Tompkins' Arts Council and Ticket Center Moving to the Commons

May 18th, 2009

(ITHACA, NY)- Tompkins County's arts council is moving to the center of town. Beginning the first week in June, the offices of the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County will be moving from their current home in the Historic Clinton House to an atrium-level space inside Center Ithaca. Also leaving the Clinton House for the Commons is the Ticket and Visitor Center that has called the lobby its home for the past 14 years. The new Ticket Center Ithaca (formerly Ticket Center at Clinton House) will open its doors on June 1, in the former Visors Hat Shop space adjacent to 15 Steps on the Commons.

"We're taking this great opportunity to move the arts into the heart of Downtown," says Brett Bossard, Executive Director of CAP. "All the services we are able to provide to both the public and to our community's artists will be enhanced with this new, highly visible location on the Commons." CAP's ArtSpace will also be making the move to Center Ithaca, adding another gallery to the Commons, and the offices will serve as a central point of information about all of CAP's programs, including the Greater Ithaca Art Trail, semi-annual artist markets, IthacaEvents.com, and the many community arts grants that CAP awards each year. CAP's Program Director, Robin Schwartz, is excited for the new opportunities afforded by the Center Ithaca location. "In addition to more exhibition space than we have now," says Schwartz, "the new offices will provide an easily accessible, ground level space that will allow for more and improved contact with the county's artists."

Like the other arts organizations that have occupied the first floor of the Clinton House for more than a decade, the Ticket Center has begun to outgrow its current home. "The front lobby and counter, part of the original hotel, seemed the perfect locale for a box office and visitor's center," says Jennifer Brown, Director of Ticketing Services. "Unfortunately, this building was never designed to handle the technological needs of a 21st century business. As far as becoming a recognizable entity within Tompkins County, any brand recognition we have as the Ticket Center is also overshadowed by the building and the requirements for an historical site. I look forward to not only an increase in our visibility, but a significant increase in the services we can offer in our new location. We're all, despite the melancholy of leaving a place we've grown to love, really very excited."

Providing consolidated, 24/7 electronic box office services for many of Tompkins County's prominent performing arts organizations and venues, Ticket Center Ithaca has also become an important marketing tool for ticketing clients. Posters and flyers for all ticketed events have always found a home in the old lobby space, and this new location will bring news of upcoming arts events to thousands of new eyes and ears. Likewise, the Ticket Center's efforts to spread the word electronically continue to grow. Monthly e-blasts of upcoming ticketed events currently reach more than 7,000 in-boxes, and that number is growing. According to Brown, the newsletter "really illustrates a fundamental concept behind the Ticket Center--the cooperative nature of the performing arts community coming together to leverage everything they can, beginning with audiences knowing about an event." Information on joining the list can be found at www.arts.partner.org.

While the physical home and name of the Ticket Center will be changing, all of its services will remain intact. Tickets can still be purchased by phone at (607) 273-4497 or by walking up to the new location on the Commons, Monday through Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm. On-line ticketing is available 24 hours a day at IthacaEvents.com. Organizations served by Ticket Center Ithaca include the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Cayuga Vocal Ensemble, Cornell Concert Series, Cornell Department of Music, Hangar Theatre, Ithaca College School of Music, Ithaca College Theatre Department, Ithaca Community Choruses, Kitchen Theatre Company, Light in Winter Festival, and Music's Recreation.

The Ticket Center is one of the many public programs of the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County. CAP was founded in 1990 in response to a desire to strengthen and develop the County's arts and cultural community. After an exhaustive, inclusive, community cultural assessment, CAP was launched as a not-for-profit agency that would serve the public by providing services to the arts and artists of Tompkins County. For more information on the Community Arts Partnership and its programs, visit www.artspartner.org or call Program Director, Robin Schwartz at (607) 273-5072.

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