Art Thief of The Patrons' Show

Art Thief is a beloved app created to support an incredible nonprofit dedicated to the arts. The app integrates with the Patrons' Show, the Art League's biggest fundraiser of the year. Art Thief is intuitive and fun. The app complements the unique and wonderful Patrons' Show so much so that users gushed about it both individually and while cheering throughout the event.

A Unique Event

For 50 years, The Art League of Alexandria VA has held an extraordinary fund raiser. For this event, the Patrons' Show, artists donate works and around 700 people buy tickets for a drawing held in the Torpedo Factory. The names of all the ticket holders are called at random. When your name is called you choose the piece of art you want to take home. Of course, there's a good chance other people will be called before so you need to make a list of all the artworks you like. Furthermore, you'll want to sort that list so that it reflects your preferences. And then you'll need to keep track of your list during the event so you're ready when they call your name.

Information Technology

Members of our team had participated in the Patrons' Show for a few years and loved it. But managing hundreds of artworks both before and during the drawing was stressful. We couldn't help but see it as ripe for a mobile IT solution. So as a donation to a wonderful community, Zurka created an app for iPhones and iPads for the Patrons' Show.

Understanding the User

The key to the huge success of Art Thief was putting ourselves in the shoes of our users. We surveyed users, watched them in action and created a bare bones version of the app to make sure we had the right approach. As the app came together we began sharing more with participants and stakeholders.