Brown Paper Tickets uses cookies to provide the best experience on our website. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy

Cookie Settings

5 Secrets to a Successful Community Arts Event

community-arts-festivalHere’s the scenario: someone delegates you the enormous responsibility of planning a community arts festival. It needs to be wildly successful, but you have little-to-no budget and a short time. You nod and say alright (there’s a reason they asked you after all), but your mind is telling you to run screaming.

You can pull off a rockin’ community arts event, even under such constraints. You just need to get out there and connect with venues, community members, and artists.

Here are 5 tips that will help your event:

1. Find a Venue that Will Benefit

Ideally one that has power, running water, and restrooms (inside), so that you don’t need to rent the infrastructure separately. Before you approach the venues, have a good idea of how your event will benefit the space. They may be able to cut you a deal or even allow you to have the space for free.

The definition of venue has changed a bunch. Don’t overlook bookstores, warehouses, barns, and dance studios.

Watch our webinar on turning your empty space into an event space.

2. Pool Community Resources

Don’t underestimate the human need for passion, purpose, and connection. Clearly define your cause and publicize it. Make flyers, post to community apps and Facebook groups, put up a notice at community gathering spaces in your neighborhood. You will be amazed at how easily you can pull together a team of local volunteers.

Every city and town has talented artists who are excited to show off their work. Establish a common vision, make new friends and pull in their friends.

3. Include a Range of Arts

A powerful community arts event can draw a range of people. Keep this in mind as you book and schedule entertainment. When you include a diverse range of acts and people from all walks of life, you will attract and appeal to a wider audience. Consider posting a call for artists and step outside your own comfort zone to find them.

The term “arts” encompasses a range of activities; don’t limit yourself. You could include magic, storytelling, painting, dance, jump rope dancing, circus arts, burlesque, spoken word. The talent is out there, you just need to look for it.

Pro tip: Set up areas at your event for people to chat, before checking out the show. They’re more likely to stick around for the whole event that way.

4. Find Creative Solutions that Don’t Cost

Investigate your venue space and brainstorm ideas for creative ways to engage with it. You will be surprised at how innovative you can get.

At a community arts event we held long ago, our staff member transformed the black-and-white checkered dance floor into a giant game of checkers. Creativity is half the fun and you’re working with one creative bunch, so use their brains.

5. Invite EVERYONE

Don’t limit your invites. Use the steps outlined in this post on how to announce an event on social media . Tell all of your friends, family, coffeehouse owners, people at your gym, local eateries and shops about your arts extravaganza. Talk to local publications and neighborhood blogs—if you can get listed in just a few of them, you’re all set.

Create an event promo video and post it everywhere. Get listed in local events’ newsletters and finally, ask your friends and family to spread the word.

Have you ever had to plan an event that was outside your comfort zone? How did it go?

 

Arts >

How Arts Corps is Revolutionizing Arts Education

ArtCorps_Seattle-charityThe arts foster great change, which is why Brown Paper Tickets selected Seattle-based Arts Corps for our latest Giving Program donation. Their mission is so inspiring, thoughtful, and necessary: “Arts Corps revolutionizes arts education by igniting the creative power of young people through culturally engaging learning experiences.”

Arts Corps started a variety of cool programs for students, including In School Residencies. The Residencies help students’ creativity grow inside the classroom through arts-integrated learning as part of their regular school day. Students can take residencies in poetry, dance, theater, visual arts, and others.

Another fantastic program they offer is Teen Leadership, which creates the space for the next generation of young artists to sharpen their skills and interest in activism and cultural work.

Teen leadership allows students to form strong creative habits, community organizing skills, professional development, and social justice analysis. This is my personal favorite program—I live in New York City and see a need for Teen Leadership to help keep our teenagers engaged in positive activities and off the streets.

Ways to Get Involved in Arts Corps

• Teach or volunteer (Seattle)
• Find a class or program that would be a good fit for you or your school
• Become a partner
• If you are far away, consider making a monetary tax deductible donation

Art Corps works toward “a world where barriers to arts education no longer exist and young people can creatively lead the transformation of schools, neighborhoods, and beyond.”

