ASTRO Programs · Founding artists
We're building AArtners to help artists present and sell their work through ASTRO-connected opportunities while keeping artists firmly in control of what happens to that work.
Artist control is not a feature we are adding later. It is one of the principles AArtners is being built around.
A single work may have several possible paths. It may be shown publicly in an artist portfolio. An original may be offered for sale. An artist may separately authorize reproductions. In the future, an artist may choose to approve a specific display arrangement at an ASTRO-connected property.
Those are different decisions. They should not be treated as one automatic permission.
Selling an original does not automatically give the buyer reproduction rights. Unless you separately agree otherwise in writing, you remain in control of whether copies, prints, or other reproductions may be made.
Showing an image publicly does not automatically authorize printing it, placing it on products, or using it in a property-linked sales arrangement.
If an artist authorizes a limited edition, a signed work, a certificate, or another promise that a buyer relies on, ASTRO should preserve that promise after a sale.
Each consequential use of a work — display, sale, reproduction, edition, property placement, property-linked commerce — needs its own authorization. Earlier participation enables later consideration; it does not silently authorize later use. Accepted obligations are preserved faithfully even when an artist withdraws future participation.
Original or source work
The artist-created work itself. For a one-of-one physical piece, this may be a painting, drawing, textile work, ceramic object, or sculpture. For photography or digital work, the artist may instead authorize particular printed or editioned outputs from a source image or master file.
Reproduction
An artist-authorized copy made from an approved image or source file, such as a fine-art print, framed print, canvas print, card, or another approved format.
Display only
The work is shown so people can see it. Display alone does not mean the work is for sale, that copies may be made, or that a property may market it beyond the approved arrangement.
Consignment
The artist allows another party to hold or show an original work for sale under agreed terms. Because consignment includes sale authority and responsibility for the work, it needs clearer rules than display alone.
Edition promise
A statement such as limited edition, open edition, signed and numbered, artist's proof, or certificate of authenticity. These statements matter because buyers may rely on them.
You do not need to use legal language or know how a platform should be built. Tell us what you would be comfortable with, what would worry you, and what you would need to approve before anything happened with your work.
Tell us what you actually offer today and whether that changes by medium, collection, or individual piece.
What distinctions matter most in your own practice?
For example, an artist might be comfortable with showing an image on a storefront page, sharing that image in an ASTRO social post, or selling the original work—but not automatically comfortable with producing prints, creating a limited edition, displaying the original at a property, offering the work on consignment, allowing discounts, or using the image in advertisements.
Tell us which permissions should never be assumed from another permission.
Examples might include:
What would make you comfortable approving a reproduction? What would make you decline?
Some works depend on texture, materials, scale, reflectivity, hand-applied detail, installation, or color effects that a print cannot faithfully represent.
Some works may also lack a photograph or source file good enough for reproduction.
Tell us what makes a reproduction faithful enough that you would stand behind it—and what kinds of work should never be reproduced through AArtners.
For example, an artist might say:
"Display only means the work may be shown at an approved place, but not offered for sale, moved elsewhere, discounted, or used in marketing without my permission."
A consignment arrangement might additionally need:
How would you explain the difference in your own words?
A future AArtners opportunity might allow an artist to approve an original work for display at a specific participating short-term rental property, where guests could learn about the artist and possibly discover authorized works for purchase.
Would that ever interest you?
Examples include:
What would you want permanently recorded once a sale occurs?
For example, you may want to keep updating:
But you may want sold-order facts permanently preserved, such as:
Where should ASTRO draw that line?
Before a sale occurs, should you be able to:
What should happen if an order is already pending or a buyer already purchased under earlier terms?
Examples might include:
Examples might include:
Tell us where assistance would help and where ASTRO should stay out of the way.
We especially want to hear about risks or needs that platforms often miss.
Write as much or as little as helps. Plain language is welcome. Examples are especially useful.
Your answers may differ by medium, collection, or individual work. That is helpful information, not a complication.
We are building AArtners around a simple principle:
“Artists should know what is happening with their work, choose what they permit, and be able to trust that the promises made around their work will be respected.”
