Beginning in April, arts organizations across Northeast Ohio will have a new collective Web site. The Cleveland-based Community Partnership for Arts and Culture hope to launch the yet-to-be named site around April 2. It will be a customer-friendly site that features an arts calendar listing events from nearly 100 organizations, and will offer links to those organization's existing sites and ticket outlets. "It will provide more interest from the people who live in the seven-county region, and people who visit the region," said Thomas B. Schorgl, president of the partnership. "It will make it easier for consumers to connect with the full array of arts and culture activities in Northeast Ohio". The site will allow visitors to search by category (type in"dance" and get all of the dance-related events), and geographic area (punch in your location and call up every activity with-in a two-mile radius of your home). Maps and directions will also be a click away. It is being created by Acme Express in Cleveland. "The site will also become a resource for the organizations themselves," said Don Scipione, president of Acme Express, a developer of Web-enabled software located on prospect Ave. Although may of the arts entities already have their own web pages, the new site will serve as a master link connecting folks to shows and exhibitions large and small from Medina to Mentor, as well as at Cleveland's major cultural institutions. Peter Scacco, director of communications and marketing for the Cleveland Orchestra, said it is unclear how such a site would affect his organization, which already has an established web presence. But he offered what could well be a slogan for the new enterprise: "Anything used to promote the arts is a good thing". |
