Kevin,
As your remote server is running Linux you will need check Zend Optimizer 2.6.2 or higher is running on it as well as PHP and a database such as MySQL, PostgreSQL or ODBC.
You can check this by uploading the attached file to your server by ftp and then use your web page to go to www."yourdomainnane"/phpinfo.php .
This will give a look at whats installed.
If it hasn't got Zend then you need to ask for it.
The database holds most of the information for your site. The php files you upload communicate with the data, add to it and display it.
If all looks OK then you ftp the ViArt files up to your server. Do this in Binary mode. This is very important. Once there use your ftp program to change the file permissions on the "includes/" folder to "777".
You will need the password for your database in order to create it. The ViArt installation will guide you through the rest.
However as you are experimenting can I suggest you do this locally and create your own server? The advantages are you can "mirror" your eventual public installation and make mistakes and rectify them more easilly as the server is under your control.
If you are running Linux on your home machine you need a "LAMP" Linux, Apache, MySql, PHP package.
On Windows theres EasyPHP
http://www.easyphp.org/
On Mac "MAMP"
http://www.mamp.info
I develop all my sites locally to test, tweak, change appearance etc and its easier because you have quicker response times (I live in the country) as well as not having to hide experimentation on live sites.
HTH