Finding and joining communities
Communities on ArtHelper are smaller spaces inside the larger site — groups built around a medium, a region, a style, or a class. Joining a few is one of the best ways to find your people and get your work in front of artists who care about the same things you do. This guide shows you how to find communities and join them.
Where to look
The main community page at arthelper.com/community is the front door. It shows trending posts and featured communities.
All Communities at arthelper.com/community/all is the full directory. Browse by category, sort by popularity, or search by keyword.
Community search at arthelper.com/community/search looks across posts, communities, and comments. If you remember the topic of a post but not the community, search is the fastest way back.
How to join a public community
Most communities on ArtHelper are public — anyone can join with one click.
Click All Communities from the main community page.
Browse the grid or use the category filter to narrow it down.
Click on a community card to open it.
Click the Join button. You’re a member right away and the button changes to Joined.
Once you join, the community’s posts start showing up in your feed and you can post and comment inside it.
How to request to join a private community
Some communities are private. The owner approves each new member.
Open the community page.
Click Request to Join.
The button changes to Request Pending while you wait.
The owner will get a notification and either approve or decline. You’ll be notified either way.
Before you request to join a private community, make sure your own profile has at least an avatar and a few pieces of artwork. Owners are much more likely to approve requests from artists who look like real, active artists.
Joining a community from an invite link
If a friend or community owner sends you a direct invite link, click it. You’ll land on the join page, and if you’re signed in, the invite is accepted automatically. If you’re signed out, you’ll be asked to sign in first, then dropped right back into the community.
Browsing by category
The All Communities page has a category filter — Painting, Photography, Mixed Media, Sculpture, and so on. Use it to skip the communities that aren’t for you.
Open All Communities.
Pick a category from the filter at the top.
The grid updates to show only communities in that category.
Sort by Popular, Alphabetical, or recently Created using the sort control.
Leaving a community
Open the community.
Click Joined at the top of the page.
Confirm that you want to leave. The button changes back to Join.
Leaving is silent — the community owner isn’t notified. You can rejoin any time.
What others can see
The communities you’ve joined show up on the side of the main community page so you can navigate between them quickly. Other artists can also see which communities you’re a member of when they visit your profile, so picking communities you’d be proud to be associated with is a small but real piece of how people read you on the platform.
Common questions
How many communities can I join?
There’s no fixed limit. Most artists join three to ten and find their pace from there.
What if I can’t find a community for my medium?
You can create one — see Creating and running your own community. ArtHelper is built so that artists fill in the gaps that don’t exist yet.
Will I get notifications for every post in every community I join?
No, the default is quiet. You’ll see new posts in your feed and you can choose to follow specific hashtags or members within a community for more focused notifications.
Why was my request to join a private community declined?
The owner makes that call. Most of the time it’s about fit — the community might be a critique circle for a specific cohort, or limited to one geographic region. It’s not personal. Try a similar public community in the meantime.