BosTix at Harvard to Open in October

A new central box office selling tickets to Harvard student arts and athletic events, performances by local arts organizations, and professional events throughout the Greater Boston area will open in October at the Holyoke Center Arcade.

BosTix at Harvard will sell tickets to Harvard student arts and athletic events. It also will sell advance and half-price/day-of-performance tickets to more than 150 other Arts/Boston member groups' performances throughout the region. The groups range in size and scope from the Wang Center to the American Repertory Theatre to Cambridge's Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra.

BosTix is operated by Arts/Boston, a not-for-profit community box office and audience development organization, currently operating two similar BosTix booths at Faneuil Hall and Copley Square.

Harvard tickets at Bostix will have a $1-$3 "convenience charge" either added to or built into the face value of the tickets to cover the expenses of the new booth. Tickets to student arts events sold at BosTix also will be available without the surcharge at the Sanders Theatre Box Office.

BosTix at Harvard is intended to complement ticket sales provided by already established box offices at Harvard -- such as the American Repertory Theatre, Sanders Theatre, and the Harvard Athletic Ticket Office -- all of which will remain in full operation. Outings & Innings will continue to sell a variety of movie and sports discount passes and advance group-sales tickets not available to BosTix to Harvard faculty, staff, and retirees exclusively at its 9 Holyoke St. retail office, and, beginning next week, via credit card.

In conjunction with the introduction of BosTix at Harvard, the Sanders Theatre Box Office has extended its role to include providing ticketing services for all campus performance venues, including those in the undergraduate Houses. This service replaces those previously provided by the Events & Information Center in the Holyoke Arcade.

Student organizations will have access to BosTix' services through consultation with Aimee Ricciardone, manager of Student Ticketing Services at Sanders. Ricciardone will work with student organizations in formulating and executing ticketing and promotion strategies, including the placement of tickets at BosTix and at the Sanders Theatre Box Office.

BosTix at Harvard is a collaboration between Arts/Boston and five Harvard departments: the Harvard Events & Information Center, the Sanders Theatre Box Office, Harvard Planning & Real Estate, the Office for the Arts at Harvard and Radcliffe, and the Department of Athletics.

The collaboration is part of an ongoing University effort to refocus the use of its Holyoke Center Arcade to better serve the needs of the Harvard and Cambridge communities. Future Arcade plans call for the modernization of the Events & Information Center and the opening of a Harvard Collections store designed to introduce shoppers to Harvard's 20 museum and affiliate collections. Harvard Outings & Innings, Harvard Printing and Publishing, and Harvard Student Agencies recently opened new retail outlets in Holyoke Center.

Since 1975, Arts/Boston has served Greater Boston's performing arts and cultural community by bringing more than 2.3 million people to the arts through its ticket programs, including BosTix booths (which have sold more than 1.3 million tickets since their inception in 1978), and Arts/Mail, Boston's only free mail-order catalog of discounted tickets. Arts/Boston has generated nearly $26 million in revenues for its 150+ member arts groups since its founding.