Rather than presenting one plan and asking for approval, Meredith gave American Rivers three options.
- Donate twelve small works for them to use however they wanted.
- A show she would bring to their fundraiser.
- A full collaborative exhibition in Telluride during Mountainfilm festival.
They chose the third option, which happened to be what she hoped for. But because they chose it, they were invested in it. That distinction matters. When collaborators choose their level of involvement, they become stakeholders in your idea.
Build on existing relationships.
The other collaborators were people Meredith already knew. She didn’t build the collaboration from scratch. She looked at who was already in her orbit and asked whether their work connected to hers. In most cases, the ask was simple because the relationship was already there.
Activate the show more than once.
One opening night is one opportunity. Meredith and her gallery structured the show around two opening events — one during Mountainfilm and another on a First Thursday art walk — plus a separate poetry reading. Each event brought a different audience into the gallery and gave people multiple reasons to come.
Meredith gratefully acknowledges that the gallery staff did a lot of heavy lifting. They visited her studio as a group, spent an evening understanding the full story behind the work, and built their social media strategy from that foundation.
Any artist would kill for their gallery to feature them so prominently —>