Sametz Blackstone Associates Puts Boston Center for the Arts Urban Cultural Village Online

New www.bcaonline.org portal to vibrant city neighborhood.

Sametz Blackstone Associates Puts Boston Center for the Arts' Urban Cultural Village Online

Boston, MA, May, 2002—The Boston Center for the Arts (BCA), and Sametz Blackstone Associates, a leading communications practice, announced today the launch of bcaonlione.org, a comprehensive new website that connects residents, local businesses, domestic and international tourists, and artists to Boston's unique cultural village: The Boston Center for the Arts in Boston's historic South End neighborhood.

"This new site reinforces the heart of the BCA—visual arts, performance, youth, and community—and creates an accessible, virtual urban cultural village," said Libbie Shufro, new president and CEO of the Boston Center for the Arts. "The site opens a dialogue with the various communities that we serve."

The new site is an important component of a larger branding and communications initiative that Sametz Blackstone is developing in concert with the BCA to raise awareness and build comprehension, commitment, and community. New print, electronic, and environmental communications are in the works.

In partnership with Sametz Blackstone, the two organizations successfully pursued funding from sources that included the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the City of Boston Cultural Agenda Fund. The City of Boston Cultural Agenda Fund grant, along with donated services from Sametz Blackstone Associates, made the creation of bcaonline.org possible.

Sametz Blackstone developed the site strategy, design, and production to be consistent with the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Accessibility Guidelines. This assures that physically impaired people who use the web via alternative browsing technologies can fully access the content of the site with ease.

"The BCA site is truly 'accessible,' " said Andrew Maydoney, vice president of research and strategy at Sametz Blackstone. "In this site, designing to the accessibility guidelines assures that anyone can connect and feel part of the renaissance of the BCA, but the site also has the life, energy, and visual excitement needed to represent a visual and performing arts organization."

About Sametz Blackstone Associates

Sametz Blackstone Associates provides communications counsel to leading corporate, academic, and cultural organizations. A 24 year-old global practice located in Boston's historic South End, Sametz Blackstone integrates strategy, design, and technology to develop and produce compelling communications that help evolving organizations navigate change. Clients are centenarians and start-ups—around the block and around the world: the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Ballet, The New England Aquarium, Perceptive Informatics Inc., Goodwin Procter, Scudder Investments / Deutsche Bank, the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Harvard University, Yale University, and MIT. Further information is available at www.sametz.com.

About Boston Center for the Arts

The Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) is located in Boston's South End, the largest landmark district in the United States. The BCA supports the creation and presentation of work by artists and seeks to connect artists to a large and diverse audience. The BCA's programs include visual arts, performance, community, and youth.

The BCA is a four acre complex that includes:

The Cyclorama, built in 1884 to display a panorama Civil War painting, is on the National Register of Historic Places. The 23,000 square foot Cyclorama rotunda is now the site of exhibitions, performances, and community events and houses the Community Music Center of Boston, the Art Connection, the Boston Ballet Costume Shop, three small theaters, and a rehearsal studio;
The Tremont Estates Building, originally an organ factory built in 1850, now houses over 50 artist studios, the Mills Gallery, two rehearsal spaces, and Hamersley's Bistro.
Boston Ballet's headquarters, a 1991 building designed by noted architect Graham Gund.

The BCA offers subsidized work space in the form of studios, rehearsal space and three small theaters to artists and arts groups. A nonprofit, tax-exempt organization, the BCA is governed by a Board of Directors and managed by a professional staff. www.bcaonline.org

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