Tell the Story of Your Art Career on Your Facebook Timeline

Dust off your art résumé and put it to use with the new timeline on your Facebook page.
Timelines on business pages are a place for you to share the history of your art career. They’re not for you to tell your life story – that’s for your personal profile timeline.

How to Add to Your Timeline

To add to your timeline, click on Milestone in your Status box.

In the new window, add 5 short pieces of information about the event and an image. Try to be engaging with your story. Use humor or tell an offbeat incident that wouldn’t show up elsewhere. In otherwise, be personal – give more than “just the facts.”

Don’t skip uploading a photo. The Web is becoming more and more image-centric.

Photo Sizes

Facebook milestone images measure 843 pixels wide by 403 pixels high.
If you upload something narrower or taller, Facebook might expand it or crop it in a way that you don’t care for. I haven’t quite figured out when/why they crop or expand, but I do know one thing: If you make your images 843 x 403, you (not Facebook) control how they look on your timeline.

What to Add to Your Timeline

As I said at the top of this post, dust off your résumé. I should have said dust it off and spit-shine the copy. You have to tell an interesting story rather than duplicate a bullet point on your résumé.

1. Exhibits – Add your major exhibits with their venue name and location. Use installation photos of the exhibit if you have them. (I hope you do!) In lieu of installation shots, add an image or two of the work that was shown in that exhibit.
2. Awards – You know: Best of Show, Artist of the Year, The Universe’s Favorite Artist. This is no place to list honorable mentions or 3rd place finishes. Just brag on the big stuff. The photo you select could be of you with the award, with the juror, or of the specific piece that garnered the kudos.
3. Collections – We want to know when your work was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art or a major corporation.
4. Publications – Did you write a book? Tell us about it!
5. Degrees – If you have art degrees, add them to your timeline if it’s appropriate for you. There is no reason to add non-art degrees to your art career timeline.
6. Travel for Art – Add major journeys that influenced your art or exhibitions that inspired you in some way.
7. Firsts – Mention the first website or blog you started, your first sale, the first art lecture you gave, the first art you licensed, and the first gift shop or gallery that carried your art. Firsts aren’t interesting on their own, so make sure you back them up with good images and stories.

Don’t spend a long time on this process. Get a few up now and add more as you recall milestones for your career.
Did I miss something that should be on artists’ timelines? Tell me in a comment.