The hang is in three weeks. The last email had a wish list: more walls, a different weekend, who pays freight, a bio rewrite, and "let's lock soon." Neither side can find the thing that actually blocks the show. The freight quote expires Friday.
A show is a pile of decisions that look like one relationship. They are not. Dates, walls, and shipping move on different clocks. Send the one that dies first.
One clause, one yes
If you are the gallery: "Can we hold May 8–31, six walls in the north room, you ship, we insure on site, yes or no by Wednesday." If you are the artist: "Can install move from May 6 to May 9, same wall count, yes or no by Wednesday." That is a decision.
Name the shape. A hold is a decision. "Would you ever show work like this" is an opinion, and it belongs before anyone talks about freight. A review of a hanging plan needs the plan in the note, not a file.
Give the facts that decide this clause: the room, the dates, who last agreed to what, the date a quote or a hold expires. Cut the praise paragraph. They know the work.
Write names both will recognise. Not a private nickname. Not a cute studio name they do not use on invoices.
They may only have email
Write anyway. Most artists and most small-room directors are not connecting an assistant for this. The mail is the product. They reply from the mail or the page. You approve the wording. An assistant does not book a show as you.
If one of you uses Claude and the other uses ChatGPT, the briefing is what crosses. That is enough. Neither chat is a contract.
No image file, no PDF. Name the page where the work already lives. Paste the one sentence of the agreement you need a yes on. If a fuller contract lives in the folder you already share, name the folder.
One person per send. A group of represented artists is not a recipient list.
What a sufficient reply is
"Yes." "No — I can do May 9 install." "Yes if freight is split." One line. Say that is enough.
Then a default. "If I do not hear by Wednesday, I release the north room and write you once that is done." A default that hangs work on silence is how people arrive to a locked door.
A follow-up is allowed if the hold date moved. A bump that restates how much you love the work is not a hold.
What this is not
It is not the catalog essay. It is not a consignment education. Those wait until the dates exist.
It is not a blast to every room in town with the artist name swapped. One room, one clause. The sentence should be false if you sent it next door.
If your assistant already has the last email, let it pull the one blocking clause onto a page. You read the dates. Then the other party can answer without a wish list.