When was the last time you felt excited about a loyalty program?
You don’t need another set of Tupperware with ill-fitting lids or regrettable perfume samples. But perhaps a rewards program for the Seattle arts scene is more enticing.
A new loyalty app called ViewPoints aims to nudge Seattleites to explore more of the city’s cultural scene through discounts and exclusive perks. Users earn points by visiting local arts and culture organizations — like the KEXP Gathering Space, The Triple Door, Greg Kucera Gallery and Wa Na Wari — as well as smaller, artist-run spaces waiting to be discovered.
Points gathered by “checking in” via QR codes at each location can then be exchanged for free tickets to local shows and arts experiences, like bookbinding or printing classes, discounts on art purchases, private gallery tours and other free perks around town.
The app, developed by local nonprofit Shunpike, soft-launched last year. With nearly 500 active users, it’s now in the ramp-up phase with an eye on more visitors coming to town for the FIFA World Cup.
“The Seattle audience is always interested in finding new things to do,” said Myles Haslam of Shunpike, who’s leading the charge on the app. “ViewPoints is intended to be an inviting place for anyone who wants to discover more about the place that they live and participate in these arts and cultural moments.”
Executive Director Line Sandsmark said Shunpike has many programs in its portfolio designed to increase arts attendance and downtown activation. But this platform is designed specifically to support Seattle’s entire arts ecosystem, which has been struggling for years as it slowly recovers from the pandemic and its lingering economic challenges.
“It’s a great tool for people to discover things that they might not know about, or to be motivated to say, ‘Well, I’m getting this as a perk. It cost me nothing to now go see something that I might otherwise not have tried out,’” Sandsmark said. “So it’s all different ways of trying to support arts attendance.”
Haslam said there are perks on both sides: Users get rewards, and smaller art spaces get to brush shoulders with major institutions on ViewPoints, perhaps getting a slice of their audiences, too.
Say you visit Foster/White Gallery, and because you can snag some extra points, you discover something at a nearby art space that you’d never thought to visit otherwise. Maybe you get points for visiting the KEXP Gathering Space and some other art spaces — then end up purchasing a small painting with a discount through the app at a local gallery you hadn’t heard of.
Some rewards, much like your local grocery points app, are ephemeral: During Pioneer Square’s First Thursday — a social affair where people hop from gallery to gallery on the first Thursday of the month — you get double points for every visit. The Seattle Art Fair has popped up in the past as a place to score points, and Shunpike recently announced that Bumbershoot will be a partner on the app this year.
Right now, rewards on the app include 10% off your first artwork purchase at Harris Harvey and Winston Wächter galleries; that will run you 25 points, or five gallery visits. There’s also a complimentary order of pot stickers or steak fries at the Triple Door (30 points, or two visits to the Seattle Art Museum); a $50 discount on a $500 purchase at Columbia City Gallery (four gallery visits on First Thursday); one free ticket to an ArtsWest show (50 points); as well as a letterpress workshop or podcast consultation (both 75 points). Previous rewards have included a private bookbinding lesson and letterpress lesson for two at Editions Studio.
One ViewPoints user, Haslam said, learned of the letterpress class in a newsletter. She decided to work toward redeeming it to create custom handmade invitations for her upcoming bridal shower, taking advantage of double-points opportunities to save up points.
Haslam said he’s working to bring back similar experiences.
“Being able to list locations like that as rewards and invite people into those spaces to really build the future of that audience is essential to how we’re going to keep the arts top of mind for years to come,” Haslam said.
Beyond the World Cup
Sandsmark said Shunpike has been toying with this idea of a rewards program for a while. In fact, the idea was first floated about a decade ago. But it was quickly abandoned due to a lack of tech, know-how and resources.
But last year, thanks to a $1.6 million grant from Allen Family Philanthropies (formerly known as the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation), Shunpike suddenly had access to all of the above.
They were able to get a so-called “white label” app called Bandwango, which offers similar services in other cities, meaning they didn’t have to develop a new app from scratch. Since then, Haslam has dedicated his time to building out the platform, recruiting venue partners and testing the experience with Shunpike’s audience.
The app currently has about 450 active users, which is fairly small — but Haslam said he’s hoping to increase that figure to 1,000 over the next few months. He’s also hoping to expand the app’s participating organizations from 37 to 75.
He said to expect the Pacific Northwest Ballet, Bumbershoot — which will be active for its two-day run over Labor Day weekend — and other organizations to show up on the app soon. (Some other kinks still need to be worked out: On a recent visit to the Seattle Art Museum, there was no ViewPoints QR code to be found; staff could not locate one, either.)
For now, ViewPoints is a three-year pilot program. Shunpike hopes it can stand the test of time beyond 2028 and become a permanent program.
To Sandsmark, it could have a long-term effect on downtown and the cultural sector.
“There’s a collective push to make the most of FIFA, but there’s also a collective push to look beyond as well,” she said. “We’re just excited to see how far it can go. Because I think it can go far.”
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