{"id":101268,"date":"2026-01-25T19:35:52","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T02:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=101268"},"modified":"2026-01-27T19:50:59","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T02:50:59","slug":"how-to-write-and-send-an-exhibition-announcement-that-actually-gets-people-to-your-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/how-to-write-and-send-an-exhibition-announcement-that-actually-gets-people-to-your-show\/","title":{"rendered":"How to write (and send) an exhibition announcement that actually gets people to your show"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Getting people to your show is one of the hardest parts of exhibiting\u2014and 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?<\/h4>\n

That\u2019s what an exhibition announcement is really for. It\u2019s not just a graphic or a date\u2014it\u2019s an invitation. It\u2019s 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\u2014something rushed out days (or hours) before the opening\u2014but as part of the exhibition itself.<\/h4>\n

For most artists, the first instinct is social media. And that\u2019s 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.<\/h4>\n

But it also has drawbacks that aren\u2019t about you: it\u2019s algorithmic, inconsistent, and short-lived. Your post might reach the right people at the wrong time\u2014or not reach them at all. Even if your followers love what you do, an announcement can disappear in the feed within hours.<\/h4>\n

So instead of thinking of your exhibition announcement as only one thing, it helps to think of it as two strategies working together:<\/h4>\n

Strategy 1: Social media (direct-to-audience)<\/h4>\n

Social media is great for energizing your base: friends, followers, fellow artists, people already invested in your work. It\u2019s perfect for building momentum and driving opening-night attendance. First-person posts work well here, because they feel human: \u201cI\u2019m excited to share this new body of work,\u201d \u201cThis show has been a long time coming,\u201d \u201cHope to see you there.\u201d<\/h4>\n

The goal is connection.<\/h4>\n

Strategy 2: Press-release mindset (network-to-audience)<\/h4>\n

But if you want your audience to grow\u2014even by 5 or 10 percent\u2014you can\u2019t rely on the algorithm forever. This is where thinking \u201cold school\u201d pays off. A press release doesn\u2019t 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.<\/h4>\n

Instead of hoping your post travels, you help it travel.<\/h4>\n

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\u2014but they need usable information to work with.<\/h4>\n

And unless you\u2019re planning on relying on social media for your entire career (and it might be worth talking to a few friends who\u2019ve 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?<\/h4>\n

Your contact list can be email, phone, DMs\u2014whatever 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.<\/p>\n

The point isn\u2019t to spam anyone. The point is that each show becomes easier to promote than the last, because you\u2019re building relationships, not just posts.<\/h4>\n

Once you\u2019re thinking in these two lanes\u2014social media and press-ready info\u2014the nuts and bolts become obvious. They\u2019re not bureaucratic details. They\u2019re tools that make your show easier to attend, easier to share, and easier to list.<\/h4>\n

The nuts and bolts (and why they matter)
\n1) Always include an end date<\/h4>\n

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\u2019t make it that night?<\/h4>\n

Plus, if you don\u2019t have a closing date, lots of places won\u2019t publish your exhibition announcements.<\/h4>\n

\u201cClosing dates have become one of my pet peeves,\u201d says 15 Bytes editor Shawn Rossiter, who has been working with exhibition announcements for more than two decades. \u201cI can\u2019t tell if it\u2019s fear of commitment or something, but what\u2019s stopping us from putting an end date on our posts and announcements?\u201d<\/h4>\n

As Rossiter explains, a webmaster running a calendar site wants an end date\u2014they program the exhibition announcement to run for the length of the exhibition. So they don\u2019t have old, outdated material on the site, they also program the announcement to expire. \u201cWhich is kind of hard to do without a date,\u201d Rossiter says. \u201cWe\u2019re either left with the choice of not listing an exhibit or making up a date\u2014say, 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.\u201d<\/h4>\n

2) Include the city and address<\/h4>\n

Don\u2019t assume everyone already knows where you are. Social media posts travel. Someone may see your announcement and have no idea if it\u2019s in Provo, Salt Lake, or Kansas City.<\/h4>\n

\u201cWe all fall victim to it,\u201d Rossiter says. \u201cThose 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?\u201d<\/h4>\n

Make it easy. An address\u2014or at least a city\u2014turns your post from \u201ccool image\u201d into something actionable.<\/h4>\n

3) Add a little body text<\/h4>\n

If you\u2019ve been through art school, you\u2019ve probably been trained to think and write about your work. You don\u2019t need a manifesto. You just need a few sentences of context for someone who doesn\u2019t already know you: a curator, a writer, a stranger who might show up on a quiet afternoon.<\/h4>\n

\u201cWhat is the work? What\u2019s the experience? What are you exploring? Give people a way in,\u201d Rossiter says.<\/h4>\n

4) Personal voice is great\u2014press needs third-person info too<\/h4>\n

First-person writing works well on social media. But if you\u2019re sending your announcement out as a press release\u2014or hoping someone will repost it\u2014include 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.<\/h4>\n

\u201cI\u2019d suggest including this somewhere in your Instagram post as well,\u201d Rossiter says. \u201cMaybe 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\u2019s listings. But we like to have some body text to include as well.\u201d<\/h4>\n

And if you\u2019re 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\u2019s at stake? What\u2019s changed? What does it connect to in the broader world?<\/h4>\n

5) How to send it (don\u2019t create obstacles)<\/h4>\n

\u201cI remember going to a \u2018working with the media\u2019 workshop as a presenter more than a decade ago, and everyone there\u2014from the newspapers to the magazines to the radio stations\u2014agreed: they hate PDFs,” Rossiter says. “That hasn\u2019t changed.\u201d<\/h4>\n

PDFs look nice and give you control. They\u2019ll look great as a poster, but most people you\u2019re sending an announcement to aren\u2019t going to print it out as a poster.<\/h4>\n

PDFs can be hard for editors and webmasters to work with. Extracting images and copying text is possible, but it adds friction\u2014and if you\u2019re asking someone for a favor, why add obstacles?<\/h4>\n

Best practice: send the PDF if you have it, but back it up with materials sent separately:<\/h4>\n

Attach the image as a JPG or PNG<\/h4>\n

Include the body text in your email (best option) or in a Word\/Google Doc<\/h4>\n

Make sure the dates, address, and reception info are easy to find<\/h4>\n

The easier you make it to share, the more likely it gets shared.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

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:<\/h4>\n

TITLE OF EXHIBIT at VENUE
\nCITY
\nOPENING DATE \u2013 CLOSING DATE
\nRECEPTION INFO<\/h4>\n

BODY TEXT<\/h4>\n

VENUE (link to venue)
\nVENUE ADDRESS<\/h4>\n

It\u2019s not complicated. But it signals professionalism, respects people\u2019s time, and gives your show a better chance of reaching beyond the people who already know you.<\/h4>\n

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\u2019t built on one viral moment. They\u2019re built on many small invitations that increase the odds of those moments happening.<\/h4>\n

A good exhibition announcement is one of the simplest ways to optimize for that.<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getting people to your show is one of the hardest parts of exhibiting\u2014and 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hints_n_tips","category-visual_arts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/press_releases.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 11:26:10","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101268"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101315,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101268\/revisions\/101315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}