Joint ticket sales to be studied

12/23/2004

A $30,000 study has been launched to determine the feasibility of combining ticket sales for area music, theater, and events groups.

The Arts Commission of Greater Toledo, with a grant from the Toledo Community Foundation, has hired John Cereso to develop a plan for a Web-based ticketing option to serve the Toledo Jazz Society, Toledo Ballet Association, Masterworks Chorale, Greater Toledo Convention and Visitors Bureau, Owens Community College, Toledo Symphony Orchestra, and others, said Dorene Nowatzke, director of business and development at the commission.

Several groups are not large and do not have their own performance venue, said Nowatzke. Such a service might result in more ticket sales and allow organizations to learn the demographics of their customers, she added.

The idea was generated at a series of town-hall meetings about the arts in 2002 and 2003. The strategic plan that grew out of those meetings recommended more collaboration and a calendar of events. An on-line calendar - www.toledoarts.org - has been established.

The report by Cereso, a Maumee resident who has done a similar project for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, is to be completed in March.