The Philadelphia Regional Arts Consortium serves a membership of nonprofit professional theaters and cultural organizations by licensing, operating, maintaining, and developing the Tessitura Software suite. Tessitura, a state-of-the art database software developed by the Metropolitan Opera, provides ticketing, fundraising and patron management capabilities, that would be otherwise beyond the individual means of its member organizations to license.
The Consortium represents a collaborative effort to share networks and data in order to expand audiences and increase engagement in our artistic work. Through membership models and service arrangements open to all arts and cultural nonprofits of any size or discipline, the Consortium works to strengthen the vitality of our region’s arts community.
The Consortium was founded in 2006, under the umbrella of the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, and originally included nine organizations. Tessitura, a program created by the Metropolitan Opera, was selected by Consortium members as the program best suited to the demands of these cultural organizations. The Wilma Theater served as the beta site for Tessitura; the beta period concluded in 2006, when the first organization went live. In 2012, the Theatre Alliance ceased operations, and The Wilma Theater assumed administration of the Philadelphia Regional Arts Consortium. On August 1, 2020 the Philadelphia Regional Arts Consortium incorporated, becoming an independent 501(c)(3) organization. The Consortium has formed a Strategic Planning Committee composed of member representatives, along with guidance from attorneys at Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, to establish current and future models of operation that are both fiscally responsible and structurally sound.