Creating programs

A program is anything you open to artists: a grant, a residency, an exhibition, an open call, a fellowship, a commission, a job, and more. You build one in the full-page program builder, where you set the details, design the application form artists fill out, and decide how your team reviews what comes in.

The builder at a glance

When you create a program, Artsume opens the builder on its own full-page screen with three regions:

• The left rail lists every section with a status mark: required sections show a check when they're done, and optional sections show Add until you turn them on. A Ready to publish progress count sits at the bottom.
• The center holds the section you're editing.
• The right rail shows an Applicant preview card that updates as your changes save, a Before you publish checklist, and a Preview as applicant button that opens the full artist-facing view in a new tab.

Everything saves as you work. Each section autosaves on its own schedule, and a save-status line under the title tells you whether your changes are up to date. There is no global Save button to hunt for.

Start a new program

1. Go to your organization's Programs page and select New program (or Create your first program if you have none yet). The page's tabs are All, Open, Drafts, and Closed.
2. The Create a program dialog opens. Pick a program type from the grouped list: Funding & awards, Space & time, Show & sell, Commissions, Work, and Open calls. There are fourteen types in all, from grants and prizes to residencies, exhibitions, commissions, jobs, and open calls.
3. As you select a type, the preview pane shows how many sections Artsume turns on for it and example fields that matter for that kind of program.
4. Select Create program.

You land in the builder with a draft, and the type you chose decides which optional sections start switched on. A grant opens with Selection disclosure. A residency adds Legal & contracts as well, and an exhibition gets Selection disclosure, Legal & contracts, and Fees & payment. You can change any of this later.

Work through the sections

Not every program needs every section. Required sections always show in the rail; optional ones you turn on only when you need them.

The setup essentials are the Overview (title, type, dates, and visibility), Media (cover image and gallery), Location & format, and Timeline & deadlines, with Partners & sponsors as an optional extra.

What you're offering lives in Eligibility & requirements (disciplines, regions, career stage), Benefits & compensation, and Contact & resources.

The process side is the Application form and Review settings, plus the optional Selection disclosure (what you tell artists about how you choose), Legal & contracts, Fees & payment, and Invite audience (pick a list to invite when you publish).

To turn on an optional section, select its row in the left rail, marked Add. It switches on and opens right away. To turn one off, open that section, open the ⋮ More menu near the title, and choose the remove item, which names the section you are in, such as Remove Fees & payment section. Only optional sections can be removed. Removing a section keeps its data, so you can add it back later without losing anything.

Build your application form

The Application form section is where you decide exactly what artists send you. It has two parts.

The Artist profile panel pulls from data artists already keep on Artsume, so they don't retype it. Toggle on Portfolio works, CV entries, or Artist statement, and select any enabled field to configure it inline. Portfolio works, for example, lets you set a minimum and maximum number of works; CV entries let you pick which CV sections to import. Contact info is collected automatically from each artist's Artsume profile, and you can choose which contact fields you receive.

Below that, Custom questions is for anything the standard fields don't cover. Select Add question to open the picker, which is grouped into:

• Basic: short text, long text, email, URL, number, date, and a line-item budget
• Selection: dropdown, multi-select, radio buttons, and checkbox
• Media & Files: file upload
• Layout: a section divider to break the form into parts

Each question you add opens its settings inline so you can set the label, mark it required, and add options. Drag questions by the handle to reorder them, and use the duplicate and delete buttons on a question's row to copy or remove it.

Keep rubrics your team can reuse

Your organization has a Scoring rubrics page at /org/[slug]/rubrics. Open it from Settings → Scoring rubrics. A program's Review settings also carries a Manage rubrics button, but that button sits inside the rubric picker, which is part of Artsume Pro for organizations. A rubric is a set of weighted criteria your reviewers score against. Select Create rubric to author one, then attach it in a program's Review settings. See reviewing applications for how reviewers use it.

Set up review

Open Review settings and start with the Review pipeline, which decides how the program is reviewed and who makes the final call:

• Solo review. One person reviews and decides each application as it comes in.
• Panel review. Several reviewers score independently, then an admin or a lead reviewer decides from the ranked list. A Who makes the final decision toggle lets you choose between Admins decide and Lead decides.
• Two-round jury. A quick first pass shortlists applicants, then a scored second round decides.

You can also choose a Scoring method (Recommend, Score 0–100, or Rubric) and turn on options like blind review and reviewer pools. Picking Rubric lets you attach one of your Scoring rubrics, or select Create new rubric to author one. The advanced options (Two-round jury, Score 0–100, Rubric, blind review, reviewer pools, automatic assignment by Round robin or Assign to all, and the Lead decides setting) are part of Artsume Pro for organizations. Solo and panel review with recommendation scoring are available to every organization. See organization plans for what each tier includes.

Two settings lock once the first application arrives: the pipeline, and blind review. Both stay free to change until then, and every other review setting stays adjustable for the whole cycle. The mechanics of pipelines, scoring, blind review, and decisions all live in reviewing applications, including where decision letters are set (they are managed org-wide in your settings, not per program).

Preview and publish

Watch the Before you publish checklist in the right rail as you work. It tracks the required details across your sections and marks each one done. When something is missing, use its Add link to jump straight to that section.

When you're ready, select Publish near the title. Artsume runs a final pre-flight check, and if any required detail is still missing, the dialog lists it so you can finish before publishing. Published programs appear on Explore, where artists can find them and start applying.

Manage a program after publishing

A program moves through a set of states, all reachable from the buttons and the ⋮ More menu near the title. Its badge tells you which state it is in:

Example

DraftOpenClosed

• Publish takes a draft live and opens it for applications.
• Close applications stops new submissions while keeping everything you have received for review. It shows on an open program. You can Reopen a closed program later.
• Archive program hides a closed program from public view and files it in your archived list. It shows on a closed program.
• Delete program permanently removes the program, its form, and its review settings. If applications already exist, Artsume steers you to archive instead.

To hide an open program from Explore without closing it, set its visibility to Unlisted in the ⋮ More menu. Make your edits before you close: a closed program is read-only apart from Media and Partners & sponsors, and an archived program is frozen whole. Nothing is lost either way.

Find artists for a published program

Publishing puts your program on Explore. Three more tools bring it to the right artists.

Invite the artists you know. Select Invite to apply on the program and choose people from Your artists. This is free on every plan.

Recommended artists. On Artsume Pro for organizations, the same invite flow carries a Recommended artists panel beside the suggestions from your own network. It lists artists who suit the program and who have not applied. Artsume matches them from their public profiles. The artists did not ask to be contacted, so write an invitation that says why you thought of them.

• Each artist in the panel has a published public profile. An artist who applied, or who dismissed your program, is not in it.
• You select who to invite. Artsume never sends an invitation by itself.
• One send takes up to 25 recommended artists.
• An invitation does not create a connection with the artist.

Recommendations are worked out overnight, so a program you published today has none until tomorrow. A program that is not public has no recommendations.

Promote the program. A promotion places the program first in Explore and on the map for thirty days, among other placements. See Promote a program.

Save and reuse a setup

To run the same kind of program again, open the ⋮ More menu and choose Save as preset to store this program's setup (its type, details, review settings, and application form) under a name your team recognizes. Next time you select New program, choose start from a preset and pick it to spin up a new draft that's already configured.

Next steps

• Reviewing applications: pipelines, scoring, blind review, and decisions
• Setting up your organization: profile, team, and settings before you post
• Promote a program: what a promotion delivers and how to start one
• Artsume Pro for organizations: what is free, and what the paid plan adds
• Reporting: application volume, funnel, and time-to-decision once a cycle is running