professional membership

Featured Member

Danny Keane Pelligrini

Long Island Winterfest: Jazz on the Vine Wins Arts Destination Marketing Award

Since 1973, Long Island has been notorious for its stunning vineyards and fine wine. Yet while the summer and autumn seasons have always attracted a steady number of tourists to the region, the winter tended to move at a slower tempo. But times have changed. Five years ago, Patricia Snyder, Executive Director of East End Arts (EEA) launched the Long Island Winterfest: Jazz on the Vine festival, a six-weekend event that introduces tourists to top-flight jazz musicians at local wineries spread throughout the East End. The festival offers 80 musical acts at more than two dozen wineries, coupled with more than 100 special deals from 100 local businesses. Merging the arts and the local businesses of Long Island has successfully lengthened the tourism season through the winter months while making Winterfest: Jazz on the Vine a nationally recognized jazz festival.

The jazz acts at each of the wineries range from duos to full bands, but each of the acts are encouraged to attend each other’s concerts free of charge, to mingle with the attendees and even make a guest appearance on stage. Often, this turns into an all-out jam session for a fun night of music, dancing, and fine wine. In 2012, Jazz on the Vine had 10 Grammy nominated or winning artists and employed more than 250 musicians from Long Island, New York City, and beyond.

East End Arts is just one of the organizers of the event. Jazz on the Vine is a collaborative effort between the East End Arts, the Long Island Wine Council (LIWC), and the Long Island Convention & Visitors Bureau (LICVB), with support from Suffolk County Economic Development and the Office of Film and Cultural Affairs. Thanks to the partnership between local arts agencies and the community’s tourism bureaus, the program has seen an attendance of more than 8,000, and this year, the Jazz on the Vine series saw a 20 percent increase in ticket sales, strengthening  the brand of the community and ultimately promoting Long Island as a tourism destination during the winter.

"Winterfest: Jazz on the Vine is a shining example of a successful partnership movement project model introduced by Americans for the Arts. When the arts partner with the business community, we create a win-win situation.” says Snyder. "By capitalizing on the beauty and uniqueness of the East End of Long Island and the abundant artistic talent here, we have created a powerful program to be proud of.”

This November, East End Arts will be awarded the second annual Arts Destination Marketing Award at the National Arts Marketing Project Conference in Charlotte, NC. The award is bestowed annually to leaders from local tourism bureaus and local arts agencies that have demonstrated and effective way of fusing their work to innovatively use the arts to market the community as a travel destination.

The 6th annual Winterfest: Jazz on the Vine festival will be taking place across Long Island's East End from February 9–March 17, 2013.

More than 400 attendees have already registered for the National Arts Marketing Project Conference. What are you waiting for? Don’t miss your chance to be energized by our speakers, enlightened by our panelists, and encouraged by old friends and new colleagues. Don’t delay. Register by October 26 to lock in savings!

With more than 7,000 views, 24 bloggers, hundreds of tweets and retweets, and hundreds of Facebook likes, last week’s Arts Marketing Blog Salon on ARTSblog was a perfect way to get down to business before coming to the NAMP Conference.

You can still browse the salon to read the inquisitive, smart, and relatable articles posted by bloggers including Adam Cunningham, Nina Simon, Rohit Bhargava, and Jill Robinson. They shared their ideas with ease and honesty, and we can’t wait to hear what they have to say when they present at the conference in Charlotte.