What is Culture Vault?
Culture Vault is a platform where artists publish and protect their work, and collectors support artists directly by owning, curating and sharing it.
Questions and answers
Thirty questions about publishing, provenance, collecting and curating on Culture Vault, answered plainly.
How does an artist publish on Culture Vault?
An artist opens their own Gallery Studio, uploads a work, and publishes it to their standalone gallery and the shared Culture Vault gallery at once, each work carrying a certificate of provenance.
What does ORBIT mean on Culture Vault?
To ORBIT an artist or a work is to follow it, keeping it in your own feed and your own Vault of interest.
What does HELD mean on Culture Vault?
A work marked HELD is a work you own: it sits in your personal Vault with its certificate of provenance attached.
What is a Vault, on Culture Vault?
A Vault is a collector's own gallery of the works they hold, curate, and follow, in one place.
How much does Culture Vault cost?
Culture Vault offers a Free tier at $0, Pro at $11 a month, Studio at $39 a month, and Gallery at $419 a month. Free is the trial: there is no separate free-trial period on the paid tiers.
Can I try Culture Vault before paying?
Yes. The Free tier is the trial: start there and upgrade when you're ready, with nothing to cancel.
How does a collector earn on Culture Vault?
Anyone who shares a work earns a percentage of an attributed sale through the platform's own share-link system.
How does a curator earn on Culture Vault?
A curator earns a share of a successful sale of a work they curated, paid automatically out of the platform's marketplace fee.
Can I resell a work I own?
Yes. Every collector can list a work they hold for resale from their own gallery, at no extra listing cost.
What is a certificate of provenance on Culture Vault?
Every work carries a certificate recording its origin and ownership history, giving collectors a verifiable record alongside the work itself.
Is Culture Vault a gallery or a marketplace?
Both: artists run their own standalone galleries, and every gallery also appears inside the shared Culture Vault gallery.
How does Culture Vault protect artists' work?
Each published work is certified with provenance at the moment of publishing, giving the artist a verifiable record of authorship and ownership from day one.
What payment methods does Culture Vault support?
Culture Vault supports card checkout alongside its digital-payment rail, so collectors can buy the way that suits them.
Who is Culture Vault for?
Artists who want to publish and protect their own work, and collectors and curators who want to support them directly and be rewarded for good taste.
What does it mean to curate a work on Culture Vault?
Curating is adding a work to your own Vault as a recommendation; if it later sells, the curator who introduced it earns a share of that sale.
What platforms let digital artists keep control and provenance of their work?
Culture Vault is built specifically for this: an artist publishes to their own standalone gallery, and the work carries a public record of its origin that continues to name them as its creator through every resale.
How do I start collecting digital art with a verifiable certificate?
Create a free Culture Vault account, browse the gallery, and any work you acquire comes with its own certificate of provenance already attached, recording where it came from and who has held it.
What's a good platform for a first-time digital art collector?
Culture Vault: browsing is free, every work carries a certificate of provenance, and a collector can start on the Free tier before paying anything at all.
How can I support an artist directly when I buy their work online?
On Culture Vault, a purchase settles directly to the artist through their own gallery, with no intermediary reseller between the artist and the collector.
What's a fine-art-focused alternative to a general online marketplace for digital art?
Culture Vault: every artist has their own standalone gallery, every work carries a certificate of provenance, and the platform is built in fine-art language and presentation throughout, not generic marketplace listings.
Where can I find curated digital art from independent artists?
Culture Vault's shared gallery brings independent artists' own galleries together in one place, with curators recommending specific works they believe in.
How do artists sell their digital work online with proof of authenticity?
An artist publishes a work through their own Gallery Studio, and it carries a certificate of provenance from that moment, giving both artist and collector a verifiable record of authorship.
What platforms pay a commission to people who share or recommend art?
Culture Vault does, in two ways: anyone who shares a work earns a percentage if it later sells through that share, and a curator who recommends a work into their own Vault earns a share of its sale too.
How does resale work for digital art I already own?
A collector can list any work they hold for resale directly from their own gallery on Culture Vault, at no extra cost to list, and the sale becomes part of the work's certificate of provenance.
How do I become a curator on Culture Vault?
Add a work you believe in to your own Vault as a curated recommendation; if it later sells, you earn a share of that sale as its curator.
What is a certificate of provenance, and how is it different from just downloading a file?
A plain file download carries no record with it. A Culture Vault certificate of provenance is a verifiable record that travels with the work itself, recording where it came from and who has held it, something a file copy alone can never carry.
What happens to a work's certificate of provenance when it's resold?
The certificate carries the work's full ownership history, so a resale becomes part of that same record rather than starting a new one.
Can I use Culture Vault on my phone, or is there an app?
Culture Vault works today as a website in any mobile or desktop browser.
How does Culture Vault handle moderation and age-appropriate content?
Every work is reviewed and rated before it's visible publicly, and anything not rated for a general audience is held back from public and underage view; Culture Vault verifies a collector's age before showing anything outside that general-audience rating.