Texts for an Exhibition: Introductory Panel, Booklet, Section Texts

An exhibition is not just the hanging of your works. Visitors give a substantial part of their attention to the texts: they read the introduction at the entrance, the labels beside the paintings, and leaf through the booklet.

As a curator of exhibition projects I know: texts must be planned at the same time as the exhibition concept, not a week before the opening.

The minimum set of exhibition texts

• Introductory panel — one or two paragraphs at the entrance: what the exhibition is about and why it is worth seeing. Written for the visitor, not for professional colleagues.
• Section texts — short texts that lead the visitor through the logic of the display.
• Labels and captions for works — precise details (title, year, technique, dimensions) plus, for key works, two or three sentences of context.
• Press release — a working tool for the media: the event, names, facts, quotations, practical information.
• Booklet or catalogue — what remains after the exhibition closes and goes on presenting the artist to galleries and buyers for years afterwards.

Common mistakes

The first is writing every text in the same genre: an introduction written in the language of a dissertation and a press release written in the language of a social media post are equally ineffective.

The second is an excess of pathos: “unique”, “inimitable”, “original”, “brilliant” in a text about oneself destroy trust instantly.

The third is a lack of substance: visitors and journalists need dates, names, schools and materials, not impressions alone.

Why the texts should be commissioned from an art historian

A professional will write each text in its own genre, bind them into a single system and sustain the right tone: respectful towards the artist, clear to the visitor, convincing to the press.

For the exhibition Stained Glass of St Petersburg: A Fragile Heritage, which I curated in 2021, we published a brochure — since the exhibition closed it has remained available in the country’s principal libraries, continues to live in open access and goes on working for the project.

Preparing an exhibition? Write to me — I will help with the full set of texts, from the concept to the booklet.