Special Initiatives

Alliance for Audience

One Stop Shopping for the Arts

Alliance for Audience and ShowUp.com Serve as 'Convention and Visitors Bureau for the Arts'

Imagine being able to go online the day of an event you'd like to attend and get discounted tickets for the performance; consult a comprehensive calendar of all arts and cultural events in the region; or receive electronic notification about the latest shows and events throughout the Valley.

Through its comprehensive Web site, www.ShowUp.com, Alliance for Audience has transformed public access to the arts, making it simple and convenient to find event information.

The concept for Alliance for Audience began when a group of arts marketing and box office professionals from a variety of performance and visual arts organizations discovered a shared interest in making the arts more accessible to the community and building audiences. Their concept began simply: What if people could find information about arts happenings right at their fingertips?

Nurtured by the Arizona Commission on the Arts and the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture, a volunteer committee worked for two years to develop a business plan for an innovative and dynamic collaboration linking arts organizations with new audiences. In November 2003, the Piper Trust awarded a $250,000 grant to support the new organization over its first three years.

Nearly three years after Alliance for Audience began and a year after its Web site ShowUp.com launched, visitors can easily choose from thousands of events and activities offered by more than 500 arts organizations in a comprehensive, easy-to-use format. Presently, more than 1,200 visitors access ShowUp.com every day. While people can purchase discount tickets directly from the site, countless more access the arts organizations’ Web sites for full-price ticket purchases, explained Matt Lehrman, the alliance’s executive director.

“Raising awareness of the Valley’s arts organizations and making the arts easily accessible to the public is the heart of our mission,” Lehrman commented. The excitement for Alliance for Audience is catching on, as more and more media outlets are noting the site as a one-of-a-kind tool for planning leisure-time activities.

As word spreads, site visitation is expected to grow as more people like Scottsdale resident Terri Thorson discover how easy it is to attend arts events. “I’m always looking for interesting things to do with friends or with my daughter, and it’s great to see everything all in one place. ShowUp.com provides such a range of options for performances and art exhibitions on any given weekend. And the opportunity to buy tickets last minute, and at a discount, is so convenient.”

Since it began in September 2003, Alliance for Audience has set the stage to become a long-term force in marketing the arts, noted Carol Kratz, senior program officer for the Trust. The organization’s innovation and collaborative spirit were recognized in August 2005 with the Arts and Business Council’s Arts Organization of the Year award. Looking forward, the alliance will continue to build on its successes while developing additional marketing opportunities.