.art Domain
Where Art Finds Its Home Online
Register your .art domain from just £25.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
What is a .art domain?
The .art domain is the dedicated digital space for the global art community. Endorsed by museums, galleries, and individual artists worldwide, it provides an instantly recognisable address for creative expression.
Who should register .art?
Artists, galleries, museums, art collectives, and cultural institutions.
Why choose .art?
- Globally recognised art identity
- Ideal for portfolios and exhibitions
- Short and memorable address
- Trusted by major cultural institutions
Who runs .art, and since when
Registry data from the .art delegation record held by IANA, which maintains the internet's root zone. Eligibility comes from the registry's own policy, and the prices are ours.
- Extension type
- Generic (gTLD)
- Registry operator
- UK Creative Ideas Limited
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 2016
- Delegated 9 June 2016
- Who can register
- Open to anyone worldwide, with no art-world membership or verification
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £25.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
Who really uses a .art domain, and how
The .art domain is run from London. UK Creative Ideas Limited signed its ICANN registry contract in March 2016 and the extension reached the root zone that June, making it both one of the newer arrivals in this category and unusual in being operated from Britain.
The registry names large institutions among its adopters and the names check out. What is worth knowing is how those addresses are actually used. Point a browser at louvre.art and you arrive at louvre.fr. Point it at lacma.art and you arrive at lacma.org. Both museums hold the .art name and both keep their original domain as the real address. That is defensive registration rather than adoption, it is a sensible thing for a large institution to do, and it is not quite the story the marketing tells.
Take the useful lesson from that rather than the cynical one. A .art makes a good second address and a good campaign address. As a primary domain it suits people who do not already have twenty years of links pointing somewhere else: an individual artist, a new collective, a studio launching this year.
There is no eligibility test. The registry states plainly that .art is open to anyone, so the extension is not evidence that a soul has vetted you. Trademark rules are the only real constraint, and the usual one applies: do not register somebody else's name.
Is .art the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.art works well if
- You are an artist and yourname.com belongs to somebody who shares your name, which is how most people end up here.
- You are launching a studio, collective or project this year and have no existing domain history to protect.
- You want a separate address for an exhibition, a prize or a one-off show that sits apart from your main site.
- Your audience is international, so a country extension would tie you to a market you do not only sell to.
Look elsewhere if
- You already rank for your name on an established .com or .co.uk. Moving costs you link history for a cosmetic gain.
- You want the extension to imply you have been vetted. It cannot: registration is open to anybody who pays.
- You sell mainly to British buyers and want local visibility, which .art does nothing for.
Before paying the premium, check whether firstnamelastname.com is still free. For most artists it is. See .com pricing.
.art vs .com: which should you register?
For an artist this is the comparison that decides it, and the answer is less romantic than a registry would like. A personal .com built on your own name is usually still available, because most of us are not famous enough for anyone to have taken it.
.com wins on defaults. People type it, they trust it, and it never needs explaining down a phone line. .art wins when the .com you wanted has gone, or when the address is doing a job the .com cannot: sitting on a show poster and reading as art at a glance.
| .art | .com | |
|---|---|---|
| In the root zone since | 2016 | 1985 |
| Registry location | London | United States |
| Annual cost | Under twice a .com | Low |
| Name availability | Good, short names included | Poor for common words |
| Eligibility test | None | None |
.art domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .art domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyNo. The registry states that .art is open to anyone: artists, galleries, museums, schools, foundations, collectors, brands, or anybody interested in art and culture. There is no portfolio to submit, no body to join and no verification step. The practical consequence is that the extension describes an interest rather than certifying a credential, so treat it as branding rather than as proof of standing.
They register them, and mostly redirect them. The Louvre holds louvre.art and points it at louvre.fr; LACMA holds lacma.art and points it at lacma.org. Both are defensive registrations protecting a name rather than a move to a new address. That is worth knowing if the registry's list of institutional adopters is what is persuading you, because holding a name and using it are different things.
Only when the .com you want is taken. A .com is cheaper, typed by default and understood by everyone including the gallery director who writes it down wrong. Where .art earns its place is availability and tone: it lets you have the plain version of your name, and on a printed invitation it tells a reader what the site is before they open it.
Usually a few days rather than the near-instant IPS tag change a .uk domain gets. You will need the authorisation code from your current registrar, the domain unlocked, and the registration more than 60 days old. You keep whatever time was already paid for, and a further year goes on at the point of transfer. Our support team works seven days a week through the helpdesk if the code is being awkward.
Included with Your .art Domain
DNS Management
Full DNS zone editor to manage A, CNAME, MX, TXT, and all record types.
Email Forwarding
Set up professional email addresses and forward to any inbox.
Auto-Renewal
Never lose your domain with automatic renewal protection.
Free 10GB Mailbox
One 10GB mailbox (POP3/IMAP) included with every domain, on any TLD.
Other Creative Domains Extensions
Register your .art domain today
Secure your .art domain from just £25.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
