Updating your Axis Directory profile

Your Axis Directory profile is where you can upload your artworks, projects, a statement about your work and CV information. 

What's included in an Axis Directory Profile?

Your Axis Directory profile is where you can upload your artworks, projects, a statement about your work and CV information. You can also upload news, events, blogs, workshops and merchandise to your profile and have links to your other web presences such as your own website or social media. Your profile also includes your UK base, occupations, activities, artforms and tags which helps people find you in searches.

Updating your profile

When you initially sign in you'll be presented with options to upload new content to your profile such as artworks, projects, events, workshops etc. Simply click on a block, complete all of the required information, upload an image and click 'Publish'. You also have the option to add more information and media by clicking 'Publish and continue'.

To manage all aspects of your profile click the 'My profile' tab on your dashboard. On the left hand side you'll see a series of links where you can edit and update existing information - 'About me', 'My artwork', 'My profile image' etc. You can also upload new content from here as well.

Any new content you upload will appear on your profile (please note that some content such as merchandise may take a few hours to appear and will be added when the website is re-indexed). New content will also appear on the Discover page where people can search and filter results based on the type of content. If that person follows you, they can click 'My feed' and it will just present content from people they follow (sign-in required).

How to upload artworks

To upload artworks to your profile, sign in and click the 'Artwork' button that appears on your dashboard or click 'My profile' followed by 'My artwork' and click 'Add Artwork'. Add a title and description and upload an image by clicking the 'Add image' box and browse to the image file on your computer (images should be Jpegs, at least 1000 pixels along the shortest edge and a max file size of 5MB). You can then either click 'Publish' to publish the work to your profile or click 'Publish and continue' to add more information and media.

Any new artworks you upload will also appear on the Discover page of our website.

How to re-order artworks

To re-order your artworks sign-in and click 'My profile' followed by 'My Artwork' in the left hand menu. Above your artworks you'll see a link that says 'Set your own display order'. Click this and you'll be taken to a page where you can order your artworks by dragging and dropping them.

How to update your CV

To update your CV, sign in and click 'My profile' followed by 'My CV' in the left hand menu. You are presented with a text box which you can either type your CV information directly into or copy and paste from a Word doc, Notepad or similar.

You can apply simple formatting such as bold, italic, bullet points and links. To add a paragraph break between CV information, click the carriage return/enter key on your keyboard. To add a single line break, hold down the shift key while clicking the carriage return/enter key.

Please note that the page where you enter your CV can time out if you are on there a long time. We therefore recommmend you prepare your CV in advance in a Word document or similar and then copy and paste it into the box.

How to update your artist statement

To update your statement, sign in and click 'My profile' followed by 'About me' in the left hand menu. Scroll down to the box that says 'Artist Statement' and type your statement in here or copy and paste from MS Word, Notepad or something similar.

You can apply simple formatting such as bold, italic, bullet points and links. To add a paragraph break between CV information, click the carriage return/enter key on your keyboard. To add a single line break, hold down the shift key while clicking the carriage return/enter key.

Once you've finished editing your statement click 'Publish changes' at the bottom of the page and this will make the changed live on your profile.

Please note that the page where you enter your statement can time out if you are on there a long time. We therefore recommmend you prepare your statement in advance in a Word document or similar and then copy and paste it into the box.

How to upload video and audio

To add video or audio clips to your profile you first need to upload an artwork or a project.

  • Sign in and click the 'Artwork' or 'Project' buttons on your dashboard or go to 'My profile' and click 'My artwork' or 'My projects' and create either a new artwork or project.

  • For the artwork or project, enter a title, brief description and upload a still representative image for the video or audio clip.

  • Click 'Publish and continue' then click the 'Media' tab.

  • Click on one of the empty boxes with the '+' sign in it and from the 'Choose media type' drop-down list select either audio or video.

  • Paste the link in from Vimeo or Youtube for videos or Mixcloud or Soundcloud for audio clips.

  • Click 'Done'.

