FAQ

Questions

What can I send to my archive address?: Photographs of works, and documents like invoices, consignment notes or condition reports. Send from any address you have authorised — your own account address always works, and it is worth adding others too: a son, daughter, nephew, studio assistant or photographer who helps you can all send to it once you have added their address.
Does the AI decide what goes in my catalogue?: No. Extraction produces a draft that sits in your inbox until you approve it. Automated reading of an image or document can be wrong, so nothing reaches the catalogue without you agreeing to it, and you can edit any field before or after.
Who can see my work?: Nobody but you, unless you publish a portfolio. Your archive is private by default, and portfolios are off until you turn one on. Even then, you choose which works appear; prices show only where you opt in, and contact and provenance details are never published.
Where does my portfolio live?: On its own address, separate from the app. That keeps a public page genuinely public and fast to load, with none of the sign-in machinery attached to it.
Can I use my own domain?: Yes. A subdomain such as art.yourdomain.com works with every DNS provider, and www.yourdomain.com works everywhere too — your bare domain (yourdomain.com, nothing in front) then redirects to it: add the two A records your portfolio settings show and every link to the bare name, https:// included, arrives at your site. Serving from www with the bare domain redirecting to it is how most large websites work — google.com and amazon.com both do exactly this. Serving the site AT the bare name itself is the one shape with a restriction: that works only when your domain’s DNS is hosted at Cloudflare. Read the domain setup guide
Will connecting my domain affect my existing website or email?: No. The records you add affect only the exact names shown in your portfolio settings — nothing else on your domain, and never your email. If you already have a website, keep it: a subdomain lets the two sites live side by side. Read the domain setup guide
Is my work used to train AI models?: No. Your images and documents are processed to produce your own draft entries and nothing else. They are not sold and not used to train third-party models.
Can AI crawlers use my public website and images?: Only as far as you allow. Every portfolio carries a three-way setting: Allow AI; AI search only, the default, which lets AI search tools find and cite your work while opting out of model training; and Block AI, which opts out of AI search and training as well. Your choice is published everywhere crawlers look — robots.txt, response headers on your pages and image files, and a machine-readable Content Signals line. Classic search engines such as Google are unaffected by this setting. Plain honesty: these are published opt-outs that reputable AI companies state they honour, not a technical barrier — the same honour system every website on the internet relies on. One nuance: the shared portfolio address hosts many artists in one robots.txt, so its file-wide signal line states the most protective posture while the per-crawler rules carry your exact choice; a portfolio on your own domain publishes signals that are exactly yours.
Can I get my data out?: Yes. You can export your catalogue, and you should keep your own copies of original image files regardless — Practice Archive is an archive of the record, not a backup service for your masters.
What happens to my archive if I stop paying?: Your data remains available for export for at least 30 days after an account closes, and any published portfolio is withdrawn. The Terms set this out in full.
A gallery lists my work on its page — can I change or remove that?: Galleries have always advertised the work they hold, and a gallery using Practice Archive can catalogue and show works by artists who are not on the platform, credited by name. If you are named on a gallery's page and want something corrected — the credit, the details, or the listing itself — email meli@mail.thepracticearchive.com and we will take it up with the gallery directly. If you join Practice Archive yourself, your own archive and portfolio remain entirely under your control, and a gallery can only ever show works you have explicitly shared with it.
A gallery has created a catalogue of my work — what does that mean?: A gallery that represents you can keep a catalogue of your work on Practice Archive in a practice held in your name, and show the works it exhibits. The gallery manages that record only until you take it over: ask the gallery to send you an invitation, and claiming it makes you the owner — from that moment the gallery can no longer edit anything, and keeps only what any artist can grant, permission to show the works you have shared, which you can change or withdraw at any time. If you already have your own Practice Archive account, you can claim the gallery's record alongside it and email meli@mail.thepracticearchive.com to have the two merged. If the record should not exist at all, email us and we will take it up with the gallery.