👋 Welcome to Artwork Archive.
This step-by-step guide is designed to help you set up your account and start managing your collection effectively. By following these instructions, you'll learn how to upload your artworks, organize your inventory, manage clients, and generate professional reports. Let's get started!
Choosing Your Account Type
We offer two versions for collection management:
Collector Accounts
Organization Accounts
If you're unsure which account type is right for you, check out our help doc on Artwork Archive account types or schedule a demo for the organization version here.
Step 1: Set Up Your Account
🎥 Watch an Overview Video: Get a thorough walkthrough of your account features.
Update your Account Settings.
Verify your login email
Set your currency and measurement preferences
Adjust your email preferences
Add additional users if needed, this can also be done at a later date.
If applicable, add your PayPal email for receiving payments from online invoices
Complete your profile information.
Update your profile information in the My Profile page including company name, contact details, and upload your logo and report header.
Navigate through the different tabs to add your collection mission statement or bio.
For Collector Plus & Premier accounts, use the My Docs to upload PDF files of these documents or any others that may be relevant, i.e. marketing materials, contract templates, loan agreements, etc.
Remember:
Your default settings keep all profile information private.
You can always return later to complete your profile information and decide whether to make your profile public.
Step 2: Initial Artwork Upload
🎥 Video Tutorial: How to Upload Artwork
Moving from another system or have your information in a spreadsheet?
We can get that info into your account for you! Check out our import service.
Prepare and upload artwork images
Including the import service, noted above, there are multiple ways to get artwork into your account:
Upload new pieces one at a time
Add up to 20 pieces at a time with Bulk Upload
Import via spreadsheet using our Import Service
Allow artists to upload their work directly using their Artist Upload Link.
Image Upload Specifications:
We accept most image file types, with a maximum size of 30 MB per image.
We recommend uploading high-resolution images for your pieces.
You can upload up to 30 images for each Piece Record, allowing you to showcase your artwork from various angles or include detail shots.
If you have a Public Profile or share your artwork through a Private Room, the images you upload will be automatically optimized and resized for web viewing to ensure your artwork looks its best online.
Your original high-resolution images will be securely stored within the Piece Record under the "Original Image Files" section, located at the bottom left of the page, ensuring you always have access to the highest quality version of your artwork images.
You can learn more about what we do to protect your images here.
Input detailed information for each Piece Record.
Include details such as title (required), date, medium, dimensions, price, and status.
If you don't have all the information available, you can always come back and fill in the missing details later, as the title is the only required field.
Once a Piece Record is created, you can add more information like provenance records, exhibition history, location history, and publication history.
All levels of Organization plans can also add additional files, maintenance records, and piece-related expenses.
*For help understanding each field, refer to our Guide to Filling Out a Piece Record.
Feeling overwhelmed? We recommend starting with the artwork freshest in your memory, then go back and add older pieces on those rainy days when you have more time.
Step 3: Organize Your Inventory
Customize your main dashboard (Pieces Page)
Choose your preferred view for displaying your artworks:
Gallery View: Displays your artworks as thumbnails in a tiled layout.
List View: Shows your artworks in a list format with detailed information.
Table View: Presents your artworks in a tabular format, allowing for easy comparison and sorting of data.
Slideshow View: Showcases your artworks in a full-screen slideshow format, ideal for presenting your portfolio.
Sort the pieces on your main Pieces page: Change how your artworks are ordered by sorting on title, creation date, price or other attributes. For instance, sort your collection chronologically by creation date.
Create Collections to manage your artworks effectively
🎥 Video Tutorial: Creating Collections
Group your artworks into Collections based on themes, styles, or series
You can create new Collections from the Collections page or add pieces to Collections from within each Piece Record
Use Tags for categorization
Add relevant Tags to each Piece Record to categorize your artworks by theme, style, technique, or any other criteria
Utilize the search or filter function in your inventory based on specific Collections or Tags
Create Location Records
Establish detailed Location Records for all places housing your artworks, including galleries, exhibition spaces, storage facilities, installation sites or various business locations.
Global Visibility: Track your artwork's whereabouts across the world.
Performance Insights: Identify top-performing locations to optimize sales (if applicable).
Comprehensive Record-Keeping: Maintain accurate location data for each piece in your collection.
Each Location Record should contain specific place details as well as the artwork inventory at that location. This information is stored both in the Location Record and within each individual Artwork Record under Location History for easy cross-referencing.
Did you know:
If you need more comprehensive location tracking the Organization plans offer the option of sub-locations and tertiary locations
Note: Location Records are not meant for storing the address of the buyer, as that information will be stored within the buyer's Contact Record.
WE DON'T HAVE ANY INFO ON EXHIBITIONS FOR COLLECTORS.
