ArtsQuest is a Canadian online marketplace that specializes in celebrating the work of fine artists, artisans and crafts people in Canada and bringing the best of Canadian creativity to people from around the world. Therefore in keeping with our vision we have a juried application and approval process. Please read through the requirements prior to submitting your application which you will find at the bottom of this page.
Criteria for Fine Art Inclusion
1. Canadian: Artists must live and create their work in Canada.
2. Age Requirement: You must be a minimum of 18 years of age.
3. Fine Art: Acceptance will be based on a high degree of skill and originality of design by the artist. We reserve the right to decline acceptance of an artist’s body of work in whole or in part.
4. Hand-made: Original art work must have some hand-made component to it. It cannot be created through automation or wholly assembled from prefabricated materials or created from third party designs. Some examples of this include:
- Jewellery cannot solely be assembled with prefabricated beads and components. It must be supplemented with a hand-made component such as wire wrapping or creating the links, hooks, latches or settings.
- Stained glass or hooked rugs must be created from your own design or pattern.
- If using a mould for ceramics, concrete, plastic or other mould-able materials, the mould pattern must be your own design.
Acceptable edge cases would include lithographs, giclees and photographic prints. It would also include re-purposed materials or manufactured items that are made into a piece of art such as metal or wood sculptures, furniture, jewellery or other mixed media art. This is not a comprehensive list of possible edge cases. Other possibilities will be taken into consideration during the application process.
5. High Quality Professional Images: The ArtsQuest marketplace caters to fine art and craft from the visual arts and therefore we can only accept images that we consider to be of high quality and professionally photographed, either by you or someone else. High quality doesn’t mean your images have to be done by a professional photographer but they need to be in focus with proper lighting (no shadows or washed out areas), no glare from glass, and no cluttered backgrounds which are not meant to contribute to the overall picture. The primary image of your artwork must be properly cropped without any frame or matting. We do give you the opportunity to upload multiple secondary images to fully represent your product, such as from different angles or with a matt or frame. Please note the minimum image upload size is 1,920,000 pixels (1.92 megapixels). This number is the total pixel count related to the length x width. For example; 1.92 MP is equal to 1600 pixels x 1200 pixels, 1490 x 1290 or 1386 x 1386.
6. Materials: We cannot approve certain pieces of art to be included in your store if any of the materials used to create it are derived from any part of a threatened or endangered species whether plant or animal. This does not mean you won’t be approved for a store altogether.
7. Cultural Appropriation: (definition: the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.) We will not accept any work that is considered to be culturally appropriated.
We invite you to get started now by filling out our Juried Application Form below.