The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust (PCT) operates a consortium of seven of the city’s major arts organisations, allowing them to leverage costs and maximise exposure. The foundation community within Pittsburgh has been extremely supportive financially of these collaborative efforts. A shared website, www.culturaldistrict.org , advertises events, provides information, solicits donations and sells tickets for all member organisations. It was intended to provide a single site that Pittsburgh-area arts patrons could rely on for up-to-date information, event ticket sales and services across all seven member groups. Software from Tessitura Network powers the shared site. Tessitura Software® supports ticketing, donations and other critical functions for many of the major cultural arts organisations in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Australia. Pittsburgh Cultural District member organisations each maintain their own branded websites, but are directed to the shared site for event ticket sales.

As a non-profit organisation, cost control is crucial and the consortium has to balance support costs while at the same time keeping the joint site up to date. The original implementation of the website lacked a content management system (CMS), making it difficult to test and release the frequent event notices and promotions. In addition, a second shared site existed – www.pgharts.org - where ticket sales and other event information was also publicised. This sometimes caused confusion for patrons when directed to the www.culturaldistrict.org site for ticket purchase, or when event information was not up to date. As a shared ticket-sales resource, limited features and payment options forced online sales to be lower than phone and box office sales.

This was a situation member organisations wanted to turn around for cost reasons ...

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