Data 101 for exhibiting artists (includes free download)

Metadata and data management probably isn’t the first thing you think of when you set out to exhibit your work (neither was content creation and yet here we are). However, structured data is your gallerist’s “love language” when to comes to exhibition prep, because it saves so much time and admin fuss. If you can get it right, your gallery will appreciate you for making it eeeeasy to handle the admin side of preparing for an exhibition or fair.

Before coming back to art making full time, I was a product manager, librarian and research data specialist, so structured, managed data is my love language too.

1) Be a freak in the (Google, Excel) sheets

Creating a structured inventory is a great way to keep your collections in order, as your body of work grows. It’s a bit of work to set it all up, but then… if you start with beautiful clean data it’s so easy to add to over time, and you reuse it again and again to keep your information consistent across social, website and asset library, gallery e-commerce site, exhibition catalogue, entering prizes etc etc. I had great feedback on a recent master inventory from my gallery - so I’ve linked my template below in CSV format for you to download.

Kate Valentine Art Gallery and Website Inventory Template

2) Hook your gallery up (with your data)

Running step 1 above in a shared, online sheet and sharing the link (and edit rights) with your gallery will make it really easy to keep everyone updated on the status of works as they progress, are completed, shipped sold etc… but there’s a catch, you have to actually update the sheet.

3) Formats are your friends

If you send your gallery photos straight off your phone, in Apple’s HEIC or another device specific format, your gallery friends will have to do a bunch of busy work converting over to jpeg or png, so they can upload it to their website or ecommerce site. If you try to upload to your website… it won’t work full stop. A quick export and convert before you send will mean minimal image handling for you and your gallery friends.

4) Naming conventions forever

Your images should carry their own metadata in their file names - so when you or your gallery come back to the image file, it’s self describing (without having to fluff about opening it to see what it is). It also means your photos will group themselves in your files or website/platform asset library by year and series, too easy. Here’s my favourite format:

2025_Series title_work title_medium_size_framing_price.jpg

Note how that matches the inventory structure template? 👍

5) Pack and label

Pack your work (ideally in a rigid cardboard box with corner protectors rather than plastic wrap), and mark the lid with the same series of data in your inventory and file naming convention. Year, series, title, medium, framed size. When a curator is sorting through some 50-100 works for a big show or fair… making yours super easy to find, identify and unpack/pack will speed up the bump in, hang, curation etc.

These might seem like extra work upfront… but it will save you hours of website and catalogue admin and data handling over time, and (based on feedback to date) will make you come across as very professional and easy to work at exhibition time - which is exactly what we want, especially as an emerging artist.