Punctuation and Capitalization

Punctuation

• Ampersand (&): Avoid using unless part of a proper noun or title
• Apostrophe (’): Used to indicate possessive. When used for plural possessives, the apostrophe comes at the end (masters’), but when used at the end of a singular name ending in s, an extra s is added (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, please 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 (downloadable below) 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 should be included. 
• 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, defer to institutional and local practice when placing 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 for Item and Exhibition titles (headline-style or sentence case), as artwork and exhibition titles permit.
• Do not capitalize nonspecific terms such as “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, Plexiglas, etc.
• For organizations whose name contains “the,” defer to institutional preference and practice with regards to capitalization.
• Unless contrary to institutional style, words like “museum” or “center” should be lowercased in running text when not part of a proper noun: "The museum opens at 10 a.m.” not “The Museum opens at 10 a.m.”
• Capitalize position titles only when following a person’s name and enclosed in commas, or when directly preceding a person’s name. Lowercase in running text and all other cases: “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.”