Creating an Online Viewing Room For Your Artist or Gallery Website

The Advantages of an Online Viewing Room

• Global Reach: An online viewing room transcends geographical limitations, enabling your artwork to be accessible to anyone with internet access.
• Convenience and Accessibility: Collectors and art enthusiasts can view your artwork at any time, from anywhere, eliminating the constraints of in-person gallery visits.
• Increased Exposure: The online space allows you to reach a broader audience, including potential buyers, art critics, and curators.
• Enhanced Engagement: An online viewing room provides an immersive experience where viewers can explore your artwork in detail, read accompanying descriptions, and even interact with you.

Key Considerations for Designing an Online Viewing Room

• Selecting Artworks: Choose a curated selection of your artworks that best represent your style and artistic vision. This could be a single collection of 7-15 pieces or a mix of artworks centered around a common theme, time period or medium.
• Mobile-Friendly Interface: Design an intuitive and visually appealing mobile-optimized interface that encourages easy navigation and exploration of your artworks.
• High-Quality Imagery: Ensure your artwork images are of excellent quality, showcasing the details and textures accurately. Keep file sizes low (under 500kb) and format using current web best practices (webP format).
• Artist Statement: Craft a compelling Artist Statement and narratives for your artwork, offering insights into your creative process and inspiration. Consider adding photos of your creative process
• Pricing and Availability: Displaying prices will depend on your art sales strategy. If you follow the typical gallery model using the ‘inquire’ selling method, then you can mirror this strategy on your OVR page. Alternatively, you could display the prices and a ‘Buy’ call to action, saving time and administration costs. At Vivid Creative, we build our client’s OVR pages to trigger a prompt to capture an email address before entering the OVR page – this allows the artist to start building a relationship via email marketing.
• Technology: To enable the ability to buy artwork online, your website will either need an e-commerce function (like WooCommerce for WordPress) or integration with a payment provider like stripe or square (best for just a few items).
• Art Placer: Tools like artplacer.com give artists the ability to create a virtual gallery experience without needing to be techy. Guests can navigate through a virtual space (just like in video-games) and click on the artwork to learn more. This is a good option for someone who can’t DIY your own website or hire pro.

Pro tip: Visit our free member resources for the latest website tools and resources

Steps to Create Online Viewing Room

Step 1: On your artist or gallery website

MULTIPLE OVRs: Create a new page and title it ‘OVR’. This will be the summary page for each collection. Then set up a new sub-page under each collection name. Go back to the OVR summary page and add an image, title and button link to each collection sub-page.

SINGLE OVR: If you only choose one OVR at a time, set up a new page titled ‘OVR’ and add your collection content on this page.

Step 2: Collection Page Content

Include a title section with an image or video of your work. The title can be an combination of:

• Artist name + collection name + time period
• Collection name + time period
• Collection name

Add a new text section for your artist statement

Then create a gallery or image section per artwork. Include the title, price , dimensions, material and creation year.

Add your CTA to either ‘Buy’ or ‘Inquire’

Need inspiration? View a our OVR demo

Step 3: Showcase Artwork

Upload your artwork photos and choose a photo of just the artwork as the first image. Then add images of details, signature, the back and in-situ photos.

Step 4: Image Optimization

Optimize your artwork images for web display, ensuring they load quickly without compromising quality.

Step 5: Contact and Sales

Make it easy to connect with you or your studio manager. If using the inquiry method, be prompt in your reply, as the viewer is engaged in learning more or ready to buy a piece. If you choose the ‘Buy’ option, then the order transaction will be automated. Have a post-sale strategy in place, so your customer knows when to expect the artwork.

Step 6: Testing

Before your share your new page, run through the full customer journey from the first click. Ensure all the button links work as you expect and check your work from a desktop/laptop and mobile device.

Curious about getting your artist or gallery website designed by us? Learn more here

By integrating an online viewing room into your artist website, you open up exciting opportunities to expand your reach, engage with a global audience, and connect with potential buyers and art enthusiasts. Remember to curate your artworks, design an intuitive interface, and provide seamless integrations for contacting you to learn more or buy your artwork. Embrace the digital era and leverage the power of the internet to showcase your unique art to the world.