Punctuation and capitalization

Punctuation

• Ampersand (&): Avoid using unless part of a proper noun or title
• Apostrophe (’): Used to indicate possessive. For plural possessives, put the apostrophe at the end (masters’). For a singular name that ends in s, add an apostrophe and an extra s (Degas’s).
• Never use apostrophes to create a plural. We are looking at paintings, not painting's. 
• Comma (,): Bloomberg Connects recommends using the serial (or Oxford) comma in US English, unless your institution has a practice or policy of avoiding it. For UK and European guides, use the serial comma as needed for clarity unless your institution has a practice or policy of avoiding it.
• When list items contain internal commas, use semicolons to separate items: "Our collection includes Colombian ceramics; paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from Peru; and Mexican weavings."
• Dashes: For parenthetical comments, use an em dash (—) with no spaces around it—the more common American usage—or en dash (–) with spaces around it – the more common British usage. Do not use a hyphen (-) when you mean to use a dash, and do not place spaces around an em dash.
• Use an en dash for number and date ranges.

• Ellipses (…): Avoid ellipses, except when noting an omission in quoted text. In such cases, use the non-breaking three-dot ellipsis character (…).
• Hyphens (-): Consult the Chicago Manual's hyphenation table for hyphenation guidance. Compounds including adverbs ending in -ly never need to be hyphenated: newly constructed, not newly-constructed. 
• Periods (.) can look strange after hyperlinks, but include them. 
• Use only one space after a period.
• When using a bulleted list, use consistent punctuation at the end of each bullet item.
• Quotation Marks (" " / ' '): For US English, quotations are enclosed in double quotation marks. Single quotation marks enclose quotations within quotations. (The practice in the United Kingdom and elsewhere is often the reverse: single marks are used first, then double.)
• In US English, periods and commas precede closing quotation marks, whether double or single. Colons and semicolons follow closing quotation marks; question marks and exclamation points follow closing quotation marks unless they belong within the quoted matter.
• Elsewhere, follow your organization's practice and local practice when you place punctuation inside or outside quotation marks. Use what will look most familiar to the largest portion of your visitors.

Capitalization

• For section headers, please use headline-style capitalization (About the Museum) instead of sentence case (About the museum).
• Try to use a consistent style of capitalization (headline-style or sentence case) for item and exhibition titles, when the artwork and exhibition titles allow it.
• Do not capitalize nonspecific terms like “art” or “music” in running text.
• Do not capitalize "abstract," "modern," or "contemporary" in running text: Our museum features modern and contemporary art, not Modern and Contemporary Art. 
• See the Art Movements, Schools, Styles, and Terms list for suggested capitalization of specific art movements. 
• Some artwork mediums are known by their trademark or brand name and in these instances are capitalized. Examples include Arches paper, Cor-Ten steel, and Plexiglas.
• For organizations whose name contains “the,” follow the organization's preference and practice for capitalization.
• Unless your organization's style is different, write words like “museum” or “center” in lowercase in running text when they are not part of a proper noun. For example, write “The museum opens at 10 a.m.,” not “The Museum opens at 10 a.m.”
• Capitalize a position title only when it comes directly before a person’s name, or when it comes after the name and is enclosed in commas. In all other cases, including running text, use lowercase. Examples:
  • "This exhibition was organized by Maria Lopez, Curatorial Assistant, the Museum of Modern Art."
  • "Maria Lopez is a curatorial assistant at the Museum of Modern Art."
  • "Curatorial Assistant Maria Lopez will give a lecture on Tuesday."