Getting people to your show is one of the hardest parts of exhibiting—and one of the most important. Artists can spend months making the work. Galleries and institutions spend time shaping the presentation, installing it, writing about it, and putting their name behind it. Then the doors open and the whole thing comes down to a simple question: will anyone come?

That’s what an exhibition announcement is really for. It’s not just a graphic or a date—it’s an invitation. It’s the bridge between the work and the public. And if you want to build an audience over time, it helps to think of your announcement not as an afterthought—something rushed out days (or hours) before the opening—but as part of the exhibition itself.

For most artists, the first instinct is social media. And that’s how most artists today approach marketing. It makes sense. Social media is fast, visual, free, and personal. At its best, it lets you speak in your own voice and build community around your work.

But it also has drawbacks that aren’t about you: it’s algorithmic, inconsistent, and short-lived. Your post might reach the right people at the wrong time—or not reach them at all. Even if your followers love what you do, an announcement can disappear in the feed within hours.

So instead of thinking of your exhibition announcement as only one thing, it helps to think of it as two strategies working together:

Strategy 1: Social media (direct-to-audience)

Social media is great for energizing your base: friends, followers, fellow artists, people already invested in your work. It’s perfect for building momentum and driving opening-night attendance. First-person posts work well here, because they feel human: “I’m excited to share this new body of work,” “This show has been a long time coming,” “Hope to see you there.”

The goal is connection.

Strategy 2: Press-release mindset (network-to-audience)

But if you want your audience to grow—even by 5 or 10 percent—you can’t rely on the algorithm forever. This is where thinking “old school” pays off. A press release doesn’t have to be stiff or corporate; it simply means you prepare the information in a format that other people can use: calendar editors, newsletters, community organizations, galleries, writers, and local websites.

Instead of hoping your post travels, you help it travel.

This is also where local community becomes part of your marketing strategy. The arts ecosystem is full of people and organizations who want to help spread the word—but they need usable information to work with.

And unless you’re planning on relying on social media for your entire career (and it might be worth talking to a few friends who’ve tried that long-term, and hearing the ups and downs), start building something you actually control: a contact list. After all, what about your friends, family and collectors who aren’t on your social media platform? Or that person you met at Gallery Stroll whose social account is private?

Your contact list can be email, phone, DMs—whatever fits your world. But think of their world as well: a text to someone you don’t know well might be seen as rude to some and backfire. Emails might be more appropriate.

The point isn’t to spam anyone. The point is that each show becomes easier to promote than the last, because you’re building relationships, not just posts.

Once you’re thinking in these two lanes—social media and press-ready info—the nuts and bolts become obvious. They’re not bureaucratic details. They’re tools that make your show easier to attend, easier to share, and easier to list.

The nuts and bolts (and why they matter)
1) Always include an end date

Closing dates are becoming increasingly rare in announcements. We get it: most people are going to come opening night, and opening night is where you want to focus attention. But what about everyone else who can’t make it that night?

Plus, if you don’t have a closing date, lots of places won’t publish your exhibition announcements.

“Closing dates have become one of my pet peeves,” says 15 Bytes editor Shawn Rossiter, who has been working with exhibition announcements for more than two decades. “I can’t tell if it’s fear of commitment or something, but what’s stopping us from putting an end date on our posts and announcements?”

As Rossiter explains, a webmaster running a calendar site wants an end date—they program the exhibition announcement to run for the length of the exhibition. So they don’t have old, outdated material on the site, they also program the announcement to expire. “Which is kind of hard to do without a date,” Rossiter says. “We’re either left with the choice of not listing an exhibit or making up a date—say, four weeks from the opening. But that can be a problem: people who show up to a gallery only to find the exhibition actually closed the week previous stop showing up to galleries. That includes writers for local media outlets.”

2) Include the city and address

Don’t assume everyone already knows where you are. Social media posts travel. Someone may see your announcement and have no idea if it’s in Provo, Salt Lake, or Kansas City.

“We all fall victim to it,” Rossiter says. “Those of us in the know will say UMOCA, as if everyone should know what that is. But what about people who are new to town, or visiting?”

Make it easy. An address—or at least a city—turns your post from “cool image” into something actionable.

3) Add a little body text

If you’ve been through art school, you’ve probably been trained to think and write about your work. You don’t need a manifesto. You just need a few sentences of context for someone who doesn’t already know you: a curator, a writer, a stranger who might show up on a quiet afternoon.

“What is the work? What’s the experience? What are you exploring? Give people a way in,” Rossiter says.

4) Personal voice is great—press needs third-person info too

First-person writing works well on social media. But if you’re sending your announcement out as a press release—or hoping someone will repost it—include a short third-person bio and a short exhibition statement or description. This is the information that lets other people talk about your work accurately.

“I’d suggest including this somewhere in your Instagram post as well,” Rossiter says. “Maybe after your personal plea, included an exhibition description in a press-release style. When we come across an exhibition announcement on Instagram, we like to include it in our website’s listings. But we like to have some body text to include as well.”

And if you’re hoping for press coverage, remember: very few publications these days will simply review a show because it exists. They need a story behind it. If you have a human-interest hook, include that. Why this show now? What’s at stake? What’s changed? What does it connect to in the broader world?

5) How to send it (don’t create obstacles)

“I remember going to a ‘working with the media’ workshop as a presenter more than a decade ago, and everyone there—from the newspapers to the magazines to the radio stations—agreed: they hate PDFs,” Rossiter says. “That hasn’t changed.”

PDFs look nice and give you control. They’ll look great as a poster, but most people you’re sending an announcement to aren’t going to print it out as a poster.

PDFs can be hard for editors and webmasters to work with. Extracting images and copying text is possible, but it adds friction—and if you’re asking someone for a favor, why add obstacles?

Best practice: send the PDF if you have it, but back it up with materials sent separately:

Attach the image as a JPG or PNG

Include the body text in your email (best option) or in a Word/Google Doc

Make sure the dates, address, and reception info are easy to find

The easier you make it to share, the more likely it gets shared.

At 15 Bytes, we like exhibition listings to be clear and easy to program. A simple format like this makes your announcement more usable everywhere:

TITLE OF EXHIBIT at VENUE
CITY
OPENING DATE – CLOSING DATE
RECEPTION INFO

BODY TEXT

VENUE (link to venue)
VENUE ADDRESS

It’s not complicated. But it signals professionalism, respects people’s time, and gives your show a better chance of reaching beyond the people who already know you.

And over a career, that matters. Because it only takes one important interaction to change everything: the right curator showing up, the right writer following up, the right collector bringing a friend. Most careers aren’t built on one viral moment. They’re built on many small invitations that increase the odds of those moments happening.

A good exhibition announcement is one of the simplest ways to optimize for that.

15 Bytes

UTAH’S ART MAGAZINE SINCE 2001, 15 Bytes is published by Artists of Utah, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.