Migrating a multi-venue arts presenter website from Drupal 7 to Contentful

This multi-venue arts presenter has been bringing world music, jazz, dance, and cross-disciplinary performances to audiences since the 1990s. Each season, it presents more than 70 events across 15 partner venues, ranging from small clubs to a new purpose-built stage. Based in the Atlanta area, the organization welcomes thousands of attendees every year, supports artist residencies, and connects international performers with local communities.

The organization’s Drupal 7 website had been in place since 2013, and what once felt modern had turned into a daily obstacle. Every layout change required a developer; marketing teams couldn’t easily launch landing pages or multilingual content, and performance lagged during peak sales periods. Patrons faced a seven-step Tessitura iframe checkout that was slow, off-brand, and inaccessible, creating real risks of lost revenue and frustrated audiences. At the same time, leadership had limited visibility into donor drop-offs or campaign performance – Google Analytics alone couldn’t answer the questions they needed to drive growth.

These issues became urgent as the organization prepared to launch a new venue with its own brand identity. The existing CMS couldn’t handle the dual-brand complexity, nor did it provide the editorial freedom, ticketing flexibility, or accessibility required for the next chapter of their programming.

Our work began with a detailed discovery process, mapping every piece of content, auditing performance, and reviewing editorial workflows. From there, we designed a new information architecture and built a content model in Contentful to support both brands within one flexible system. Prototypes and usability tests guided the design system, ensuring accessibility and consistency across venues. 

Once the foundations were in place, we developed a Next.js multisite application, integrated it with Tessitura for real-time ticketing and donations, and connected Algolia for fast content discovery. The platform was launched with a blue-green deployment, supported by extensive QA, WCAG testing, and editor training sessions to ensure a smooth transition.

• Contentful content model. Flexible schema for events, venues, media, and bilingual fields, enabling editors to build and schedule rich pages without developer support.
  
• Next.js multisite architecture. A single codebase powering two distinct brands, reducing duplication and ensuring consistency.
  
• Tailwind design system. Shared tokens and reusable components for an accessible, consistent design across both sites.
  
• Tessitura integration. Custom GraphQL middleware connecting Contentful and Tessitura for real-time seat maps, pricing, memberships, and donations.
  
• Algolia search. Instant, faceted search helping audiences quickly find performances and filter by venue or genre.
  
• Accessibility guardrails. WCAG 2.2 AA compliance built in from the start, supported by automated testing in CI.
• Advanced analytics. Snowplow and GA4 dashboards with BigQuery exports to measure donor funnels, ticket sales, and audience lifetime value.

We selected Contentful and Next.js to balance editorial freedom with high performance. Vercel hosting and incremental static regeneration provided fast global delivery, while Tailwind simplified scaling the design system. Algolia was chosen for best-in-class search, and Tessitura integration ensured commerce and fundraising were fully embedded into the experience. This combination created a future-ready platform that supports growth, accessibility, and community impact.

The migration from Drupal 7 to Contentful and Next.js delivered measurable improvements across performance, accessibility, and fundraising. Audiences now enjoy a faster and more inclusive digital experience, while the internal team gained the ability to manage content without developer support. The new platform not only resolved the risks of an aging CMS but also created a sustainable foundation for digital growth across two brands.

Within the first months after launch, key metrics improved significantly. Bounce rates declined, mobile ticket sales increased, and donation conversions nearly doubled, showing how a modern platform and streamlined workflows directly supported the organization’s mission.

After launch, the client’s team quickly began using the new platform to build out their upcoming season. As they added events, donor campaigns, and bilingual content, we stayed involved to guide workflows and answer questions. Together, we refined the donation funnel, set up microsites for special initiatives, and adjusted analytics dashboards to give the leadership team clearer insights into conversions.

The partnership continues to grow around real needs: making sure ticketing runs smoothly on peak nights, supporting accessibility reviews for new components, and preparing the platform for the next major venue launch. Each step builds on what we’ve already achieved, keeping the focus on practical improvements that directly support the organization’s mission.