What an Art Gallery Website Needs

What the site is actually for

A gallery's website does two jobs that pull in different directions. It has to show the art at its best, and it has to tell people when and how they can come and see it.

Most visitors want something practical: what is on now, until when, whether it costs anything, and how late the door is open on a Saturday.

A smaller number are buyers. They saw a piece at an opening or in a friend's home and want its size, its price and whether it is still available.

Many gallery sites serve neither well: a full-screen slideshow of paintings, the hours three clicks away, and no prices anywhere.

Who visits, and what each needs

• Weekend visitors: the current show, hours, admission and parking.
• Collectors: available works, sizes, prices and how to buy.
• Opening guests: the date, time and whether to reply.
• Artists: whether and how submissions are accepted.
• Teachers and groups: tours, bookings and access.
• Writers and press: images they may use and a contact.

The second group is the one most galleries underserve. A collector who cannot find a size or a price often assumes the work is out of reach or sold, and moves on without asking.

The current exhibition, first

The home page should say what is showing now, in words: the title, the artist or artists, the dates and one strong image.

Give each exhibition its own page with a short statement, the list of works and photographs of the installed show. Keep past exhibitions in an archive rather than deleting them; artists and collectors look them up.

Then the next show, with dates. A gallery that shows only the present looks as though nothing is planned.

Hours, admission and the way in

Put the hours on every page as text, including the days the gallery closes between exhibitions to install the next one. Those closures move with the schedule and catch visitors out.

State admission, even when it is free. Many people are unsure whether they may simply walk into a commercial gallery; a line saying free, all welcome, settles it.

Give the address, the entrance if it is not obvious, parking, the nearest bus stop, and whether there are steps. A gallery up a flight of stairs should say so before someone with a stroller or a cane arrives.

Showing the work well

Photograph each work square to the camera, evenly lit, without glare, and cropped to its edges. The frame or the wall can go in a second image.

Save images in the sRGB colour space before uploading. Files prepared for print often look dull or shifted in a browser, and paintings are judged on colour.

Make them large enough to show the surface, with small previews that open into larger views, so a page of twenty works does not keep a phone waiting.

Add a photograph of the piece on a wall, beside a sofa or a doorway. Dimensions are hard to picture; furniture is not.

Sizes, media and prices

Under every work: title, year, medium, and size in inches and centimetres, height before width, with the framed size if it is sold framed.

Then the price, or a clear way to ask. Galleries differ on publishing prices, and either choice is defensible, but price on request should mean one click to a form that already knows which work is meant.

Mark sold works as sold and leave them up for a while. A row of red dots, the gallery convention for sold, tells a collector the artist is in demand.

Every enquiry should reach a person who replies within a day. Interest cools quickly, and a slow answer reads as a gallery that does not need the sale.

A worked example

A commercial gallery on the main street of a seaside town represents about twenty painters, printmakers and ceramic artists, and changes its main exhibition every six weeks.

Its website opened with a full-screen slideshow. The hours sat on the contact page, the current show existed only as a downloadable invitation, and no work had a size or a price.

Visitors arrived on installation days to a locked door. Collectors phoned about pieces they had seen at openings, and the owner spent part of most mornings describing sizes over the phone.

The rebuild led the home page with the current exhibition and its dates, and put the hours, the address and the next closure on every page.

Each work got its own page: title, medium, size in both units, a wall photograph for scale, and a price or an enquiry button that fills in the work's title.

Each artist got a page, and past shows moved to an archive instead of disappearing.

A page for each artist

Each represented artist needs a page: a short biography, a photograph of the artist, available works and past exhibitions at the gallery.

Keep the biography specific: where they work, in what medium, what to look for. Collectors read it, and so do people searching the artist's name.

The artist holds the copyright in their work. Agree in writing which images the gallery may show online and in newsletters, and credit photographers where they ask for it.

Openings and events

Openings, artist talks and workshops each need the date, time, place, cost and whether to reply. List them on one events page and on the exhibition they belong to.

A mailing list for openings is one of the few channels a gallery owns outright. Put the sign-up on every exhibition page, ask clearly, and keep a record of who agreed, as CASL requires.

Add photographs of the evening to the exhibition page within the week, while guests are still looking.

The counter-case

An artist-run space or a small volunteer gallery, with no sales and short shows, can start with less: the current exhibition, hours, address, admission and a mailing list sign-up.

Artist pages, an archive and enquiry buttons can follow as time and budget allow.

At any size, the current show and the hours must be right this week. The art can be shown modestly; the practical details cannot be missing.

What to build first

1. Lead the home page with the current show.
2. Show hours and admission on every page.
3. Give directions, parking and step details.
4. Label every work with title, medium and size.
5. Add a price or a one-click enquiry.
6. Give each artist a page of their own.
7. Add an openings sign-up to every exhibition page.

Step five is the one that turns interest into a conversation. A collector who has to hunt for a way to ask about a price often decides not to ask.

Galleries that also rent their space for private evenings face the questions covered in what an event venue website needs.

Frequently asked questions

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