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New York, NY (PRWEB) October 21, 2013
Aiming to give small- and mid-size arts organizations the same technology and marketing power as major cultural institutions, Fractured Atlas today unveiled a web-based software system that transforms how smaller arts groups sell tickets, raise funds, and grow their audiences and organizations.
Created by artists for artists, Artful.ly was developed by Fractured Atlas, a national nonprofit dedicated to building smart technology for artists, in collaboration with hundreds of arts groups from across the country, including New York’s Third Rail Projects, Austin’s Fuxebox Festival, Florida’s Tampa Rep, DC’s Pointless Theatre, and Tennessee's Ensemble Theater of Chattanooga. Over the past three years, beta users tested the platform and worked closely with Fractured Atlas to improve and add features in order to better meet the needs of small arts organizations. The development was funded by grants from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, in addition to seed capital provided by Fractured Atlas itself.
According to Adam Huttler, the founder and executive director of Fractured Atlas, Artful.ly was developed to provide smaller arts organizations with an affordable, easy-to-use alternative to the systems used by major cultural institutions, which are costly, restrictive, and often incompatible with needs of small- and mid-size organizations. In light of those of those challenges, Huttler said that many small organizations still rely upon on a combination of Excel spreadsheets, pen and paper, and a dizzying mix of non-compatible programs to run their businesses.
“Our goal was to work closely with arts organization from across the country to develop inexpensive software that met their needs and empowered them to think and work on the same level of large institutions,” said Huttler. “No matter how big the organization, they ability to understand, use, and manage data is essential to running a successful organization and making smart decisions.
Brad Carlin, the managing director of the Fusebox Festival and a beta-user of Artful.ly, noted that by using the platform at last year’s festival, they were able to capture more data on attendees than in its previous eight years combined. Furthermore, the data captured through Artful.ly helped triple Fusebox’s individual donor base.
“Fusebox Festival went through eight different platforms in our first eight years to handle our ticketing, email marketing, and data management,” said Carlin. “Last year, Artful.ly provided Fusebox Festival with its first comprehensive box office that has made us a better, faster, and stronger organization.”
In keeping with the collaborative development process that led to the launch of Artful.ly, Huttler said that Fractured Atlas would continue to work closely with Fusebox Festival and all Artful.ly users to continue to enhance and improve the platform.
Artful.ly’s feature highlights include:
- No sign-up fees or contracts. Supplemental costs comes from a $2 per ticket fee and a standard 3.5% processing fee credit card companies mandatorily charge for tickets and donations.
- Organizations can integrate ticketing and fundraising directly onto their websites as easily as embedding a YouTube video.
- Seamless integration with MailChimp, allows arts organizations to directly manage, search and review all email marketing via one platform.
- Box office tools that enable organizations to sell tickets at the door and track all walk-up sales in the Artful.ly system.
- A single dashboard interface allows organizations to view a customer or patron’s entire history, from ticket purchases and donations to contact information and eblasts.
The launch of Artful.ly builds on Fractured Atlas’ track record of building technology that helps artists and arts groups build sustainable careers and organization. Its technology milestones include the 2012 launch of Spaces, an online service that has been hailed as an “OpenTable for rehearsal and performance space,” and its fiscal sponsorship program, which provides an online platform, digital support, and partnerships with crowdfunding sites IndieGoGo and RocketHub, to enable artists to solicit and receive grants and tax-deductible contributions that are normally available only to 501(c)(3) organizations. In the past year more than 3,200 projects have raised over $13.7 million.
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About Fractured Atlas
Fractured Atlas is the country’s largest arts service organization, reaching a network of more than 250,000 artists and organizations in all 50 states and all 435 congressional districts. Dedicated to empowering artists with the support they need to work effectively and thrive, Fractured Atlas provides funding, insurance, technology, education, and other services critical to building sustainable careers and organizations. Founded in 1998, Fractured Atlas is headquartered in New York City. For more information, visit the Fractured Atlas Media Center at http://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/about/media.
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