Martha Weidmann began her career working for what was then Denver’s most prestigious art consultancy, McGrath and Braun. When the company ran into financial trouble, Weidmann and her business partner, Molly Casey, bought the company and transformed it.
“At just 27 years old — thanks to support from mentors and a hefty amount of courage — I negotiated my first big business deal with someone 30 years my senior,” Weidmann said. “We bought out the company with sweat equity, marking the closure of that business and the beginning of NINE dot ARTS. With a family to support, including a second baby on the way, I had no choice but to succeed. I took several risks, including navigating family expectations, being a young woman leader in the male-dominated real estate world and having to learn quite a bit about business operations on the fly in order to turn my vision into the successful business it is today.”
NINE dot ARTS is an award-winning art consulting and creative placemaking firm that helps clients transform spaces into one-of-a-kind experiences through the power of original art. From boutique hotels to 20,000-acre community art plans, the firm has completed nearly 1,000 projects in real estate development across 39 states and five countries, generating more than $40 million in revenue for the creative economy.
With Weidmann serving as CEO, the vision for NINE dot ARTS is for it to be the leading art curation, consulting and creative placemaking firm in the nation. In the next five years, NINE dot ARTS plans to expand its national presence with a focus on the West Coast and Southeast.
“The firm will have refined its go-to-market strategy and team to take on new business in these target markets, and it will have built a specialized studio team of curators, acquisitions managers and other creative experts who specialize in developing one-of-a-kind art experiences for public and private sector clients across a variety of corporate, leisure and public spaces,” the company said. “Additionally, the firm will have doubled its community art planning services, thereby shaping meaningful public art and cultural programming that will reap tremendous livability and economic benefits and impact generations.”
Weidmann recently helped expand NINE dot ARTS’ footprint to Seattle and Atlanta. She has been named a 2021 Denver Business Journal Forty Under 40 winner, a 2022 Denver Business Journal Outstanding Women in Business awardee and a 2022 Forbes Next 1000 Finalist, among other accolades.
Under Weidmann’s guidance, NINE dot ARTS was recognized as a ColoradoBiz magazine Top 100 Woman-Owned Company and has received numerous recognitions, including the Urban Land Institute Impact Award, Denver’s Mayor’s Design Award, Conde Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Award and Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Award.
In 2022, Weidmann committed to tripling the firm’s charitable contributions and launching publicly available social impact reporting for all projects. Weidmann is active in the local Denver arts community, serving as a board member on the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts and launching an artist microgrant program.
