App Terms of Use

Last updated: 29 October 2026. Effective from 29 October 2026.

These are the rules for using the UK Art Spotlight app (“Daily Pages”) and the member parts of our website. We’ve written them in plain English because we’d rather you read them than skip them. The short version: be 16 or over, post your own art, be kind, and if you see something wrong, report it and we’ll deal with it within a day.

“We”, “us” and “UK Art Spotlight” mean Daniel Newton, a sole trader trading as UK Art Spotlight. Our address is Unit 5 Aire Street, Leeds LS1 4HT. Our app privacy policy explains what we do with your data; it’s a separate document and it applies alongside these terms.

1. Who can join

• You must be 16 or over to have an account. If we learn that someone under 16 has an account, we’ll delete it. If you think that’s happened, email hello@ukartspotlight.org.
• Some in-person events (for example life drawing) have their own higher age limit. It’s shown on the event, and it applies even if you’re old enough for the app.
• One account per person. Your account is the same one you use on book.ukartspotlight.org. Keep your password to yourself and tell us if you think someone else has got into your account.
• You can delete your account at any time in the app at Profile & settings → Delete my account. The privacy policy says exactly what gets removed.

2. What you agree to

By ticking “I agree” when you join, you accept these terms and the community guidelines in section 4. If you don’t agree, don’t use the app. We’ll ask you to agree again if we change the terms in a way that matters (see section 16).

3. Your art stays yours

• You own what you post. We don’t take any ownership of your work.
• You give us permission to show your posts where you’ve chosen to show them: in your private sketchbook, your Pod’s feed, a Course feed, the main feed, and (for public posts) on your public Portfolio page on our website. We need that permission to run the app; it ends when you delete a post or your account, apart from copies in backups, which clear within the window stated in the privacy policy.
• We won’t use your work in our marketing without asking you first.
• Only post work you made or have the right to post. Don’t post other people’s art as your own, and don’t post photos of people who haven’t agreed to it.

4. Community guidelines (the rules)

UK Art Spotlight is a place to share daily art practice. It’s small, it’s friendly, and we want it to stay that way. We have zero tolerance for the content and behaviour below. If you post it, we’ll remove it, and we may remove you. This isn’t “three strikes”: one serious breach can mean a Ban.

Never allowed

1. Illegal content. Anything that breaks UK law, including anything that sexualises a child (we report this to the National Crime Agency and the police), terrorist content, content that promotes or belongs to a proscribed organisation, threats of violence, and intimate images of someone shared without their consent.
2. Pornography and sexual content. Nothing made to arouse, in any medium. See section 5 for the one exception, artistic figure studies.
3. Photographic nudity. No nude or sexual photographs or videos of real people, even artistic ones, even of yourself. This is a hard line.
4. Harassment, bullying and hate. No attacking, mocking, threatening or ganging up on anyone, in posts, comments, nudges or display names. No slurs or hateful content aimed at anyone’s race, religion, sex, sexuality, gender identity, disability or age.
5. Promoting self-harm. No content that encourages or glamorises suicide, self-harm or eating disorders. If you’re worried about yourself or someone else, see section 7.
6. Spam. No advertising, repeated or automated posting, scams, or links to dodgy sites.
7. Pretending to be someone else, or running an account on behalf of a banned member or a proscribed organisation.

Expected of everyone

• Comment on the art, not the person. Honest feedback is welcome; cruelty isn’t.
• Don’t share other members’ work or private Pod posts outside the app without their permission.
• Don’t try to get round a Block, a Hide, a Ban or the text filter.
• Use the Report button for problems, not public call-outs.

5. Figure studies (artistic nudity)

Life drawing is part of art. So we allow drawn or painted nudity, as long as:

• it’s marked as a Figure study when you post it (there’s a switch on the posting screen);
• it’s artistic, not sexual (if it’s made to arouse, it’s pornography and it isn’t allowed);
• it’s not a photograph or video of a real person.

What marking does: a Figure study is hidden from members who haven’t turned on Show figure studies in Settings (it’s off for everyone to start with), and even then it sits behind a tap-to-reveal veil. If you post a figure study without marking it, an Admin will mark it for you and let you know. Correctly marked figure studies that get reported are left up.

6. Reporting something

You can Report any post, comment or member from the app. Pick a reason (Nudity or sexual content · Harassment or hate · Illegal content · Spam · Worried about this person · Something else) and add a note if you like. The report screen works with screen readers and keyboard navigation.

What happens next:

1. The thing you reported disappears from your view straight away. Nobody else’s view changes until an Admin acts.
2. Your report goes to our Admins’ Reports queue and every Admin gets a push notification. Reports about illegal content and “Worried about this person” go to the front of the queue.
3. An Admin will look at every report within 24 hours, every day of the year, including weekends. The first Admin to open a report takes it.
4. We’ll tell you what we decided.

Reports are confidential. We never tell the person you reported who reported them.

Not a member? Public Portfolio pages on our website carry a “Report this” link. Use it, or email hello@ukartspotlight.org, and the same 24-hour promise applies.

Admins and your private posts. Admins can’t browse Pod feeds or private sketchbooks. They only see a private or Pod post when someone reports it, and then only that post, its comment thread and who is in the Pod.