Create Exhibition Records
🖥️ Webinar: Digital Tools for Authentic Audience Engagement On and Off Campus BROKEN LINK (ALSO BROKEN ON ORG HELP DOC)
While individual artwork records can include exhibition history, a dedicated Exhibitions Page offers comprehensive management for past, present, and future exhibitions. This centralized hub is invaluable for museums, galleries, and art organizations that curate their own exhibitions.
With Exhibition Records, you can:
Monitor ongoing events, and archive past exhibitions.
Track artwork inventory, schedules, personnel, and documentation in one place.
Create and manage online exhibitions with multimedia elements, including installation images and artist interviews.
Showcase these exhibitions on your website using our embed feature.
If the important dates for an Exhibition in the future, they will also automatically populate in your Schedule in Artwork Archive so you never have to miss an important deadline.
Step 4: Manage Clients, Donors & Artist Contacts
Artwork Archive has developed a fully integrated CRM tool that is intended to help you build new relationships, strengthen existing ones, and generally work smarter when it comes to making decisions about managing your art collection and/or institution.
Create Contact Records
Add Contact Records for each artist, donor, client, collaborator, supplier, or other key individual related to your collection.
Include essential information such as name, email, phone number, and any relevant notes. Attach additional documents to their record such as donor letters or commission contracts.
You can also add reminders within a Contact Record that will automatically populate in your Schedule in Artwork Archive so you never miss an important meeting or follow up.
Did you know?
Any reports shared from within Artwork Archive to a contact will automatically be stored within their Contact Record, providing a convenient record of your communication history.
Populate your Artist Profiles
An artist Contact Record is created automatically when you upload a new piece by that artist and will automatically be labeled as an "Artist" under "Relation" at the top of the Contacts page. You can then click into their Contact Record and enter more information like their date of birth (and death, if applicable), their biography and nationality, as well as social media links and their website.
The only required field is the artist’s first name, but the more information you enter, the better. This will make the artist’s profile more dynamic, should you choose to publish their works online using Artwork Archive’s Public Profile, Private Rooms and/or Exhibition feature.
Step 5: Manage Artwork Transactions
Effective management of art collections involves tracking sales, maintaining artworks, and monitoring loans. Artwork Archive provides tools to streamline these processes, ensuring accurate records and efficient operations.
Sales Management
When an artwork is sold, you can register the sale and update the Piece Record with:
Buyer information (linked to Contact Record)
Sale price and date
Applicable discounts, commissions, or taxes
Sale location and additional notes
Note: Piece Record status automatically updates to "Sold" upon sale registration.
Track income from sales and exhibitions
Monitor expenses related to creation, maintenance, and shipping
Generate financial reports for business analysis and tax purposes
Step 6: Generate Reports
🎥 Video Tutorial: An Overview of Reports in Artwork Archive
🖥️ Webinar: Save Time with Artwork Archive's Collection Management Reports
Easily create various types of reports including artwork labels, price lists, tear sheets, portfolio pages, inventory reports, invoices, consignment reports, and more.
Customize your reports with your branding, including your logo, profile image and contact information.
Save your frequently used report settings as templates for quick access in the future.
Download your reports as PDFs, email the URL or share instantly right from within your Artwork Archive account.
Step 7: Share Your Art Collections & Exhibitions
By default, all of the information within your Artwork Archive account is private. However, you can choose to share your artwork, artists, collections and exhibitions with others in various ways:
Create password-protected online viewing rooms to share specific artworks with clients, collaborators, curators and more.
Collaborate, receive feedback and manage inquiries directly through the platform.
Showcase your collection to a wider audience by creating a public-facing profile.
Choose which artworks, collections, and information to display on your Public Profile.
Password-protect your Public Profile to share it privately.
Embed your Public Profile within your existing website.
Additional Support Resources
If you need further assistance or have any questions not covered in this guide, please explore the following resources:
In-product help
Within your account, you'll find helpful links at the bottom of your left menu with embedded educational content to help you learn more.
Help Center
Visit the rest of our comprehensive Help Center, where you can find help articles like this one, FAQs, how-to guides, and best practices all in one place.
Demo webinars
Our customer success team conducts regular webinars to demonstrate Artwork Archive's features and answer customer questions during Q&A sessions. Watch past recordings or sign up for our next live one here.
Chat with support
If you need extra assistance with your setup, reach out to our support team via the green messenger icon located at the bottom right corner of any page on artworkarchive.com. Our support staff is available Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm MST, and always ready to help.
🎥 More of a visual learner?
Check out our Video Tutorials for Organizations.
NEED TO SwITCH THIS FOR "Getting Started fro Collectors" if a you tube exists???