Exhibitions

Exhibitions are groups of items. They can contain things like related artworks or a set of objects in a historical site.

Although exhibitions in the app often correspond to actual exhibitions in museum spaces, the exhibition template is a flexible container for any items that you want to present together.

Exhibition fields

• Hero Images: Add up to 25 images from your asset library.

  If you don’t have any images to select, you can click + and add images from your computer. These images are then added to the drop-down menu, so you can select them in the future. If you add images this way, remember to edit how the image appears and add alt text.

• Title: The exhibition's title.
• Display period: Choose the display period if your exhibition is currently on view. 
  • None: Hide the display period entirely when the exhibition is no longer on view, or when a display period doesn't make sense for the content.
  • Ongoing: Indicate an ongoing or permanent exhibition.
  • Date range: Define the specific dates on which the exhibition starts and ends.
  • Expiration: After the exhibition's end date passes, we remove the map location and lookup numbers for the exhibition and its items. You can choose to automatically unpublish the exhibition after its end date, or keep it published in your guide.

• Description: The exhibition's description. Consider whether you can answer questions like, What is all of this? Why is it here in this place? What do these Items have to do with each other?
• Audio: Add one or more audio files. For more, see Audio.
• Video: Add one or more video files. For more, see Videos.
• Lookup number: To connect the exhibition to the signs in your physical space, select or enter a lookup number. For more, see Lookup numbers and QR codes.
• Items in this exhibition: Choose a section title to introduce the items that are included in the exhibition, then add the items. For more, see the Exhibition layout section of this article.
• Related: To help visitors find similar content, update the Related section. For more, see Related content and links.

Exhibition layout

The exhibition layout that you choose depends on your content and strategy, but there are a few things to remember.

List layout

• Usually the best option for fewer than 12 Items.
• Includes information like the item name and creator. This information helps visitors connect what they see in your physical space with what they see in your guide.
• If you use this layout with many items, visitors have to scroll a long way, and the list might be hard to scan.

Grid layout

• Usually best for exhibitions with many (12+) items, because this layout uses less vertical space in your guide.
• A good option when your items can be easily identified by the thumbnail alone.

Screen reader users get the same information on each item regardless of the visual layout.

Content recommendations

• Don’t use the images and captions of an exhibition to share information that belongs in an item. For example, if an exhibition has 20 artworks, create 20 items within the exhibition (instead of adding 20 images and captions to the exhibition).
• Think of exhibition text and imagery as an overview of the items associated with it. Exhibition texts are usually similar to an introductory wall text in a museum exhibition, or a short program description that you might use on a website or in a brochure.
• We recognize that quality digital content may not be available for every item in an exhibition. However, when you add items to an exhibition, make sure that you include enough Items to represent the key ideas and themes.
• If no information or images for individual objects are available for an exhibition at launch, it might still be appropriate to include the exhibition in your guide. However, we recommend that you make a plan to photograph objects and gather more content as soon as possible. Your content is easy to edit, so you can tell visitors to check back later for more material. You can also use conversational language to acknowledge their curiosity, and to share your organization’s time frame for adding images and interpretation.
• It’s usually not a good idea to make an in-person exhibition a CMS item (instead of an exhibition) just because you don’t have text for individual artworks or objects yet. If you do, you’ll have fewer options later, when you might have more assets to add.
• When you add audio and video to an exhibition, make sure that each file gives an overview of the content in the exhibition. If an audio or video file focuses on one artwork or initiative, add the file to the item for that artwork or initiative instead.