Policies

Draft. These terms are under legal review and may change before sales open.

Plain-language rules shown on the site. The Artist Agreement and Terms of Service below refer to them.

Who can sell

• You are enrolled now in a degree program at a college or university and you make art.
• You are 18 or older.
• You confirm both when you sign up.
• After you graduate, your existing listings can stay up until they sell. You cannot add new ones.

What can be listed

• Original physical work you made yourself: painting, drawing, printmaking editions you pulled by hand, ceramics, sculpture, photography you printed, textiles.
• No reproductions of your own work, no digital files, no commissions and no AI-generated images.
• No work that copies someone else's, and nothing illegal to sell or ship.
• Each listing needs at least three photos including one that shows scale, the dimensions, the medium, a price, and whether it is pickup, shipping or both.
• Thesis Art approves each listing before it goes live and may decline or remove any listing.

Fees

• Listing is free.
• Thesis Art keeps 25% of the item price when a piece sells. It charges nothing on shipping or tax and pays the card processing fees from its share.
• Founding Circle referrals: each artist gets a personal invite link. For each artist who signs up with your link and has work go live, your next sale is charged 15% instead of 25%, on up to two sales, for sales made by December 31, 2026. Credits have no cash value and cannot be transferred. The three artists whose links bring in the most artists with live work by October 30, 2026 are featured on the home page at launch.

Pickup and shipping

• Pickup: buyer and artist agree a time and a public place in New York City within 7 days of the sale. The buyer confirms pickup on the site.
• Shipping: the artist sets a shipping price per listing, which the buyer pays. The artist packs the work and ships it with tracking within 5 business days.
• We recommend shipping insurance for any piece over $100. The artist can include its cost in the shipping price.

Getting paid

• Thesis Art collects payment from the buyer.
• The artist is paid the item price minus commission, plus the shipping charge, within 10 business days after pickup is confirmed or tracking shows delivery, as long as no problem has been reported.
• Artists are responsible for their own income taxes.

Returns and problems

• Every piece is one of a kind and sales are final.
• The exceptions: the piece arrived damaged, it is materially different from the listing, or it never arrived.
• The buyer reports the problem to hello@thesisart.com with photos within 3 days of delivery or pickup.
• If the claim holds up, the buyer gets a full refund and the artist is not paid for that sale. The buyer returns the piece if the artist asks. The artist pays for return shipping.
• Loss or damage in transit is the artist's risk unless the shipment was insured.

How we contact you

Thesis Art uses an AI agent for much of its email and support. If you ask whether you're dealing with a person or an AI, we'll tell you. You can ask for a person at any time.