The Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia not only hosts its own events, but also serves as a rental venue. Hundreds of people gather to see great works of art and celebrate community. Proceeds from in-house-organized events support exhibitions and educational programming at the museum. The lavish Elegant Salute, held every other year, is a black-tie gala. At the annual Black History Month dinner, a noteworthy artist receives the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Award. These events require careful planning and leadership. Rylee Meyer is prepared for the task.
Meyer joined the museum staff in April as senior event coordinator. She comes from a background of event planning and was previously at Keeneland, a racetrack in Lexington, Kentucky. She has worked in both small grassroots organizations and corporate event planning. Meyer received a bachelor’s of science in human sciences with a concentration in apparel, textiles and merchandising and a double minor in business and marketing from Mississippi State University. In college, she took a historic costumes class, which got her interested in preservation, fashion and history. Working at the museum gives her an opportunity to support this work with her event planning experience.
Meyer hopes to increase the number of events held at the museum. She is working on an overview analysis of the rentals department and intends to set a realistic growth rate and increase revenue for fiscal year 2020. She does not see herself as a typical event planner, who is concerned with decorations and tents. Instead, she said, “I love creating organization out of chaos. It is really fun for me. I enjoy logistics and figuring out how to make something that shouldn’t work, or what works well, how to make it work better.” She strives to create efficient processes for each event. It’s like solving a puzzle. She asks, “how can I move a large group of people through this space without creating bottlenecks or issues?” The goal is to make the event flow.
She described the museum culture as different, exciting and classy. Her friendly personality hates impersonal emails. Instead, she prefers to drop by and ask a quick question. One of her favorite parts of Athens are the restaurants, like Donna Chang’s. She loves the diversity of events and people found in Athens. She looks forward to contributing to this creative culture with high-quality and efficient events at the museum in the future.
By McKenzie Peterson
