gcac.org and ColumbusArts.com

Usage of ColumbusArts.com has increased significantly since GCAC unveiled a redesigned and updated site in November 2007 as part of a branding campaign. Created and administered by GCAC, ColumbusArts.com is the most comprehensive online guide to arts and culture in Columbus. The new site now averages 36,000 users per month. It features expanded search capabilities and functions that allow users to download event listings to their Outlook or iCal calendars, look up maps for events and direct links to organizational Web sites to purchase tickets. ColumbusArts.com is also the home of the ColumbusArts Card, a member program that provides discounts to arts events to build new audiences for the arts. Central Ohio arts events, performances and exhibitions listed on ColumbusArts.com are entered into ArtsinOhio.com, a marketing partnership developed by the Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland Convention and Visitor Bureaus. Experience Columbus and the Ohio Division of Travel and Tourism also receive event data from the ColumbusArts.com database. GCAC sends a monthly e-mail blast highlighting some of the events on ColumbusArts.com to site visitors and others in our database who have requested this service. Currently, the e-mail blast is sent to more than 11,000 individual e-mail addresses with an open rate greater than 30 percent.

Since January, GCAC has also expanded capabilities for users on GCAC’s Web site, gcac.org. Updates include an advocacy section, resource pages for artists and arts organizations and more. In addition, the site offers a comprehensive guide to GCAC history, programs and events, as well as downloadable booking and grants forms.

Photo courtesy of The Wexner Center for the Arts.