professional membership

Featured Member

College WOOees

The Worcester Cultural Coalition's WOO Card is a program designed to open the door to Worcester County's vibrant creative community! Card holders receive discounts and special offers for cool concerts, thought provoking theater, unique museums, great music, street festivals, outdoor adventures and more - throughout Worcester County, throughout the year!

The Worcester Cultural Coalition is the unified voice of Worcester's cultural community whose members are the leaders of the City's sixty-plus arts and cultural institutions and organizations. The Cultural Coalition was formed in 1999 in partnership with the City of Worcester, Worcester Cultural Commission, Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, Colleges of Worcester Consortium, and Worcester County Convention & Visitors Bureau, to ensure that arts and culture play a vital role in Worcester's planning and development efforts.

The Cultural Coalition's mission is to "draw on Worcester's rich and diverse cultural assets to foster economic revitalization and create a strong cultural identity for the City of Worcester."

Their goals are to:

• Establish culture as a highly visible element of the region's identity.
• Foster live/work/retail space, studios and new arts facilities in available properties throughout Worcester.
• Build a strong, diverse base of support for cultural economic development among community, political, cultural, educational and business leaders.
• Build a strong, vibrant Cultural Coalition that contributes to the success of its member organizations.

The WOO Card program was designed to open the door to Worcester County's vibrant cultural community. Launched initially in 2007, the WOO Card was a means of enhancing the cultural experience for the City's 35,000 college students; WOO Card expanded in the fall of 2009 to incorporate a public card program. In 2010, the WOO Card program expanded again to incorporate for-profit, culturally minded business partners. Some fifty area cultural institutions, restaurants, hotels and retailers presently participate in the WOO Card program, offering card holders a variety of discounts and special offers.

Subscribers receive discounts and special offers at participating WOO venues and earn WOO points each time a WOO Card is used. Points accumulate to earn WOO prizes. College WOO Cards are currently available for free for all Worcester-area college students. Public WOO Cards are available to the general public for purchase for $20 either online; or at a variety of cultural locations throughout Worcester.