How to Name Your Solo Art Exhibition

• Select a name that's relevant to the artwork in the exhibit.
• Pick a name that's easy to read and understand.
• Choose a bold name if you want to stand out from the crowd.
• Go with a two-part name for a traditional approach that looks professional.

Coming up with Name Ideas

Look at other art exhibition names for inspiration. What have your favorite artists named their art exhibitions? What about other similar local artists? Don’t steal the names they’ve used, but do use them for inspiration. It’s easier to brainstorm ideas once you have an idea of what other people are doing. For example, if you're naming your stone-carving exhibition, and you find that a lot of local stone carvers include the kind of stone they use in the names for their exhibits, you might want to do the same. Don’t feel like you have to choose a name like everyone else’s. If you think other art exhibition names all sound the same, break the mold and come up with something totally different!

Get help from friends or fellow artists. Sometimes it’s hard to view your own work objectively. Ask your friends or other local artists to view your collection and tell you any themes or concepts they picked up on. Share some of your name ideas with them and see what they think. You can even ask them to write down some name ideas on a piece of paper as they check out your art.

Use an online random art exhibition name generator. If you really can’t come up with something, or you’re facing a tight deadline, a generator may be the way to go. Just visit an exhibition name generator website, click a button, and a random exhibition name will be generated for you. Keep generating new results until you find something that makes sense for your show. Visit http://www.mit.edu/~ruchill/lazycurator.submit.html to start generating name ideas. You don’t have to use the exact name the website generates. Use the names for inspiration to help you come up with something of your own!

Choosing a Marketable Name

Choose a name that's easy to understand. Don't give your exhibit an obscure name that will confuse people. People are more likely to come to your art show if they understand what it's about. If you're not sure whether a name is clear or not, ask people! Show a few friends the name you're considering and see if they understand what it means. If they don't, you may want to simplify it. A name like “Contemporary Political Architects Deconstructed in Portraiture” is harder to understand than a name like “Observing Today’s Political Trailblazers Through Portraiture.”

Choose a bold name if you want your exhibit to stand out. A bold name will stand out from the crowd and immediately tell people your show is different than a traditional art exhibition. Don’t be afraid to break the rules or be provocative with the name you choose. Something exciting and different can help you draw in more of a crowd. For example, instead of naming your exhibition “Exploring Global Climate Change Through Photography,” you could go with something bolder like “World On Fire!” or “World on Fire! A Photo Series.” Don’t be afraid to be funny or self-referential with your exhibition name. For example, you could name your exhibit: "Paintings by Broke Artist.”

Go with a traditional name if you want to attract a serious crowd. Bold names can draw a big audience, but a traditional name will help your art be taken more seriously. Think about the art you'll be featuring. If it's classical or related to a serious subject matter, giving your exhibit a bold, flashy name might not make sense. For example, if you're hoping to attract admirers of landscape paintings to your exhibit, a serious name like "Slippery Slopes; Paintings of America's Cold, Mountainous Landscapes" would probably do a better job than a name like "Landscapes by Freezing Artist."

Make sure the name you choose is relevant to your art. People coming to your show will expect to see whatever you promise in your exhibition name, so be sure to deliver. Don't mention an obscure theme or semi-relevant time period unless they're clear and present in your exhibit. For example, if your art is inspired by ancient Japanese ink paintings, but that isn't necessarily clear in your exhibit, don't mention that in the name. Otherwise, people will show up expecting to see an exhibition focused on ancient Japanese artwork. You can explain the more subtle nuances of your artwork to people in person at your exhibit. Don't feel like you need to cram everything into the name.

Keep search engine keywords in mind when choosing a name. Keywords are what search engines use to find results when people search for things online. If you want people to be able to find out about your art exhibit when they do an online search, include a relevant keyword in the name of your show. Just make sure you're using specific keywords; broad keywords like "love" and "art" in the name won't show up in people's search results because they're so popular. For example, if you’re having a pottery exhibition and you want people interested in pottery to find out about it online, include the word “pottery” or “ceramics” in the name of your exhibit. Only worry about keywords if you plan on setting up a website or social media pages for your exhibit, or if there's a chance your exhibit will get media coverage online.

Choosing a Traditional Two-Part Name

Use a two-part name if you want to have a traditional exhibition. Two-part exhibit names are very common in the art world. Using a two-part name will make your exhibit appear professional. People will immediately associate the name with an art show. For example, if your art exhibition will feature paintings of New York City’s skyline as it’s changed over the past 100 years, you could call the exhibit: “Changing Horizons; New York’s Evolving Skyline on Canvas.”

Make the first part of the name something interesting and recognizable. That’s the part of the name people will immediately see. You want it to draw people in. Don’t worry about explaining too much with the first part of the name; that’s what the second part after the semicolon is for. Take the name “Endless Commute; A Photographic Collection of Drivers Stuck in Traffic,” for example. The first part of the name, “Endless Commute,” is intriguing and relatable. Most people know what it’s like to commute to work. The first part of the name draws people in without giving away too much information about the exhibit.

Make the second part of the name brief. Elaborate on the first part of the title, but don’t go overboard. It’s harder to hold people’s interest with a long title. Stick with around 5-10 words for the second part of the name. Be clear and concise. Only include the information that’s necessary for people to understand what your exhibition is about. For example, instead of the name “Mirror Mirror; A Series of 27 Charcoal Self Portraits Sketched by a Native Texan Using Mirrors” a more concise exhibition name would be “Mirror Mirror; A Collection of Charcoal Self-Portraits.”