Introduction

Folders allow you to integrate additional content within your cards, beyond the standard fields provided by the system.

They are available across all main sections of Artshell — Artworks, Artists, Contacts and Events — and provide a structured space where you can add extended texts, documentation, images, files and other multimedia materials. Thanks to Folders, you can customise your database and organise your information in a clear and coherent way, keeping the main content of the card separate from supplementary materials. This structure ensures clearer data management and a professional presentation when exporting or sharing content. Below you can find examples of folders in the different sections:

• Artworks
• Artists
• Contacts
• Events

Artworks

Within the Artworks section, you can create folders to organise publications, artwork descriptions, invoices, condition reports, and more. You can therefore create folders tailored to the specific types of works you archive.
 

 

 

Artists

Within the Artists section, you can create folders to organise documents such as extended biographies, critical texts, press reviews, representation agreements, administrative documents, curatorial materials, or presentation dossiers.

 

Contacts

Within the Contacts section, you can create folders to organise legal documents such as invoices, loan agreements, representation mandates, as well as additional documents containing personal data.

Events

Within the Events section, you can create folders to organise press releases, event budgets, reports for sponsors or public bodies, contracts with artists, speakers or partners, event timelines, and floor plans.

Creating Folders

Folders can be created from two main areas in Artshell:

1. From the Settings Panel

If this is your first time using Folders, we recommend defining them in advance from the Settings panel. This allows you to structure your database architecture by creating all the main folders you expect to need, so they are ready when you associate them with individual cards.

Click the  icon at the bottom left, then select Lock & Folders. Here you will find the list of the four sections that support folders — Artists, Artworks, Contacts and Events — along with the total number of folders in each section. If your account is new, the number will be zero.

After deciding which folders to create (also based on the examples provided in the Introduction), enter the relevant section and click Add new to create one.

Finally, click Save to confirm.

2. Within individual cards

If you prefer to build your archive progressively, you can create Folders directly within individual cards in the Artworks, Artists, Contacts and Events sections. This approach is useful if you do not need to define a global structure from the start, but prefer to add folders as needs arise during your work.

In particular, you can access folders:

• From the Details tab - at the top left in the card;

• by clicking Add folder + when in edit mode.

From here, you can create a new folder for that specific card by clicking the + icon, typing the new folder name in the search bar, and clicking create.

Once a folder has been created, you will see the following information:

• The number next to each folder indicates how many attachments it contains.
• The date on the right shows when the folder was added to the card.
• The  icon allows you to move attachments to another folder or delete the folder itself.

Before continuing, let us take a closer look at what attachments are.

Folder Structure: Attachments

Folders are made up of attachments, which represent individual content units. To create a new attachment, open the folder and click the + icon to the right of the search bar. In the example below, you can see an empty attachment inside the folder “Publications”.

Each attachment includes a title, main text field, the option to add a date (day, month and year), a multilingual menu to complete the content in Italian and French, if required.

When you place the cursor in the Start writing… text field, an editor appears at the bottom with three icons that allow you to format the text and add multimedia elements such as images, videos, files, a separator line or an image slider. To learn how to upload files, images and videos, refer to the dedicated Medialibrary article.

If you highlight a portion of text, an additional formatting menu appears, allowing you to modify the colour, style and alignment, or insert a link.

Once you have completed your changes, click Save to confirm.

After saving, the attachment can be managed using the icons displayed at the top:

•  to edit
•  to delete
•  to lock.

The lock icon is particularly important: a locked attachment (closed padlock) will not be displayed when the card is exported or shared. This allows you to keep private or internal-use content separate from content intended for sharing. You can learn more by reading the dedicated Lock function article.

Clicking the X returns you to the attachment list within the folder. Within a folder, you can also use the search bar to quickly find a specific attachment. From the  menu, you can move the attachment to another folder, lock it, or delete it.

Advanced Folder management

From the Settings panel — via the  icon at the bottom left — select Lock & Folders to view the four sections that support folders (Artists, Artworks, Contacts and Events), along with the total number of folders in each section.

By entering a section, you can view all existing folders, search for folders using the search bar, create a new folder by clicking Add new.

When creating a new folder, enter its name in your account’s main language and in the other available languages if you intend to share your folder content with an international audience.

Next to each folder name, in brackets, you will see the total number of attachments it contains. These attachments may belong to different cards within the same section. Here too, the  icon allows you to move attachments or delete the folder. As mentioned earlier, a folder cannot be deleted if it contains attachments; you must first move them to another folder.

Finally, using the hand icon, you can drag folders to define the order in which they appear within cards. The order set here will be reflected throughout the system.

Conclusions

Folders are a flexible and powerful tool for organising additional content within your cards while maintaining a clear and manageable structure. When used correctly, they allow you to enrich Artworks, Artists, Contacts and Events with in-depth materials, documentation and multimedia content, without compromising the clarity of the main information. Careful and well-planned folder management — both at card level and from the Settings panel — ensures full control over shared or exported content, always guaranteeing a professional and coherent presentation aligned with your needs.