Featured Member Project

Featured Member

Jill McGuire, executive director of the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission, says, “This is a new era of shared resources, because these groups know that when we increase the audiences that participate in the arts, they all win.”

In an unprecedented collaboration, 19 cultural institutions in St. Louis, MO, will come together to increase ticket sales, museum memberships, and attract new audiences. Through DART, the database of the arts, the organizations will combine data from their ticket sales and memberships to develop profiles of arts buyers to whom they can target their efforts. Spearheaded by the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission (RAC), this initiative is the largest of its kind in the nation, based on similar but much smaller projects in Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Given the success of these first programs, DART certainly will not be the last.

Participating arts organizations in DART include the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Center of Creative Arts, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Laumeier Sculpture Park, and Opera Theatre of St. Louis, along with 14 other premier cultural institutions in the city. Jill McGuire, executive director of RAC, noted, “This is a new era of shared resources, because these groups know that when we increase the audiences that participate in the arts, they all win.”

DART will be run by Elliott Marketing Group, a consulting firm specializing in arts database projects. In Pittsburgh, Elliott Marketing Group helped increase ticket sales by as much as 27 percent. An important aspect of DART is developing cross-selling models, like those used by internet companies such as Amazon.com, which displays a variety of books that might be of interest based on a buyer’s selections. The same strategy can be applied to arts purchases; someone who buys theater tickets is a strong potential buyer for a classical concert.

Lory Bowman, director of marketing for the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, said her group was very enthusiastic about DART. “The arts are vital to the culture of a community and likewise, effective marketing is vital to sustain healthy arts organizations. This joint database project creates wonderful opportunities for us all.”