Photo credit: Amy Piñon

 

Good Causes >

Your Complete Guide to School Event Ticketing

Homecoming or the big game, assembly or the drama club’s production of Romeo and Juliet, it’s almost time to set up fall and winter school events.  With school soon in session, your to-do list is miles long, but getting your school event ticketing in order now will save you time later on.

Our guide will teach you how to set up and promote fundraisers, dances, recitals, theater and more.

Online ticketing school events streamlines the process and keeps all your events and tracking in order. Our system is free, fair and flexible–we have 15 years’ experience working with schools and can help meet your district’s specific needs.

Already convinced and want to get started? Email us.

Free Seating Charts

Before you begin setting up your school events, we wanted to make sure to tell you that we now offer free unlimited seating charts. This is amazing news—you can easily set up assigned seating on theater events, recitals, band concerts and more at zero cost. Seating charts help organize groups, allow you to designate accessible and special seating, plus give parents with parties peace of mind.

If you’re interested in seating charts, when creating your event select that you would like to have assigned seating and one of our reps will contact you to guide you through the process.

Get Schooled in Event Ticketing

Before you create your event(s), you will need to create a Brown Paper Tickets account. That way, you can save your progress as you build your event page.

When you first set up your account, you will be asked to set your financial settings. These settings determine how you will process funds for events and how you will receive payment. Our payment process is flexible – we can set up direct deposit, check, or processor for you. Before you set up your financial information, it’s a good idea to check in with your district accounting department.

Once you’ve created your account, you can breeze through event setup. It helps to have the following info on hand before you begin:

  • Event Title
  • Event Description
  • Time and Date of Event
  • Price of Tickets
  • Point of Contact for Event Info

When you create your event, it will go to our staff to review and they’ll make sure it’s set up correctly. We offer 24/7, multilingual support (English, Spanish, and French) to both event organizers and attendees at 800-838-3006.

School Events Promotion 101

You will receive an email notice from us when your event has been approved along with your event link.

Now it’s time to get students, parents and the local community hyped about your event. Start with pre-coded links and graphics on the “Linking Page” under “Manage Your Events.” Put links and buttons on your district page, on event listings and on other relevant web properties to drive prospective attendees right to registration.

Other school event promotion tips:

• Set up an event page on Facebook and let attendees know where to buy tickets
• Create a specific event hashtag to increase engagement (#poppinprom #ourtownrules #romeohromeo)
• Post a picture on Instagram from last year’s event to promote this year’s

Additional tips on how to attract teenagers to local arts events.

With the right tools and preparation, you can take the stress out of school events. We’re happy to help in any way that we can, just reach out for assistance. Have a fun, stress-free, memorable back-to-school season.

Event Tips >

Hot Tickets: Seattle

valentinesdaydinneranddanceHere are this week’s Hot Tickets in the Seattle area. Check back every Thursday at noon, PST for stellar events that fit the interests of locals and tourists alike.

________________________________________

Friday, February 14 I Valentine’s Day Dinner & Dance

“Accompanied by his four-piece band, Kline brings a little humor and a lot of swagger to the old standards with a fresh vitality and offers a great opportunity for couples to kick up their heels in support of a great local institution.”

“Get your kicks” on Route 66, but wine and dine your Valentine on Orcas!

Dust off your dancing shoes and get ready to swing to the sounds of Half Pack LIVE!, a Vegas-style show band that’s bouncy, fun and well-delivered entertainment reminiscent of the old Vegas Strip when Frank and Dino were kings. Veteran singer and entertainer Troy Kline will be performing in a Valentine’s Day benefit for Orcas Island Children’s House at the The Rosario Resort Beachhouse (Discovery House).

Accompanied by his four-piece band, Kline brings a little humor and a lot of swagger to the old standards with a fresh vitality and offers a great opportunity for couples to kick up their heels in support of a great local institution.

Local favorite Gene Nery will provide additional musical talent to the Seattle-based band! And look for additional local entertainment throughout the evening, including magician Matthew Laslo and young songstress Stormy Hildreth.

A silent auction will be held in conjunction with the event.


Read More…

Uncategorized >

Artist Ticket Picks: Mighty Boosh, Maurice Sendak and 80’s Cinema Go Burlesque, Bitter Poetry and more!

