Keeping an artist website current is an editorial operation, not a technical chore. The work is deciding what changed, gathering the right information, publishing it in the correct places and checking that the public record still agrees with the studio’s source of truth.
The best system is small enough to use during a busy exhibition week. An artist or studio should be able to send one complete update to one responsible person and know that the exhibition page, related work, CV, press record and homepage will be handled together.
“Current” means accurate, not constantly new
A studio does not need to redesign its homepage every month. It does need to avoid presenting expired information as present fact.
A current site answers these questions correctly:
- What work is the artist focused on now?
- Which exhibitions are forthcoming, open or past?
- What is the latest verified biography and CV?
- Who represents the artist, and where?
- Which press, publication, acquisition or award has become part of the record?
- How can the right person be contacted today?
Some practices produce new work every week; others develop one installation over several years. Update frequency should follow the practice. Accuracy is the standard.
A website becomes stale when an important change has happened and the public record still tells the old story.
Use events as update triggers
A repeating reminder to “update the website” is vague and easy to postpone. A trigger is specific: when this happens, these records change.
When an exhibition is announced
Create the exhibition page with approved title, venue, city, date range, curator, participating artists where relevant, short description, venue link and an image cleared for announcement.
Add the exhibition to “Forthcoming”, connect it to related work or projects, and update the CV. If the announcement is under embargo, record the material privately with its release date rather than relying on someone’s memory.
When an exhibition opens
Change the status to “Current”. Add installation views only after credits and permissions are confirmed. Check that opening hours, address and closing date link to the venue’s authoritative page rather than being retyped unnecessarily.
When an exhibition closes
Move it into the past record without changing its URL. Replace temporary visitor language with durable documentation. Add the final checklist of works, installation photography, catalogue information, reviews and any public programme that should remain part of the history.
When new work is ready
Do not upload a folder of images before the records exist. For each work, confirm title, year, medium, dimensions or duration, series, image credit and public status. Agree on the edit: new does not automatically mean public.
When press or a text is published
Record the writer, title, publication, date and canonical link. Connect it to the relevant exhibition or project. Secure an archival copy for private reference where rights permit, but link to the publisher publicly unless reproduction has been authorised.
When a work enters a collection
Verify the exact institutional credit and whether it may be announced. Update the work record, biography, CV and collections list from the same approved wording. Do not infer a public acquisition from a private sale.
When representation changes
Contact and representation details are high-priority. Update the contact page, biography, work enquiries, regional representation and old gallery references according to the artist’s agreements. Redirect any obsolete contact route rather than leaving it to fail.
When a new award, residency, commission or publication is confirmed
Add it only after names, dates and status are final. Keep “shortlisted”, “nominated”, “awarded” and “completed” distinct. Link to the granting organisation or publisher where that source adds clarity.
Give updates a service level
Not every change has equal urgency. A simple three-speed model prevents both neglect and unnecessary emergency.
Immediate: same day or next working day
- wrong contact or representation information;
- broken site, missing page or security issue;
- factual error with legal, reputational or rights implications;
- an embargoed announcement reaching its agreed release time;
- an exhibition opening or closing status that is visibly wrong.
Timely: within one working week
- new press, review or interview;
- approved installation photography;
- a collection, award, residency or commission update;
- a new work or project that has been cleared for publication;
- biography and CV changes connected to those events.
Editorial: scheduled monthly or quarterly
- refining project texts;
- reorganising a large body of work;
- replacing older photography;
- improving cross-links and accessibility;
- reviewing which work remains representative;
- planning a new feature or deeper archive release.
This model protects urgent facts without turning every image replacement into a crisis.
One update should arrive as one packet
The fastest update process starts before anyone logs into a content system. Ask the sender to provide a complete packet.
For an exhibition, that packet might contain:
- Final public title.
- Venue name and authoritative venue URL.
- City, country and full date range.
- Exhibition type and curator.
- Approved short description.
- Announcement image with photographer and rights credit.
- Related works or series.
- Publication date or embargo.
