What is an Artspace
Artspaces are communal areas on Magma where members can access shared drawing boards, chat channels, art jams, and content. These spaces can be private for a group of friends, or a team working on a project, or open to join if you are growing a community around a fandom or some other creative interest.
We have an introductory guide that covers how to create a new Artspace and goes into some of the different features.
Why people join Artspaces
Art Jams emerged as a place to meet other artists with shared interests. Artspaces are where more of those people can keep gathering, chatting, and creating together.
We all want somewhere to belong and to nerd out about our favourite things, especially if that involves drawing. When people join your Artspace, that's what people are looking for there: Community.
How to set up your Artspace
If you decide to start an Artspace, below on some tips that will help you set one up.
Decide on a theme
A simple Artspace for drawing anything with friends is fine, but it might not be interesting for others to join. If you want to grow a community, choose a specific theme such as your favorite fandom or subject matter.
Complete your Artspace profile
If you want people to join your Artspace, they need to know what it's about. And to make the preview for it on the Discovery page to be appealing, make sure that you have:
- a profile picture
- a banner image
- clear Description section
- detailed About section
- a few public gallery images
This all adds to the apeal, but also makes it easier for like-minded people to find you.
Good Artspace channel structure
Once people join your Artspace, you want them to be able to find their way around easily. Part of this means organizing your channels into categories and having a clear purpose for each.
We have a few different channel types:
Text channel: this is mainly for group chatting. You can also keep files and canvases here in the Boards section.
Files: primarily for creating canvases or storinmg reference images
Voice: for hosting large voice calls. Blaze subscribers can use webcam and screensharing here too
Content Page: for sharing important resources, posts, links, and video.
Different channels can be sorted into categories for grouping relevant channels together. For example, it is a good idea to have a category at the top of the channel list for your Welcome & Rules, and perhaps your General chat channel or main drawing area.
Here's an example of how one Artspace set out their channels...
How to set up an announcements channel
If you want to have a channel that members can see but not chat in, such as a channel only for announcements, then these are the steps to to it:
Go to the Roles sectrion in your Artspace settings;
Create a new role and enable the View Chat and React to Messages permissions;
Save the role
Tap the three dots next to the role and then Assign to all members
Next you will have to create the channel...
Create a new Text channel in your Artspace;
In the channel settings, change who can access the channel to your new role
Save your channel settings and now only you and your admins can type messages there for your members to see.
Moderation
A healthy and thriving community needs good moderation. If trolls and rude behaviour aren't kept under control, it makes the environment unwelcoming and people might choose to leave.
First have a clear set of rules in a dedicated channel so that all members know what is expected and allowed. Having this rules channel also makes it easier for your admin team to reference and enforce.
Next, gather a couple of other people to be admins in your Artspace to help you manage it. We can't be online 24/7 so having a team that you trust can be really helpful to tackle issues or welcome new users when you aren't available.
We also recommend creating a dedicated private channel for you and your admins to be able to discuss issues, ask questions, or plan events. Read more about how to do this in our Restricted Channels guide.
To keep your chat channels clean and free from inapprorpiate language, consider enabling the automatic moderation setting for each channel and jam that you create.
Be sure to check your Artspace daily for new members and to review activity in the channels. Your memebrs will appreciate quick response to questions and issues.
To summaraize:
have clear rules for your artspace
get a team of admins or moderators to help you
address problems quickly
try the automatic moderation feature for chat channels.
daily check-in to greet new users and answer questions
Roles and recognition
Some members stand out from others by leading discussions, hosting Art Jams, or producing high-quality content for the Artspace. One way that you can highlight these users is to create and assign a dedicated role for them and make them separate from other online users in your Members list.
You can do the same thing with your Admins so that your members can easily ping an admin if they encounter any problems in the Artspace. Make sure that you enable the Display role members separately setting for the role.
You can also use custom roles to adjust permissions and control what members can do in your Artspace.
Make them feel welcome, stay engaged
The challenge with growing a community, is keeping your members engaged. Start by welcoming new members to your space, asking what brought them there, or what about your Artspace theme appeals to them specifically.
Check in with your Artspace daily to welcome those new members, answer any questions, or deal with any issue that arose since you last logged in.
Keep conversations going. When people ask questions or want to discuss a certain topic, get involved. Encourage your admins to also be your main party of chatters that keep the conversations alive, or give a special role to other members that do.
A reason to be there
For your community to grow and thrive, you have to give people a reason to be there. It's not enough to simply have the same interests... you have to do things together. Maybe that is just chatting, and that's fine. Be sure to interact when people are talking and be sure to start your own interesting discussions. But there is more that you can do...
Regular hangouts
The obvious thing to do is to host regular drawing sessions in the Artspace. You can do this with themed, members-only Art Jams or regular drawing boards that are ongoing. Set a clear time for these in advance and let people know when they should come online and draw. Use your Feed or the Everyone mention in chat channels to notify your members.
Monthly banner change
Try hosting a drawing hangout each month to update your Artspace banner. This makes your members a part of the identity of the Artspace.
Create content together
If you have a fandom Artspace, how about creating a meme, comic, or informative guide together? When members create cool things together, make sure it goes onto the Artspace feed to celebrate them.
Have a space for suggestions
You are building a space that serves your members. Have a space where they can give feedback and suggestions for the Artspace whether that relates to the structure or activities in the space.
Artspace growth
Growing your Artspace takes time and effort. For people to find it, you have to show your Artspace doing things. Here's what we suggest:
Complete your Artspace profile
We mentioned this above, but it's worth repeating: a complete profile will make your Artspace more appeal to new people who see it. In the same way you would probably not follow a profile with no bio or avatar image, you probably wouldn't join an Artspace if no effort went into the profile.
This makes your Artspace thumbnail look good too!
Host public Art Jams
One of the best ways to have new people to discover your Artspace is by host public Art Jams with the same theme as your space. If you're into Star Wars and have a fandom Artspace for it, host a Jedi fan art Art Jam. Other people across Magma that share the same interest might join the Art Jam and see that it's hosted by community.
To host a public Art Jam from your Artspace
Go to your Artspace in the dashboard
Go to the Art Jams section
Create a new Art Jam
Make sure that the Publish on Public Art Jams List is toggled on
(You can also make your Art Jam publicly listed or members-only after you've created it by opening the Art Jam settings)
Post public gallery images on Artspace profile
When you and your community do things together in the Artspace, post it to the Artspace profile gallery. Make sure that you set the visibility for the post to Public so that even people who are not members yet will be able to see the post.
Making public gallery posts also improved the look of your community in the Artspace Discovery page.
----
We hope this guide helps you to grow a thriving community on Magma!