The_Mighty_Boosh_Wallpaper_by_JWoods07Welcome to this week’s Artist Ticket Picks! The Artist Ticket program gives our customers a way to donate to causes that we care about.

If you’re an event producer, you can allow your ticket buyers to purchase limited-edition tickets printed with original artwork in your event settings. The ticket buyer will pay a small, additional charge of $0.25 and receive a limited edition, collectible ticket imprinted with original artwork. The current charity of our choosing will receive 100% of the additional charge. Physical tickets must be enabled on the event.

If you’re a ticket buyer, you can check to see if the limited edition ticket is available to you at the beginning of the ticket checkout process or by visiting the Artist Ticket page. You receive a small piece of collectible art and support a valuable cause just by checking the box in the Artist Ticket widget when you’re purchasing your tickets!

See a full list of events carrying the tickets on the Artist Ticket page, as well as find out more about the beneficiary for the current run of Artist Tickets.

So, without further ado, here are this week’s Artist Ticket picks:

Saturday, January 4 I Come With us on a Journey Through Time and Space: A Mighty Boosh Burlesque TributeSeattle, Washington

The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy troupe featuring comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. Developed from three stage shows and a six-episode radio series, it has since spawned a total of 20 television episodes for BBC Three and two live tours of the UK, as well as two live shows in the United States.

In May 2004, after the success of a Boosh pilot, Steve Coogan’s company, Baby Cow Productions, produced the first television series of The Mighty Boosh for BBC Three, before it moved to BBC Two in November that same year. Though each episode invariably starts and ends in Dixon Bainbridge’s dilapidated zoo, the “Zooniverse”, the characters of Vince and Howard often depart for other locations, such as the Arctic tundra and limbo.

A second series, shown in July 2005, saw Howard and Vince sharing Naboo’s flat in Dalston with previously minor characters Naboo and his familiar, Bollo, a gorilla living at the “Zooniverse”. This series had an even looser setting as the four characters leave the confines of the flat in every episode, travelling in their van to a variety of surrealistic environments, including Naboo’s home planet “Xooberon”.

Series three started in November 2007, still set in Dalston, but this time the foursome are selling ‘Bits & Bobs’ in their shop, the Nabootique. Their adventures and outings in this series focused more on the involvement of new characters (e.g. Sammy the Crab, or Lester Corncrake etc.) rather than just the two of them.

This burlesque tribute to the cult hit will take place at Belltown’s Rendezvous/Jewelbox Theater and is lead by the board of Shaman (aka L’Orchestre D’Incroyable) and hosts Morbid Curiositease will take you through a journey of time and space featuring: La Petite Mort, Czech Mate, Dogwood, Penelope Rose, Amy Corinne Dougherty and a few surprises. Electro Boy/Girl dance party in the Grotto to follow with a DJ battle Kevin Incroyable vs Dominick J Kreep!

Read More…

Arts >

Foodie Friday: Winner, Winner! Chicken Dinner!

Henrietta w Opal PeachyThis week on Foodie Friday, guest author Ronald Holden takes time from his Call Center duties to write about a hot ticket in Seattle that combines food and theater.

Dinner theater, that staple of summer resorts, gets a bad rap: tired scripts, bland food, performers of modest talent. But Seattle audiences have an admirable exception: a zany company of performers known as Cafe Nordo, whose twice-a-year dinner shows combine more-than-decent food (from pop-up kitchens) with pointed, topical satire.

It started four years ago, when Terry Podgorski and Erin Brindley, alums of a successful variety show known as Circus Contraption, created the persona of a fictional martinet, Chef Nordo Lefeszki. Their first production, in Fremont, brought together a cast of semi-professional entertainers for a show called The Modern American Chicken. The tuxedoed and feathered cast performed the saga of a hapless, happy hen named Henrietta.

“A hen is the egg’s way of making another egg,” said one character, energetically whipping egg whites. “And what makes a good egg? A good hen.”

From Fremont to Pioneer Square, from the International District to Washington Hall on the fringe of the CD, the Cafe Nordo players have found novel ways to tell their stories. A tribute to the Twin Peaks TV series; a nostalgic look at air travel; a parody of Gunsmoke-era westerns. The satire is always pointed squarely at big business, big government, big agriculture, easy targets for Podgorski’s sharp pen.
Read More…

Arts >