Celebrating 5 Years of .ART Domains

In the last 5 years since its launch, .ART has become one of the most popular domain extensions for creatives. It has a stable place among the top 5 fastest growing domain zones with remarkably high renewal rates through organic growth. Its 200K+ community includes creative organizations and personalities as well as industry giants including the Louvre, Marina Abramovic Institute, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Institute of Contemporary Arts of London, Amazon, Bank of America, Mercedes, Pixar, Kickstarter, Vivienne Westwood and many others. A website on .ART can be anything: a point of entry for all social media accounts, an online portfolio, a marketplace that generates a revenue stream, or a cool name for your NFT. Join us in celebrating .ART’s 5th anniversary with some of the top reasons and prime examples of why so many different personalities and organizations choose to be united under the .ART umbrella.

Make an impact with your domain name

Not many of us had the ability to choose our given names, but your digital identity is a whole different story. Using a .ART domain offers a solution that not only gives you the ability to use whatever name you choose, but also instantly connects your chosen name with the art world. 

A .ART domain defines you as an artist before anyone even visits your website, and this is a distinct advantage. Using the word “art” in your website address automatically puts visitors on notice that your business is a creative one. This is a simple but effective marketing tool built right into your online presence. By choosing yourname.art for your website, you create a point of entry for all the enquiries about your professional background, work, and projects. And you can finally stop worrying about aligning all your media platform profile names. 

Enhance your online presence

The services provided by .ART domains go well beyond digital identification. This applies whether you use traditional artistic mediums, play around with digital art, VR art, or crypto art like NFTs. Using a .ART domain comes with the possibility of Ethereum integration which makes it easy to remember crypto addresses and makes them an inherently all-in-one product. You can also simply link all your existing media accounts to one domain address, which is an excellent way to consolidate your online presence into one place. Why print business cards if you can have a digital one?

Get discovered easily

Using a .ART domain extension can also enhance your search presence. According to a study from The Domain Name Association (dated April, 2017), the relevance of words in the domain name itself and the URL helps web pages to rank better for specific keywords. The study also found that having a relevant domain name extension (like .ART) means that you need fewer inbound links to rank in top page search results than you would when using the more common domain extensions like .COM. Even if you already have an existing website with a different domain extension, you can still obtain a .ART address and simply use it as a forward to your existing site. This gives you more ownership of your name in the online space.

CASE STUDIES

In light of .ART’s 5 year anniversary celebrations, we spoke to some of its adopters and found out what shifts they are observing in the art and digital worlds, as well as what led them to choose a .ART domain for their work.

Shantell Martin – SHANTELLMARTIN.ART

Shantell Martin is an artist who has been with .ART since its inception. In the last few years she choreographed her first ballet at Boston Ballet, did a collaboration with the Whitney Museum Shop, a show with Kendrick Lamar, took overall the screens of The Oculus in World Trade Center and created May Room, a space for contemplation and peace on Governor’s Island in NYC. She reflects on the development of digital space that has taken place since:

“People have a more digital presence than five years ago. The definition of “being online” has changed immensely, and now this encompasses AR, Discord, NFTs, etc.It’s so many more things than it used to be.”

Steve Miller – STEVEMILLER.ART

Steve Miller is a multimedia artist and one of .ART’s early adopters. In the last five years he has maanged to published a trilogy series about art, technology, and the environment. His newest book Surfing the Cosmos (to be released in Summer 2022) completes a three-part series launched in 2017 with a focus on the environment. All of the books of the series fall under a project entitled Health of the Planet for which he secured HEALTHOFTHEPLANET.ART, and a US trademark. After staying true to his .ART identity all these years, he explains: 

“As the domain space heats up with a plethora of options, it’s important to have a clear identity. .ART is explicit in foregrounding the importance of the content. You come to .ART for a deep dive into creativity and innovation.”

Hohmann Art Gallery and Advisory – HOHMANN.ART

Christian Hohmann, President of HOHMANN, Inc., shares what he sees as a current issue of the otherwise synergetic marriage between art and digital: “As a community we have not yet learned how to translate the in-person experience of going to a gallery or an artist studio into a similar digital experience. I wouldn’t welcome clients to the gallery, immediately drag them into my warehouse and show them every single work of art by every one of my artists, right? We need less volume and more quality.” He adds that “it is increasingly hard to remain relevant if your digital presence doesn’t match your physical presence, because fewer people will actually come to the gallery before making a buying decision.”

David Spriggs – DAVIDSPRIGGS.ART

David Spriggs is a Canadian-British installation artist known for his large-scale 3D ephemeral installations that layer transparent images. His work is in the permanent collections of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the National Museum of Quebec. He shares: “I chose .ART in order to bring context to my website name. I prefer that my artwork be seen for itself rather than as a commercial product for which other domain zones stand.”

Bitforms Gallery – BITFORMS.ART

Bitforms Gallery is based in San Francisco and New York and represents established, mid-career, and emerging artists that are critically engaged with new technologies. Spanning the rich history of media art through its current developments, the gallery’s program offers an incisive perspective on the fields of digital, internet, time-based, and new media art forms. The founder of Bitforms Gallery Steven Sacks says, “I’ve been telling my artists to get .ART because .COM is related to commerce and business and .ART immediately puts you in a place that people understand you in the art platform”

MacKenzie Art Gallery – MACKENZIE.ART

John Hampton the Interim Executive Director & CEO of this prominent Canadian gallery states:

“We chose .ART because it instantly communicates our mission and identity. Rather than identifying ourselves as a commercial entity (.COM) or situating us within the borders of our country (.CA), the .ART signifier identifies us within a community of artists and institutions, each operating in their own context, but also as part of a global community.”

Kickstarter platform – KICKSTARTER.ART

To date, the Public Benefit Corporation Kickstarter Arts has raised more than $290 million for over 76,000 artistic projects across the art, dance, photography, and theater categories. The team behind Kickstarter comments: “.ART allows us to speak directly to the arts community in a more targeted and focused way.”

Listings platform – JOBS.ART

Jobs.art was created by Art Handler—a publication that makes the inner workings of the art world its focus. This website attracts employers in the industry from all across the globe and aims to connect skilled applicants to the best museums, galleries, curators, and other art handling positions. Clynton Lowry, founder of jobs.art, says: “Essentially, .ART has provided half the marketing for us. It’s like the readymade, but for online identities.”

Whitewall Magazine – WHITEWALL.ART

Whitewall is an independent art and luxury lifestyle magazine published quarterly. The magazine states that its aim is to go beyond the stark white walls of the art gallery to reveal the personalities that shape the art world and other creative industries. Michael Klug, the magazine’s owner, shares: “when you’re on a .ART domain, you know that you will be looking at quality content. It’s giving a house and a roof to this entire community of art creators and influencers.”

Brafa Art Fair – BRAFA.ART

The Brafa Art Fair, created in 1956, is one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious art fairs, famous for the high quality fine art, antiques, modern and contemporary art and design it offers. Bruno Nelis, PR & Communication Director of the museum, clarifies their vision: “Before we had a brafa.be website on a Belgian domain and we felt that it was important to get access to a community that was global.”

Art installation – SKALAR.ART

SKALAR is a large-scale art installation that explores the complex impact of light and sound on human perception. Created by light artist Christopher Bauder and musician Kangding Ray, this monumental artwork is a reflection on the fundamental nature and essence of human emotions. Christopher Bauder adds: “.ART is descriptive and short. One can quickly identify the respective genre and its contents. It’s immediately clear that any website within this domain zone is related to art, so the viewer has a clear understanding of what works they’ll find within it. I think a .ART domain is the perfect solution to display art related content on the web.”