By Chaney Harter, Campus Philly

One year ago, Campus Philly launched a program that, in the hands of college students, unlocks the entire spectrum of Philadelphia’s arts and culture communities, thanks to the generous funding of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Through free membership in Open Arts, students gain access to free or student-rate tickets to performances across Philadelphia. What resulted was something that went beyond attendance of arts performances to encompass the spheres of engagement, involvement, student philanthropy, and professional development and connection.

The premise was simple: connect students to the arts in Philadelphia by removing existing barriers, namely cost (tickets can be expensive) and awareness (students are often unfamiliar with the extensive range of offerings in Philadelphia), while simultaneously introducing arts and culture partners to new audiences and allowing them to track engagement. Students registered for Open Arts using an activation code printed on key tags distributed at college campuses across the Greater Philadelphia region. They could then access openartsphilly.com, browse dozens of free or student-rate events, download tickets, and experience the arts in-person.

Campus Philly has been incredibly successful by any number of measures — 3,300 students have activated accounts, 39 arts organizations participate in Open Arts as partners, over 2,400 tickets have been offered on the Open Arts website — but the impact of the program goes deeper. Arts partners have worked with Campus Philly to produce College Nights geared specifically towards student audiences, and these have been a resounding success, as in the case of Opera Philadelphia’s opening night performance of Ainadamar, where the 100 student tickets offered sold out. Students are also eager to engage on a deeper level. At a performance of BalletX, a group of Penn students attending through Open Arts were so moved that they each made donations after the show. A student named Ammi Cabrera attended The Harvest Open Mic having never performed publicly before, fell in love with the performing arts scene, moved back to Philadelphia after college, and is currently singing, songwriting and performing locally.

These levels of involvement allow Open Arts to foster deeper student engagement for Campus Philly’s arts partners. Arts partners list internship and job opportunities on the Campus Philly jobs board and utilize the program to directly market their membership and ticket programs to students who can become long-term audience members. In addition, Campus Philly created I Love My Creative Job!, a career event focused on opportunities in creative fields in Philadelphia.

Whenever Campus Philly staff members talk to student leaders during their numerous campus visits, the students say how they connected with the arts community through Open Arts during the pilot year and are now eager to introduce new students to the program in the upcoming year. Open Arts gives students access to the arts, but it also allows them to explore, engage, and eventually claim the arts and culture communities in Philadelphia as their own. And Campus Philly knows that sometimes all a future pillar of the arts community needs is that first ticket, that first show, that first glimpse of something wonderful.