RSS Auto-Posting for Art Galleries and Exhibition Spaces

Short answer: RSS auto-posting lets art galleries and exhibition spaces announce openings, artist talks, new shows, workshops and open calls on social media automatically. Publish each item as a page on the gallery website, let an auto-poster read the feed, and every new page appears on your Facebook Page, Pinterest boards, Bluesky, Telegram channel and other networks with its image and link. Visitors learn what is on without a staff member retyping every notice, while artists keep control of how their work is shown, credited and described.

A gallery has a rhythm of announcements that never stops. A new show needs a preview, an opening evening, a reminder, a review of the first week and a note about the closing date. Between shows there are artist talks, school visits, workshops, publications and calls for submissions. The director, the curator or a part-time assistant usually writes these notices between installing works and answering visitors, and the social media posts are the first thing that slips when the schedule is full. The website is more reliable, because every exhibition has a page, and a feed turns that page into a post at the moment it is published. This guide explains what a gallery can publish, how to connect it and why credit and rights deserve extra attention.

Who this guide is for

The advice fits many kinds of art spaces:

• Commercial galleries that represent artists and sell works.
• Non-profit exhibition spaces and artist-run centres.
• Studio collectives that open their doors on set weekends.
• University and library galleries with a changing programme.
• Photography and print galleries with a small, regular schedule.
• Pop-up exhibitions that need a fast start and a short life.

Each has an exhibition calendar, people who run it and at least a simple website where shows are listed. That page becomes the source for every other channel.

What a gallery can publish

Most of what a gallery communicates can be turned into a short page:

• the current exhibition, with the dates, the opening hours, the artist statement and a selection of images;
• an opening night page that says when the doors open, whether an invitation is needed and how to arrive;
• artist profiles, with a short biography, a list of past shows and links to the artist’s own site;
• artist talks, curator tours and panel discussions, with the date and the way to register;
• workshops for adults and children, with the age range, the materials and the number of places;
• open calls for submissions, residencies and prizes, with the deadline and the rules;
• new publications, catalogues and editions in the shop;
• notices about holiday hours, closures and access arrangements.

Each page is written once and appears on your website, where a visitor searching for what is on in your city can find it. The feed then announces it automatically.

Which feeds your website already has

Most galleries already use a system that creates feeds:

• WordPress has a feed at /feed/ and one for every category, such as /category/exhibitions/feed/. If you are unsure of the address, see how to find your WordPress feed link.
• Website builders such as Wix publish a blog feed; see як знайти RSS-стрічку свого сайту на Wix.
• Mailing list and ticket tools hold the names and addresses of visitors. They must never be connected to a public feed.

Use categories to separate audiences: exhibitions, events, workshops, open calls and news. Each category has its own feed, and each feed can go where it works best: exhibitions to Facebook and Pinterest, open calls to LinkedIn and Bluesky, workshops to a local community channel. Routing by category is explained in category filtering for auto-posting.

What to automate and what to keep personal

A simple rule: if it welcomes many people to see art, automate it. If it concerns one buyer, one lender or one private arrangement, it needs a person and a private channel.

Rights, credit and permission

The images are the heart of a gallery post, and they belong to someone. Artists and their estates usually keep the copyright to the works, and a gallery often has permission to reproduce them for promotion of a specific show, not for every purpose. Check what the agreement with each artist allows, and keep the answer next to the exhibition page. Write the credit in the text of every page: the name of the artist, the title of the work, the year and the medium, and the name of the photographer when it is different. Do not crop or alter a work in a way that changes its meaning, and do not add filters. If an artist asks to remove an image, remove it quickly and update the page. A gallery that treats credit seriously is trusted by artists, and artists share the posts with their own followers, which is the best reach a gallery can get.

Show the work well

An auto-poster uses the featured image of the page, so the choice of that image is part of the message. Pick one strong picture for each exhibition, in landscape or square format, at a size that is sharp on a large screen. Avoid a poster with tiny text, because the text will be unreadable in a feed, and write the dates in the post text instead. For a show with many works, publish a short series of pages, one for each artist or each room, so that each post has its own picture. How the image is chosen from your page is described in the guide to controlling the image. Describe each image in a few plain words in the alternative text, because visitors who use a screen reader want to know what the work shows, and it helps search engines too.