7. Worried about someone

“Worried about this person” is for when someone’s posts make you think they might be at risk, for example of self-harm. It isn’t a rule-breach report: the person won’t be hidden, penalised or told. An Admin will reach out to them personally. If you make this report you’ll also see a card with crisis contacts: in an emergency call 999; to talk to someone, Samaritans on 116 123 (free, any time).

8. What Admins can do

Admins are the UK Art Spotlight team. They can take these actions, from the Reports queue or directly from any post, comment or profile:

• Hide a post or comment. It disappears for everyone, including from your Portfolio. You (the author) still see it, marked “Hidden by an admin”, with the reason. Nobody else sees a gap or a notice.
• Mark as figure study an unmarked figure study. It stays up, veiled, and you’re told kindly.
• Ban a member. Your account is disabled, all your content is hidden, and your Pod slot is freed. Your Pod sees a neutral “moved on” notice, nothing more. We’ll email you to say you’ve been banned and why.
• Warn you with a plain message, and Pause your Streak and Pod clock if you need time away.

We try to act proportionately: a mistaken unmarked figure study gets marked, not hidden; photographic nudity, illegal content or harassment gets hidden, and the member may be banned. Illegal content is taken down as soon as an Admin sees it. If we get a Ban wrong, see section 10.

9. The text filter

The app automatically checks comments, captions, text posts and display names against a list of slurs and hard profanity. If something matches, you’ll see “Please rephrase that” and the text won’t post. That’s the only automatic filtering we do: we don’t scan your images, so we rely on you to mark figure studies and on reports for everything else.

10. Appeals

If something of yours is hidden, or you’re banned, you can ask us to look again:

• Hidden post or comment: tap Ask for a review on the hidden notice.
• Ban: reply to the ban email, which goes to appeals@ukartspotlight.org.

Tell us why you think we got it wrong. A different Admin from the one who took the action will decide where possible, and we’ll answer within 7 days. If your Appeal is upheld we put things back: the post is unhidden or your account is restored. You get one Appeal per action.

11. Blocking someone

If you’d rather not see someone, Block them from their profile or any of their posts or comments. Blocking is mutual and silent: neither of you sees the other’s posts, comments or reactions, neither can comment on, react to or nudge the other, and the other person isn’t told. Your blocked list is in Settings, where you can unblock.

If you block someone in your own Pod, you move to a new Pod (your Streak is untouched) and the two of you are never matched together again. Your old Pod just sees “X moved to a new pod”.

Public Portfolio pages on the website can be seen by anyone, so a Block doesn’t apply there.

12. Complaints about us

If you think we’re not keeping to these terms or to our legal duties (for example that we haven’t acted on a report, or that we’ve hidden something we shouldn’t have), email hello@ukartspotlight.org with “Complaint” in the subject. We’ll reply within 14 days. The person responsible for safety and complaints on this service is Daniel Newton.

13. Memberships and bookings

• The app is free. Everything in it, including Courses, Pods and Freezes, is free for every Member.
• A Membership (Sketcher, Artist or Studio) covers in-person things only: Drawing Club sessions, classes, sketchbook reviews, critique socials and print discounts. It unlocks nothing inside the app.
• Memberships are bought and managed on our website (the app’s Join button opens the website). They’re billed monthly and renew automatically until you cancel. You can cancel at any time from your subscription page on the website, and you keep the benefits until the end of the period you’ve paid for. Current plans and prices are on the website and on the app’s Membership screen.
• Payments are taken by our website provider (Wix). We never see your full card details.
• Club sessions and events are booked on the website too. Bookings are covered by our Booking Terms and Conditions, which set out how to cancel or move a booking and when you get a refund.
• Consumer law: nothing in these terms takes away rights you have under UK consumer law.

14. Pods, Streaks and the house rules

Pods are groups of 3 to 6 members who post Daily Pages to each other. Pod membership runs on a few automatic rules: if you go five Days without a Daily Page (with no Freeze or Pause covering them) you’re removed from your Pod, though your Pod can vote to keep you. Your posts and Streak history stay with your account whatever happens with your Pod. The app explains these rules as you go; we mention them here so there are no surprises.

15. Things we can’t promise

We’re a small team running a community app. We’ll do our best to keep it up and working, but we can’t promise it will always be available or error-free, and we may change or remove features. Back up your own work: the app isn’t a long-term archive. You can download a copy of your sketchbook at any time in the web app at Profile & settings → Download my sketchbook. We’re not responsible for what members post, though we will act on it as set out above. Nothing in these terms limits our liability for anything the law says we can’t limit, including death or personal injury caused by our negligence.

16. Changes to these terms

If we change these terms in a way that affects you (for example new rules or a change to how reports work), we’ll tell you in the app before the change takes effect and ask you to accept the new version. Small wording fixes just update the date at the top.

17. Law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and any dispute will be dealt with by the courts there. If you live elsewhere in the UK, you can also bring a claim in your home country’s courts.

Contact

If you have any questions about these terms, please contact us at hello@ukartspotlight.org.

Daniel Newton, trading as UK Art Spotlight
hello@ukartspotlight.org
Unit 5 Aire Street, Leeds LS1 4HT
Named person for safety and complaints: Daniel Newton

App privacy policy: www.ukartspotlight.org/app-privacy

Also see our App Privacy Policy and our Booking Terms and Conditions.