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Silhouettes profiles Marilyn Meredith Collier

Marilyn Meredith Collier


By: Tiffany Razzano

This article appeared in the Aug. 18, 2017 edition of La Gaceta

As a native of Nashville, Tennessee, Martine Meredith Collier was surrounded by the arts from an early age.
Her parents, though not artists themselves, always encouraged her love of self-expression and creativity, she said. So by the time she was 7 years old, she was part of the Nashville Children’s Theatre.
“[Nashville] is a fabulous arts community with great universities and wonderful art,” she said. “That children’s theater was fabulous training ground. It was an excellent theater.”
She performed through high school and at 16, became a dancer for Minnie Pearl, a country comedienne and singer who appeared at the Grand Ole Opry for more than 50 years and was also a part of the television show “Hee Haw.” Pearl, whose real name was Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon, lent her name to a fried chicken franchise in the late 1960s. Collier was one of six dancers hired to help her promote that endeavor.
“Minnie was nothing like her character on stage,” Collier said. “She was actually a Nashville society lady – Mrs. Sarah Cannon. She was tough like a drill sergeant. If we were going out to events with her, she was very strict. But she was a wonderful role model for leadership, when I think back now, seeing how she carried herself and seeing what a powerful leader she was and how protective she was of the people who worked for her and how professional she was. Those mentors you have early in life you don’t realize will have a long-term impact. But there’s no doubt that she did. She was pretty impressive and she was quite forceful.”
Collier went on to study acting at Memphis State University and acted professionally after graduating. She was involved with professional theaters in Memphis, and also, for a period, joined a dinner theater tour of Tennessee and Oklahoma. “I sort of phased out of Memphis and did quite a bit of traveling for shows,” she said. “I didn’t like that much. I like having my own community and kind of being a catch to that community. When you’re touring around like that, you can’t even have a house plant or a cat. It’s very nomadic. It just wasn’t me.”
At 25, she took her first job in arts administration – an assistant director position at a children’s theater, the Red Balloon Players, in Memphis. “I really liked that,” she said, “and got more into marketing, fundraising and arts administration, and really found my niche.”
This launched a whole new career “behind the scenes” for her. In addition to the arts, she also held administrative roles within the non-profit sector as well, at universities and arts-oriented schools.
Though she loved the arts, she found being in administration was a better fit for her. “The life of an artist is very difficult and unpredictable,” Collier said. “I really appreciate that and have lived that, and that’s why I support artists. They do so much for the community, but don’t always have a good safety net.”
She added, “I’m much better in the audience and helping them get funding and promotion than being an artist.”
From 1990 to 2002, she served as director of admissions, development and public relations for The Heritage School. She then joined the Georgia Council for the Arts for one year as community arts development manager. This is when she decided to go back to school to earn her masters in arts administration from Goucher College in Maryland.
She held the district chair at the Arts Leadership League of Georgia from 2004 to 2006, before heading to Florida to take on the executive director position for the Sarasota County Arts Council for two years.
Next, Collier spent two years in Seattle as director of development and membership for Grantmaker in the Arts. From there, she landed in Dayton, Ohio, an eight-county regional organization in the Miami Valley, to serve as president and CEO of Culture Works. She left that role at the end of 2016 to become the executive director of the Arts Council of Hillsborough County. She’s excited to be supporting the arts in Tampa and Hillsborough.
“I think this community is just bursting with potential and so much has happened here in the past eight years,” she said.
While working for Sarasota County Arts Council, she had the chance to visit and explore Tampa. “It’s such a different community now,” she said. “The downtown is so vibrant and young artists are bubbling up all over. I love the diversity of the community and the different ethnicities. It’s such a great melting pot.”
Collier has spent the past eight months getting to know her new community. “I went on a listening tour when I first got here,” she said. “I talked to all the arts organizations. The people in the business community. The school board. They all gave me such good information to help form a direction for the organization. Everyone has been so warm and welcoming.”
She added, “I’m having a blast and I just think the world of this community. It has so much potential to become nationally known for arts and culture. It’s already nationally known for its sports, but I’d love it to become known for the arts.”
At the end of June, the Arts Council board voted to implement a new strategic plan. The plan is the result of a community-wide study that was conducted throughout the county with the help of Americans for the Arts. “We compiled a lot of data and found out what the community would like to see and what would help them connect with the arts in our community,” she said. “Basically, what can we do better and what needs can we fill.”
A common suggestion in the survey was that the organization create an annual guide to the arts in Hillsborough County. So Arts Council staff got to work to quickly put together a guide in time for the fall season, Collier said.
“I have to commend the staff of the Arts Council,” she added. “The two staff members who did this pulled it together in five weeks and it looks like it took more time than that. It looks quite stunning.”
The guide will be available at various arts and cultural locations throughout the county. “This is a real tool for every citizen in the community to find museums, venues and probably places they don’t even know about,” she said. “There’s not been anything here quite like it before. I think it’s going to be very helpful.”
Another result of the survey and new strategic plan is that the Arts Council will focus more on “cultural equality,” Collier said. “We want to make sure grant making and all aspects of the community are reaching everyone. We are looking to get more diversity on our board and committees. This means geographic diversity, meaning different parts of the county; ethnicities; and age.”
The organization will also plan a summit on issues of cultural equity, she added.
The Arts Council hopes to connect with local educations by adding an arts education component to its website, as well. It will be a resource for teachers and parents seeking opportunities for area students.
Collier is also excited about a special event on Thursday, Sept. 14, 8 a.m., at the Tampa Theatre. National expert Randy Cohen, who vice president of research for the Americans for the Arts, will present on “Why the Arts Mean Business for Tampa Bay.” Community leaders, business owners and arts organizations are invited to this free event, which will focus on the economic impact of the arts, including tourism and job creation, in Hillsborough. An economic impact study completed over a year ago shows there is a $433 million annual economic impact on the county, Collier said.
“That’s a huge increase over what it was when it was last done 10 years ago,” she added. “I think Tampa and Hillsborough County are at a wonderful tipping point for growing and connecting the arts community and being more nationally recognized for arts and culture.”

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