Opening nights and time-sensitive posts

An opening is an event with a time, and a post that arrives after it is useless. Publish the page early, with the full details, and let the feed share it at once. Write the date and the time in the text, together with the day of the week, for example Thursday evening from six, so that a reader does not have to open the link to know when to come. Add a second page a few days before the event if you want a reminder, and a third one that thanks the visitors afterwards with pictures of the room, with the permission of anyone who is recognisable. If the feed publishes many items together, space the posts out with posting windows, so that a visitor sees one clear message at a time and not a wall of notices.

Selling and the shop

Many galleries also sell prints, books and editions. Treat each product as a short page on the website, with a clear picture, the dimensions, the edition size and a link to the shop, and share it like any other news. Do not publish prices of unique works in automated posts unless the gallery has decided to show them, because prices change and a visitor who sees an old figure feels misled. Update a page when a work is sold, and write that it is sold instead of deleting the post history. The same care applies to discounts and limited offers: write the end date on the page and unpublish the page when the offer ends, so that the feed does not keep promoting it.

Choose the right channels

• Facebook Page. The main channel for events and for local visitors. It is easy to auto-post RSS to Facebook Pages from your site feed.
• Pinterest. Pictures of works are saved and found again for years, and each pin links back to the exhibition page.
• Bluesky and Mastodon. Smaller audiences with active art and museum communities.
• Telegram. A channel for members and friends who want a short notice of every new show.
• LinkedIn. Useful for open calls, residencies and professional events; see how to auto-post RSS to LinkedIn.

Most galleries do best with two or three active channels, a mailing list and the website. Six forgotten channels are worse than two that are kept alive.

A one-afternoon set-up plan

1. Find your website feed, usually at /feed/, and check that it lists recent pages with images.
2. Create categories: exhibitions, events, workshops, open calls and news.
3. Choose your channels, for example Facebook and Pinterest for exhibitions and LinkedIn for open calls.
4. Connect each category feed to the right channel in an auto-poster.
5. Set posting hours so that notices appear when your visitors are online, and add UTM parameters to see which channel brings visits.
6. Publish one test page and check how it looks on each network.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Images without permission. Check the agreement with the artist.
• Missing credit. Write the artist, the title, the year and the medium.
• Posters with tiny text. Put dates and times in the post text.
• Old shows left online. Mark a page as closed when the show ends.
• Prices and buyer details in public posts. Keep them private.
• No tracking. Without UTM parameters you cannot tell which channel brings visitors; see tracking RSS automation with UTM parameters.

How PostRSS helps art galleries

PostRSS has been automating RSS posting since 2014. It checks your website feeds as often as every minute and publishes each new page, with its real image and link, to the channels you connect, from Facebook Pages and Pinterest boards to LinkedIn, Bluesky, Mastodon and Telegram, among its 66 supported networks. You can choose how each post is built, filter items by keywords, add UTM parameters and post only within chosen hours or at exact times in your time zone. See the PostRSS features page for everything it does and the pricing page for plan limits. More ideas for neighbourhood businesses are under the Local Business tag.

Пов’язане читання

• RSS auto-posting for art supply stores and picture framers
• RSS auto-posting for pottery studios
• RSS auto-posting for festival organizers

The bottom line

A gallery lives on announcements and on trust. RSS auto-posting shares every exhibition, opening, talk, workshop and open call automatically, as soon as it is published on the gallery website. Write each page for a visitor who has never been to the space, credit every artist and every work, check the permission to show each image, keep prices and private arrangements out of public posts, close pages when shows end and let the team spend their energy on the art and the visitors, not on retyping notices.

FAQ

Can an art gallery automate its social media posts?

Yes. If your gallery has a website with a news or exhibitions section, its RSS feed can be connected to an auto-poster that shares each new page on your Facebook Page, Pinterest boards and other channels.

What should a gallery post about an exhibition?

The title, the dates, the opening hours, one strong image with a credit, a short statement and the way to attend. Put the key dates in the text, not only in a poster image.

Do we need permission to share images of artworks?

Usually yes. Artists and estates normally keep the copyright, so check the agreement for each show and credit the artist, the title, the year and the medium.

Should prices appear in automated posts?

It is safer to keep prices of unique works out of automated posts. Discuss them with the client, and link to a page that you keep up to date.

Can PostRSS read a feed from a gallery website?

Yes. PostRSS reads any valid RSS or Atom address that is reachable without a login. Paste the address, connect your channels and new pages are shared as soon as they appear.