artsopolis.2

Image Courtesy of Artsopolis

Experience Bainbridge Creativity: Artsopolis Makes It Possible

Bainbridge Island has joined the movement.   Currents Online is now one of the 50 Artsopolis platforms that Jeff Trabucco has created around the country and abroad.  Currents Online, sponsored by Arts & Humanities Bainbridge (AHB),…

Bainbridge Island has joined the movement.   Currents Online is now one of the 50 Artsopolis platforms that Jeff Trabucco has created around the country and abroad. 

Currents Online, sponsored by Arts & Humanities Bainbridge (AHB), joins other cities and organizations in using Artsopolis technology to offer websites that highlight local events, artist profiles, organizations, arts in education, public art, and classifieds promoting jobs and auditions within the arts.

Like all ambitious ventures, Artsopolis didn’t happen overnight.

The need was simple: to promote a gig in bustling San Francisco.  The execution wasn’t as easy.  How do you publicize areas of the arts that aren’t always noticed by the public or covered by the media?  You come up with a tool that’ll allow you to do just that.

Jeff Trabucco

“I started Artsopolis 20 years ago in San Francisco and I was working for a dot-com startup at the time,” said Trabucco, president of Artsopolis.  “Artsopolis uses some of that same concept [today]. “

While developing Artsopolis, Trabucco was also performing in local musical theatre, starring as Apostle No. 4 in Jesus Christ Superstar. He was looking for a way to provide a platform for local singers, dancers, and actors to post their profiles, and showcase their events. Such a platform didn’t exist.  So, they built a prototype intended for cast members.

“We put it out to the public and suddenly we were getting 5,000, 7,000, 8,000 visits per month,” said Trabucco. “It was growing and growing and it started happening organically.”

Soon they began receiving submissions from artists in Berkeley, San Jose, and around the Bay Area.  After the dot-com, he joined the Arts Council Silicon Valley in 2003, which subsequently merged to form Silicon Valley Creates (SVCREATES).  They purchased the prototype and intellectual property from Trabucco through grant funding.   This took Artsopolis to the next level.  He was hired to manage the program.

In 2003 Artsopolis officially launched.  A year later, they got a phone call from Phoenix, Arizona.  They wanted to do the same thing.

“We don’t want to do it from scratch,” they told Trabucco.  “We like your technology.”

Since then this cultural ecosystem, powered by Artsopolis, has expanded to 50 communities across the US and beyond – including one in Ecuador.

In December 2017, SVCREATES sold Artsopolis back to Trabucco.  The organization now powers its arts and culture feed through Artsopolis.

Polis – a combining form meaning “city” is of Greek origin.  Add the word arts and the result is “Arts City.”  When Artsopolis was founded, its original tagline was, “A Metropolis of the Arts.” The idea was to convey a sense of “expanse,” a high degree of movement, energy, and diversity.  The latter was always the cornerstone of their mission.

“It was critical that the platform support everything from the ‘high brow’ arts in concert halls and museums to the ‘low brow’ arts on street corners and alleyways,” said Trabucco.

Artsopolis has effectively done so. 

“It gives me a lot of satisfaction to know that whatever we built is effective enough that it’s still here,” said Trabucco.

Through Artsopolis, Bainbridge Island is now part of this cultural ecosystem.   Trabucco, who lives on the island, appreciates this ‘small town’ environment.

“Bainbridge Island offers so much in terms of a creative community, educational opportunities, and natural beauty,” said Trabucco.  “I breathe a little deeper here.”


INEZ MAUBANE JONES – Staff Writer for Currents and member of Currents Editorial Board