When to use The Exhibit: 15 scenarios explained

Something we often get asked is “when should I use The Exhibit?”. So in response, we have compiled 15 scenarios explaining how you can use the platform to expand your exhibition schedule and even replace your current website or e-commerce service with a more purpose built solution.

• When to hold an “online only exhibition” on The Exhibit »
• When to hold an “offline and online exhibition” together »

Online Only

1. When you don’t have access to a gallery space

No exhibition space? No worries! With The Exhibit, you no longer need to be held back from exhibiting by the lack of access to a suitable venue or the costs involved with running a gallery space. By holding your exhibition online you don’t need to find, rent, set-up, and staff a physical exhibition venue to be able to exhibit. Simply curate your exhibition on The Exhibit and avoid the hassle and traditional overheads which come with exhibiting in a brick and mortar exhibition space.

2. When you want to collaborate with artists, curators & galleries around the world

The Exhibit allows collaborations to take place between artists, curators, commercial galleries and cultural institutions regardless of their global location; no longer do you need to be geographically close to each other for an exhibition to take place. The curator or venue doesn’t need to physically receive the artworks or objects to “hang” an exhibition and artists can ship their works directly to collectors when they sell, all without having to wait for the exhibition to close.

3. When you want your global audience to experience your exhibitions

Now that so many artists are actively embracing social media, they’re growing their followings far beyond just their home town. This means that you potentially have a large number of very interested people who are currently missing out on experiencing and buying from your exhibitions due to distance. So why not curate an online-only exhibition to give your audience and social media followers a chance to view your exhibition and buy your artworks, no matter where they’re located in the world.

4. When you need to test the response to new artistic ideas you are working on

Playing with new ideas or artistic direction? Or want to curate a different type of exhibition to your usual curatorial themes? Why not use The Exhibit as a testing ground by curating a low-cost exhibition to test your audience’s response to your new ideas. You can also play around with which works to include in an exhibition and how you are going to arrange them in your hang before you move your exhibition into a physical gallery space.

5. When you want to exhibit minor works not exhibited by your representative gallery

If you already have your major works committed to exhibitions held at your representative galleries, why not think about supplementing your exhibition portfolio with an online exhibition showcasing your sketches, preliminary drawings and paintings, etchings, woodblock prints and smaller pieces that you have been working on. The Exhibit offers a great solution for you to bring more of your arts practice to your audience.

6. When you want to showcase works on paper and limited-edition prints

Do you produce limited edition prints and works on paper? Do you only normally offer these for sale in an e-commerce shop where your followers have to buy your art like they’re buying a pair of socks on Amazon? Instead, why not curate an exhibition of your prints or works on paper so your audience can browse them in an exhibition context. This also creates an exhibition of more affordable artwork which can be easily shipped to art lovers and collectors around the world.

7. When you need to hold more exhibitions during the year

If you hold your exhibitions in an offline brick and mortar exhibition space there are only a certain number of exhibitions you can physically hold throughout the year. So why not use the online flexibility of The Exhibit to bring your audience additional exhibitions throughout the year. You can hold as many exhibitions at one time as you want on The Exhibit, compared with a limited number in your gallery space. For commercial galleries, this boosts your revenue opportunities by giving your collectors more chances to view and buy your works throughout the year.

8. When you want to offer more than just an e-commerce shop to your buyers

Do you feel constrained by your e-commerce shop? Do you feel that it doesn’t do your artworks justice or provide enough information to your customers about each artwork? So rather than continuing to pay for an e-commerce subscription, shopping cart plugin or website hosting, why not provide a new and different experience to your audience by offering your artworks for sale in the context of an exhibition. A temporary exhibition on The Exhibit also gives you the chance to re-engage your audience without the set and forget approach of a traditional online shop.

9. When you don’t have gallery representation

If you think you need gallery representation to exhibit your artworks, think again! The Exhibit is for all artists, curators and galleries so whether you have representation or not it doesn’t matter. With The Exhibit you can easily curate and promote your own exhibitions of your own artworks and you are no longer reliant on needing a gallery to do it for you. By curating your own exhibitions and showcasing your arts practice online to your audience, you never know… you might end up attracting gallery representation as well.

When to hold offline and online exhibitions together

With The Exhibit you can build online exhibitions which sync with your offline exhibitions too, allowing you to attract wider audiences into your bricks and mortar exhibition spaces and, for commercial galleries, facilitate sales. This gives you a way to increase access to your exhibition, easily conduct pre-sale promotion, provide additional information to visitors in your gallery venue via their smartphones, and even act as a sales payment platform removing the need for expensive POS equipment inside your gallery space.

Here are 5 additional scenarios explaining when you might want to sync an offline exhibition with an online exhibition on The Exhibit:

10. When you don’t want to build your own web or e-commerce solution to get your exhibition online

The Exhibit is set up to allow you to publish an online exhibition which mirrors an offline exhibition in your physical gallery space. Not only will doing this expand the reach of your exhibition to a wide global audience, but The Exhibit will feature the address of your offline exhibition on your online exhibition. This means you can use your online exhibition to promote the offline exhibition, allowing your followers to find you in real life and get more feet through the door. You can even use The Exhibit as the payment platform in your physical gallery space to manage artwork sales.

11. When your exhibition is larger than your gallery’s wall space

What happens when you have 15 artworks for an exhibition but your gallery’s walls can only accommodate 10? Don’t let those 5 works miss out on their time in the sun as you can easily create an exhibition of all your works online. With an online exhibition on The Exhibit there is no limit to the number of artworks you can include so you don’t have to be constrained by your gallery’s wall space or hanging decisions. This means you can sync your offline exhibition with an online exhibition which expands your exhibition experience in number, breadth and depth.

12. When you want to improve accessibility to your exhibition

Holding an online exhibition improves accessibility to your bricks and mortar exhibition in a number of ways. Not only does it give local visitors a greater chance of seeing your exhibition because they can visit your online exhibition at a time that suits them, day or night, rather than just during your opening hours. But it also allows a global audience to view your exhibition who would never be able to get to your location in person. And most importantly, it allows your exhibition to be experienced by visitors for whom access is traditionally more difficult due to mobility or vision impairments, disability and age.

13. When you want to offer your gallery visitors more information while visiting your exhibition space

The Exhibit can be used in your gallery space to provide additional information to your visitors via their smart phones. This might be extended wall labels and information for them to read online, additional images of each object or videos for them to watch. Video content might be a studio tour so your visitors can watch each artist at work or a curator being interviewed about the exhibition. This easily allows you to provide valuable information and insights to your visitors.

14 .When you want to exhibit artworks languishing in your stockroom without taking up gallery space

Do you have artworks from previous exhibitions languishing in your stockroom? Why not compile a fresh exhibition of these works and showcase them to your audience and art buyers. This not only gets these works seen again but revitalises them with a new exhibition and gives you another chance of selling these artworks to interested collectors. Exhibiting them online is also a low-cost way of getting them out there again without interrupting your gallery space’s exhibition schedule.

15. When you want to effectively manage Pop-up Exhibitions in temporary exhibition spaces

When you hold a Pop-up exhibition, instead of building a costly and time-consuming website and e-commerce solution just for your temporary show, why not simply create an online exhibition on The Exhibit instead. The Exhibit can even be used inside your pop-up gallery space as a sales payment platform so you don’t need to rent or buy expensive point of sale and credit card equipment and software.

So there you have it, 15 scenarios where The Exhibit helps you exhibit more, satisfy your audience needs and even replace your current website or e-commerce service which was never really suitable for exhibiting art in the first place.