SeatGeek is a web-based ticket provider with a new venture they are calling Columbus, which should be of interest to our frugalistas.
The free service lets you tell SeatGeek the types of concerts, sports, theater, dance or other events you like to attend, and Columbus creates a suggested calendar of events for you. If you see an event you might like, click on it's calendar entry, check the seats available and the prices, and buy your ticket.
That alone would make SeatGeek a great frugal resource for entertainment and the arts. However, SeatGeek also has started a partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies to create Discover New York Arts (DNyA) which uses SeatGeek's technology to promote and support over 30 organizations partnered with Bloomberg Philanthropies. According to yesterday's press release, the partnership "will provide a new platform for these organizations to market their performances to a broader audience than ever before possible."
The three-way partnership between the foundation, its arts organizations, and a high-tech startup is, if not unique, certainly unusual and might provide a model for other cities (and foundations) to create new partnerships for promoting The Arts and building audiences.
The organizations promoted in this program include cutting-edge experimental arts, traditional arts, performers, and presenters, currently listing: Abingdon Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Danspace Project, ETHEL, Evidence Dance, Film Forum, Harlem Stage, HERE, Irondale, Kaufman Center, Mark Morris Dance Group, MCC Theater, Mint Theater, New Victory Theater, New York Live Arts, New York Theatre Workshop, New York Youth Symphony, Playwrights Horizons, Poets House, Pregones Theater, Primary Stages, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Second Stage Theatre, Signature Theatre Company, St. Ann's Warehouse, St. George Theatre, STREB, Symphony Space, Thalia Spanish Theatre, and The Joyce Theater.
Click here to read the press release, here to look at DNyA , and here to access SeatGeek and Columbus.
For the New York Daily News coverage on SeatGeek, click here.