- The person who approved the information.
For a new work, use the studio identifier as the folder name and include one metadata note with the final caption. Keep master images separate from prepared web images. Avoid filenames such as final-final-2.jpg; encode the work identifier, view and credit in a repeatable pattern.
The exact template matters less than using the same one every time.
Establish one source of truth
If the website, CV, gallery PDF and studio spreadsheet all contain separate copies of the same information, they will eventually disagree.
Choose where each kind of fact is mastered:
- artwork data in the studio artwork record;
- exhibition data in the exhibition record;
- biography in one approved master document;
- CV entries in a structured chronology;
- contact and representation in a shared studio record;
- public pages generated or updated from those approved sources.
The website should never become the only copy of important information. It is a published view of a maintained record. Conversely, a private spreadsheet should not be assumed correct simply because it is internal; verification and change ownership still matter.
Use a short change log for meaningful edits: date, page or record, what changed, source and who approved it. This is especially useful when several galleries, assistants or estate stakeholders contribute information.
Assign responsibility by role
“The studio” is not an owner. A named person or partner is.
A small practice might use this division:
- Artist: approves work selection, language and sensitive facts.
- Studio contact: gathers complete material and confirms the source.
- Digital steward: edits, publishes, connects related records and checks the result.
- Gallery or press contact: verifies representation, availability and announcement timing where relevant.
One person may hold several roles. What matters is that the handoff is explicit. Everyone should know where to send an update and who can approve it.
Avoid giving broad publishing access simply because a system allows it. A smaller editorial chain produces a more consistent public record.
Run a monthly thirty-minute audit
Once a month, check the parts most likely to expire:
- Open the homepage on a phone. Does it represent the practice now?
- Review forthcoming and current exhibitions against venue pages.
- Test the main contact and gallery links.
- Compare the downloadable CV with the web chronology.
- Check the latest press and publication entries.
- Open recently updated pages and verify captions and credits.
- Review site monitoring for broken links or missing images.
- Confirm that recent files have entered the master archive, not only the website.
Keep the audit short. Larger editorial work goes onto a planned list rather than consuming the maintenance check.
Make an annual editorial decision
Maintenance preserves accuracy; editing preserves meaning.
Once a year, step back from individual updates and review the whole digital home:
- Does the opening sequence still reflect the strongest current work?
- Are series and project groupings still intelligible?
- Has the biography accumulated too many clauses and credentials?
- Is the selected CV genuinely selected?
- Are old low-resolution images weakening important projects?
- Which external links should be replaced, repaired or archived?
- Are there works or records that should become public—or return to private?
- Does the structure still serve the studio’s real requests?
This review can lead to a new edit without leading to a redesign. A durable system should absorb years of change before its visual foundations need to be reconsidered.
Protect the boundary between current and exposed
Speed should not override consent, rights or privacy.
Before publishing, confirm that images are cleared, photographer credits are exact, exhibition announcements are public, institutional acquisitions may be named and private collector information has been removed. Check that a PDF does not expose addresses, phone numbers, hidden comments or file metadata unintentionally.
If a fact is unresolved, keep it private and mark it for verification. Publishing a guess quickly creates more work than waiting for the correct record.
Current also does not mean showing live availability or prices by default. Those change quickly and may be governed by gallery relationships. Publish them only when the studio has an agreed process capable of keeping them accurate.
The simplest sustainable rhythm
For most independent artists and small studios, a durable rhythm looks like this:
- At every meaningful event: send one complete update packet.
- Within the agreed service window: publish it everywhere the fact belongs.
- Monthly: audit expiring information and broken paths.
- Quarterly: process deeper archive, accessibility and image improvements.
- Annually: re-edit the public story of the practice.
The artist should not need to remember every page affected by an exhibition, review or acquisition. That relationship mapping belongs to the system—and to the person stewarding it.
This is why Appesa treats ongoing care as part of the product from the beginning. A website is only a permanent exhibition if somebody continues to look after it. See how the stewardship relationship works.