn from your account, or upload a picture of your work instead.
Next steps
- Artists and arts professionals: one page for everyone, and what your practices do
- Building your portfolio: add the projects that anchor your profile
- Creating your CV: build your professional history
- Sharing your profile: get your page in front of the right people