Just in time for the holidays, the UF College of Fine Arts is offering a subscription package for six local art organizations.
Subscribers will receive six vouchers. The vouchers will come from Dance Alive National Ballet, Hippodrome Theatre, Hippodrome Cinema, UF’s School of Music, UF School of Theatre and Dance and UF Performing Arts.
The Gainesville Entertainment Sampler can be bought for $89 for the rest of this month and next spring.
Each voucher is worth one ticket, except for the Hippodrome Cinema’s voucher, which is worth two tickets. Each voucher has specific instructions on how to redeem a ticket.
“All the box offices are very accommodating and will help explain everything and take care of you,”said Andy Howard, a College of Fine Arts spokesman. “The website we developed is an alliance, specifically a collaborative audience development project, nothing formal, just the five organizations working together.”
Howard said he got the idea for the sampler from his former job in Orlando.
“I lived here (Gainesville) for undergrad and never saw the different organizations come together to discuss ideas and collaborate,” he said. “The initial feeling was people weren’t going to get together, but they agreed to give it a try.”
There is no intention of making a formal collaboration or new organization, Howard said.
“The Gainesville Entertainment Sampler will provide students with greater flexibility and variety,” he said. “It’s sustainable and gives people more time and a better experience more than anything, and it supports the local nonprofit scene.”
Howard said an economic component did come into play with this idea.
“This is a hard time for arts and nonprofits. The rest of the world is experiencing what we normally go through, and our times are harder,” Howard said. “There’s a tendency in the arts and nonprofits to be doing more to prove you’re worth it.”
The main revenue goal, Howard said, is to reach new audiences so the income generated will help cover the new costs.
“A lot of time, it is difficult for art groups to develop new interests and communicate with people who have been in touch with us in previous years,” he said. “The quality of arts in this city is pretty high per capita, and Gainesville has a very big art scene. There is a lot of uniqueness of culture only here in Gainesville.”
Sato also expressed a level of excitement for the arts.
“I loved Dance Alive’s ‘Dracula’ because it was something different from all of the modern shows I’ve seen,” she said.
The College of Fine Arts was able to purchase a mailing list of new people that none of the organizations have been able to get their hands on, and it proposed this sample package.
“The Gainesville Entertainment Sampler allows subscribers to see the entire city’s thriving culture, from the classical works to the lesser known works or more family-oriented works,” Howard said.
The sampler package started in late summer and launched full throttle in fall. The expiration date of each voucher is up to the individual organization.
“You can divide $89 into six different cultural experiences instead of six movies and get a lot more live entertainment at that price,” Howard said. “We have to get people moving around, talking about it and develop a new audience of people that haven’t been to the arts.”
