Fractured Atlas, the nation’s largest arts service nonprofit, has launched a free, open source platform to enable artists and organizations to create their own systems for selling tickets, accepting donations, and more.
According to a recent press release, Artful.ly Open Source is perfect for organizations with unique needs and is geared toward the technologically savvy, allowing developers to run the app on their own system, and hack, reconfigure, add features, and integrate other apps into the platform. For those looking for something a little simpler, Artful.ly, a cloud-based web application offers the same tools like online ticketing, fundraising, and customer management, but in a platform that is easier-to-use.
“You can sign up and be selling tickets five minutes later,” Adam Huttler, founder and executive director of Fracture Atlas, said of the Artful.ly cloud-based web app, to TicketNews via email. However, the app does have some limited functionality — organizations can activate optional “kits,” but they can’t change the basic functioning of the app, as is the case with the Open Source platform.
Artful.ly Open Source was developed with support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and The Kresge Foundation.
According to Huttler, the Artful.ly Open Source offers several unique benefits. First, the seller is able to have full ownership and control over a critical piece of their technology infrastructure — the ticket sale. Sellers also have complete data ownership and portability, meaning that they decide how they will use their patrons’ information. The platform is also beneficial to the ticket buyer, because there will generally be no service fee, unless the organization itself decides to charge one, and the buyers private information will only be handled by the company with which they are doing business.
“By making the platform free, open source, and transparent, we hope to develop and share higher quality, more flexible, and more reliable tech solutions that lower costs and create a more vital arts industry,” Huttler said. “Above all, it will allow artists and arts groups to focus more on what matters most: making great art.” Open sourcing their code also provides organizations with freedom from vendor lock-in.
Artful.ly Open Source follows in the footsteps of other recent challenges of the ticketing world. Comedian Louis C.K. took an unconventional approach to ticket selling for his stand-up tour by cutting out Ticketmaster and selling tickets directly from his own website. The latest platform from Fractured Atlas will allow artists and arts organizations to take control of their own ticketing process.
Based in New York City, Fractured Atlas reaches a network of more than 250,000 artists in all 50 states. The nonprofit has been helping its members for the past 10 years to leverage their technology, insurance, and fundraising to make it easier to build a sustainable career and business.
