M ost people are familiar with the adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Stick to what works. Don’t take unnecessary risks.

It’s a bit of advice that Nancy Shaw Cramer has chosen happily to ignore throughout her career.

Making choices and changes, even riskier ones, has been vital to Ms. Shaw Cramer’s success in the Island art world. It was on a bit of a providential whim that the former tapestry weaver decided to move to the Island in the first place, and to transform herself from artist to art proprietor.

“I had been [to the Vineyard] once on a visit for a long weekend, and I decided that I would come here and open a gallery,” said Ms. Shaw Cramer. “I just started blind. I didn’t see anyone else [here] doing anything contemporary, and thought, ‘What a great idea.’”

And so the Shaw Cramer Gallery was born, in a first floor walk-up on Main street in Vineyard Haven. At six o’clock this evening, artists and friends will gather at the gallery to kick off the summer art season, and to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Ms. Shaw Cramer’s ultimately victorious, if impulsive, idea.

“Fifteen years,” said Ms. Shaw Cramer, reflecting on the number as if unable to communicate the experiences that have taken place in that time. “Think of all the friendships I have with these artists,” she said.

In fact, her artist friendships were what helped to fill the walls of the gallery that first year.

“I came here knowing no one. I knew a whole group of people whom I thought I could call upon . . . to be a part of this gallery. It was mainly my friends whom I knew through the tapestry world,” she said. She secured other artists through cold-calling, and met a few locals by joining a fiber art group on the Island.

“She’s the most honest, straightforward, and fair gallery owner I’ve ever met,” said friend and fellow tapestry artist Julia Mitchell. “She’s got a great eye, wonderful taste, and is not afraid to speak up,” she added, in a testament to Ms. Shaw Cramer’s success through the years.

At the beginning, the gallery featured contemporary fine crafts including clay, metal, glass, paper or fiber, and jewelry. Though her initial impulse was to avoid fine arts, her appreciation for all beautiful art eventually triumphed.

“One of my clay sculptors, in fact, introduced me to one of her friend’s art work — paintings. I thought ‘I have to have them,’” said Ms. Shaw Cramer. Now, the white studio walls are filled with paintings, the rooms decorated with carefully positioned sculptures and display tables, handcrafted jewelry arranged in glass display cases. The materials are varied, and the artwork harmonious, but still eye-catching. “[I] don’t want to make it so smooth and harmonious and matching that you don’t see anything. So you have to have some little stops and starts. You have to be careful. I’ve got a lot of styles in here, a lot of artists . . . we do a lot of rearranging all the time,” she said.

“Visually, she’s opened the gallery up a lot [since first opening],” said Heather Sommers, a longtime Shaw Cramer artist and friend of Ms. Shaw Cramer. “There is a lot to see but it has a calmer feeling now.”

Ms. Shaw Cramer’s decorative instinct comes from another artistic background: interior design. It was her major in college and remains an enjoyable diversion.

“I do color and space planning, even now, for people . . . I can envision things really quite easily; visualize in my mind. Sometimes [customers] bring in photographs of a room, or I go to their homes here . . . I might hang their artwork, or rearrange furniture, or just give them ideas on how to get a fresh look. [It’s] another creative outlet for me.”

One more creative outlet among many. In addition to being an artist, gallery owner and interior designer, Ms. Shaw Cramer has recently assumed a new title: publisher.

After years of enjoying monthly potluck meetings with the seven women she assembled to form an art group in 1996, she finally acted on their idea to create a cookbook.

“We always have wonderful homemade food [at the meetings], and we always said we should make a cookbook. The premise is that artists are good cooks. And most of them think so. Overall the potters are sure they are the best cooks, because they work with heat, they work with recipes, and they work with a lot of experimentation and failure,” said Ms. Shaw Cramer lightheartedly.

She began the process by researching bookmaking and publishing online. She then enlisted several artists willing to contribute, and secured Kathy Newman as the cookbook photographer. Each artist submitted three images of their artwork and three of their favorite recipes, tweaked in some way to make the dish their own. Finally, artists were asked to contribute an art statement discussing the relationship between art and food.

“It was just fascinating,” recalled Ms. Shaw Cramer.

Unfortunately, the idea was not so popular with publishers. “We got twelve really flattering rejections,” she said with a self-effacing laugh. “[But] after the rejections I did not want to just let this sit in my computer and not do anything with it.”

Instead, she chose to self-publish. The process was expensive, hiking the retail price of the cookbook well beyond what Ms. Shaw Cramer hoped to charge, but the result is filled with glossy photographs of artwork and cuisine.

“It’s a labor of love, without a doubt,” she said.

The second and last reception at Shaw Cramer gallery this summer will be a July 10 celebration of the book, Vineyard Artists in the Kitchen.

In past years, Ms. Shaw Cramer has generally held three large gallery shows, each marked by an opening reception. Holding fewer receptions this summer reflects yet another change she has made to liven up a season and break from the norm.

“It’s time for a change all over. What I’m doing this year, instead of what I call a big show, I’m doing nine spotlight shows. [It’s] a show that is about half the size of a big show, maybe less . . . We’re just trying to bring new ideas of presentation. We’re contemporary, we’re not supposed to be doing the same old traditional stuff all the time.”

The first spotlight show, featuring Island artist Wendy Weldon’s mixed media paintings, will begin with tonight’s opening reception. It will last for two weeks, overlapped by the second show, which will begin next Friday. The two-week show cycle will continue, with a new show added every Friday.

“The fun part to me is that the people in town, they know that every week something new is being presented at Shaw Cramer Gallery. [And] every show either will have all new work in it, or will have some new work in it.”

Additionally, each piece of artwork sold will be immediately turned over to its buyer, and replaced with another piece by the same artist. All artwork on display will be available for purchase, departing from the common practice of red-dotting sold pieces until the show is over to maintain the initial configuration.

“We’ll be hanging a lot this year,” said Ms. Shaw Cramer. The artwork will have to be rearranged to accommodate each sale, and artwork switched out every two weeks for a new show. “Nine shows is a huge amount,” she added.

Still, she is excited about the challenge. Her unique approach to business in the art world and her constantly evolving outlook are the very elements that have made her both happy and successful through the years.

“I’ve just been very impressed with how she has developed her gallery along her vision,” said Ms. Sommers. “She was also very good about encouraging people to pursue their vision . . . [and] she always keeps it fresh. She’s really reached a nice harmony.”

“She’s always trying new things,” agreed Ms. Mitchell. “She’s not stuck in any particular mode. That’s sort of exemplified in the way she is always changing the way things are arranged in the gallery. She’s always looking for a fresh approach.”

Ms. Shaw Cramer describes her life on the Island as having a “fullness” and “roundness” that she attributes to the people she has met, and the experiences her career has allowed her here. Every day seems to hold a new adventure, many of her own making.

“I just felt completely at home when I got here. The minute I got here. And I still do,” she said. “Fifteen years and I’m still here. And I plan to be for a long time.”

The Shaw Cramer Gallery’s 15-year anniversary opening is from 6 to 8 p.m. on June 26, and features the paintings of Wendy Weldon. For details, call 508-696-7323.