  • Click the 'Details' tab and enter the rest of the information for the artwork or project then click 'Publish' to make the changes live on your profile.


How to upload news, events and other content to your profile

To upload news, events and other content to your profile such as workshops or merchandise, sign in and click the relevant button on your dashboard or click 'My profile' followed by one of the menu items on the left hand side. Enter the relevant information for the content you're uploading (e.g, title, description, date and an image) and click 'Publish' to make it live on your profile.

How to add Highlights to your profile

The carousel of images that appears at the top of your profile is where you can highlight up to five pieces of your existing content (artworks, projects, events, news etc). To update this sign-in and click 'My profile' followed by 'Highlighted content' in the left hand menu. Start typing the title of your artwork, project, event etc into the box and all relevant items will start to appear. Select the one you wish to highlight and click 'Add'. Once you have selected your five highlights, click 'Save'.

You can re-order your highlighted content by clicking on the right hand side of each item and dragging and dropping it to a specific order. Click 'Save' to save the order.

Please note that you can only highlight content that has an image associated with it.

How to add web links to your profile

If you have links on other websites such as Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo etc, you can add these and they will appear as clickable icons on your profile. To add links, sign in and click 'My profile' followed by 'About me' in the left hand menu. Scroll down to where it says 'Elsewhere on the web' and paste/type the URL into the relevant box and click 'Publish changes'. You can also add a link to your own website here as well.

How to add tags and keywords

Tags and keywords are used in searches to help people find you on our website. These are located in the 'About me' section of your Dashboard as well.

Occupations and Activities are set words/terms you select and are displayed on your profile and used on the Discover page as search options.

Artforms and Contexts are from set lists and are used as filters/search terms on the Discover page and in free-text searches. Any Artforms and Contexts you add to your artworks and projects are displayed on your profile.

Tags are free-text words/terms that you type in and are used in searches across the site. Any Tags you add to your artworks and projects are displayed on your profile.

To add/manage Artforms, Contexts and Tags first open the content item to edit it (Artwork, Project, Event etc). Then click the 'Details' tab and you'll see the Artforms, Contexts and Tags in there. Once you've added/amended these then click 'Publish'.

How to upload your profile picture

To upload a profile image, sign in and click 'My profile' followed by 'My profile image' in the left hand menu. Click the box with the '+' sign in it and browse to the image file on your computer (images should be Jpegs, at least 1000 pixels along the shortest edge and a max file size of 5MB). Alternatively you can select one of your artworks to be your profile image. Once you've uploaded your profile image, scroll down and click 'Publish changes'.

How to add collections to your profile

'Collections' is where you can group different pieces of your content such as artworks, events and news in one place. These then appear as a tab on your profile. There are lots of reasons you may wish to create a collection - you could have content related to one specific project that you'd like to present together or maybe a series of artworks dealing with a theme or that have been shown in an exhibition.

  • To create a collection sign in and click 'Collection' in the left menu. This creates a blank collection.

  • Give your collection a title and brief description and click 'Add'.

  • You can now start adding things to your collection. Start typing the name/title of a piece of your existing content (artworks, projects, news, events etc) and they start to appear.

  • When the relevant piece of content appears, select it and click 'Add'.

  • Once you've finished adding things to your collection, click 'Save' and this makes it online and appears on your profile under the 'Collections' tab.

  • You can order items within a collection or collections themselves by hovering over 'Re-order' and dragging to a specific position. Remember to click 'Save' to save the order.

  • Note that only content items with an image can be added to a collection.


Once you've created a collection, why not share it by clicking the social share icons (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest) at the top of each collection.

My images appear the wrong way on your site

If you take your photos on a mobile or tablet device, you can rotate images on these devices, or it auto-rotates it to the correct orientation, but in the metadata it's still the incorrect orientation so when you upload it somewhere it defaults to this incorrect orientation.

The solution is to open the image on your computer (rather than a tablet or mobile), then 'save as' so you save a copy of the image with the correct orientation.