Quick start guide

This is the fast path from a brand-new account to your first application. It takes about ten minutes, and each step links to a full guide when you want more detail.

Create your account

1. Open the sign-up page.
2. Enter your full name, your email, and a password. You can also select Continue with Google.
3. Confirm your email. Artsume sends a 6-digit code, and the same email carries a link. Use either one. Both expire in an hour.

Publish your page

Confirming your email lands you on one short step, and everybody passes through it. Artsume asks for a photo, your full name, and a handle, then you select Get started.

That publishes your page at /a/your-handle. There is no separate publish step and no draft to remember. Your name and your handle are the whole bar.

Choose what you came for

With your page live, Artsume asks What brings you to Artsume? and offers three answers:

• Artist: you make and present your own work.
• Arts professional: you work with, discover, support, or hire artists.
• Organization: you represent a gallery, institution, company, or program.

Your answer decides which setup runs next. It does not lock you in. One account can hold both an artist side and an arts-professional side, and you can add the second one later from Settings. Artists and arts professionals explains how the two fit on one page.

If you arrived through a link that already said why you came, Artsume skips this question and takes you straight to that setup.

Artists answer three quick screens: disciplines, career stage and location, then an optional CV import, then a first project or two. Arts professionals answer one screen, What do you do?, and pick their roles. If you picked Organization, your path continues in Setting up your organization.

Fill in the rest

Open Profile in the left rail any time to keep going. A checklist in the right rail tracks what your page still needs and links straight to each fix.

Everyone gets the same four starting steps: a photo, a one-line intro, a location, and a link. If you make work, four more appear for your discipline, your artist statement, your portfolio, and your CV. If you hold the professional side, three more appear for your roles, a short bio, and your first position.

→ Creating your profile

Add your first project

Your portfolio lives on the Portfolio tab of your profile. Select the dashed Add work tile, drop in your files, then add a title and a year. Those two fields are the only ones Artsume requires.

You do not pick a work type. Artsume reads what you added and presents the project accordingly, so a set of images becomes an image series and a single track becomes an audio piece.

Good images do a lot of the work here. Use high-quality photos with even lighting, and add extra angles for sculpture and other three-dimensional pieces.

→ Building your portfolio

Find programs on Explore

Head to Explore to browse everything open right now. Filter by program type, discipline, location, and deadline, then open a program to read its eligibility, requirements, and dates. Switch between List and Map when place matters. Saving a search you run often is part of Artsume Pro, which emails you when a new program fits it.

The heart on any program card saves it to your Favorites, so you can come back to a deadline without hunting for it again.

→ Applying to programs

Apply to a program

When a program fits, select Apply now on its page. The form asks for your CV lines and your projects where the program wants them, and you pick which ones to send. Your artist statement and your contact details fill themselves in, and your answers save as you go. Come back later and the button reads Continue application. If the window has closed, it reads Applications closed instead.

→ Applying to programs

Track your applications

Every application you start lives in one place, with its current status and any updates from the organization. Applications you make off Artsume can sit there too, so one list covers everything you have out.

→ Managing applications

Grow your network

Track an organization to keep its programs coming to you, and connect with the people you actually work with. What you track shapes what your feed shows you.

→ Your network

Next steps

You're set up. These guides go deeper on each part of Artsume:

• Artists and arts professionals: how one account holds both
• Creating your profile: intro, links, photos, and details
• Building your portfolio: add more projects and present them well
• Creating your CV: build a professional artist CV
• Applying to programs: the full application walkthrough
• Settings: notifications, privacy, and billing
• Best practices: tips for stronger applications

Find your first program. Browse open calls, grants, and residencies on Explore →