Monday, March 4, 2019
Seth Godin had an interesting post recently challenging the notion of passion preceding the decision to commit. “Offer me something I’m passionate about and I’ll show up with all of my…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 07:21PMWednesday, February 27, 2019
Americans for the Arts had a post on their blog last week that hit a lot of the right buttons for me. Steve Sanner and his partners have the Jiffy Lube franchise for Indiana. He writes about…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 06:55PMTuesday, February 26, 2019
I frequently urge people not to focus on the value of the arts in terms of economic impact on the community. Not only do the arts bring other forms of value to the community, but what is fre…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 06:55PMMonday, February 25, 2019
Thanks to Drew McManus for remembering that Butts In The Seats turned 15 this weekend. Hard to believe I have been writing for 15 years now. Hopefully readers have found the content worthwhi…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 07:21PMNon-Profits Pay Taxes On Unrelated Business Income Just because your organization is tax exempt doesn’t mean everything you do is exempt from taxes. There are a number of activities that r…
SOURCE: artshacker.com at 03:00AMWednesday, February 20, 2019
Check out this visual storytelling piece on CityLab about the history of libraries in the US. As arts and cultural organizations struggle with the question of inclusion of under-represente…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 06:58PMMonday, February 18, 2019
For a long time when people offered advice to those hoping to be actors, they would say something along the lines of, “No matter how talented and good looking you are, there are 10 oth…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:54PMThursday, February 14, 2019
I frequently urge people to be careful about making statements regarding the benefits of arts on educational outcomes so I am happy when I read about some rigorously conducted studies that p…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 02:32AMWednesday, February 13, 2019
As we come up on Valentine’s Day, a little reminder that there are a lot more ways to say, “I Love You,” than speaking those specific words. A couple years ago Gavin Aung T…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 02:06AMMonday, February 11, 2019
Okay, so I promise I am not seeking out articles that discuss the problems with depending on quantitative metrics to determine effectiveness and value. They just keep falling into my lap. Th…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 07:48PMI recently attended a webinar conducted by John Taylor of John H. Taylor Consulting providing updates on IRS rules on acknowledging charitable giving. Neither Taylor nor I are lawyers and th…
SOURCE: artshacker.com at 05:41PMThursday, February 7, 2019
Recently there have been some conversations around my organization and town in general about whether it is worthwhile to try to bolster an existing endowment. People have mentioned that ther…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:04AMTuesday, February 5, 2019
Friend o’ the blog, Carter Gillies recently had a piece appear in the Arts Professional UK noting some of the problems with focusing on the instrumental value of the arts. One of the i…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:36PMMonday, February 4, 2019
Seth Godin offers a very relatable example of why more data isn’t always better by emphasizing the need for vigilance when setting an alarm clock in a hotel room. If you set the alarm …
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:12PMWednesday, January 30, 2019
About three years ago I wrote about the problem of ticket resellers creating website names that approximate that of performance venues or using names that imply they are the central ticketin…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 09:18PMTuesday, January 29, 2019
Big hat tip to Thomas Cott for linking to an article about how quickly people will abandon a webpage if it is loading slowly. The title tells pretty much everything you need to know about …
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 09:06PMMonday, January 28, 2019
As we move further into the new year, many grant deadlines are starting to creep up en masse upon arts organizations. As you are filling out all the mandatory fields in your grant applicatio…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 08:54PMThursday, January 24, 2019
Jonathan Mandell writes about an off-off-Broadway show that has audience members to take part in the show and prepares them by sending a packet of character background information in advance…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:36AMWednesday, January 23, 2019
In the last six months it seems like I have been coming across a lot of stories about how museums tours are presenting alternative contexts for collections. Back in May I was writing about M…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:12AMMonday, January 21, 2019
Via Arts Professional UK is a Guardian story on a study that found people under 30 in the UK are twice as likely to visit a museum or gallery each month in order to de-stress. The charity’…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:48PMWednesday, January 16, 2019
In my post yesterday I referenced the difficulty non-profit arts organizations have with conducting outreach activities that have relevance to communities. I and others have also frequently …
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 09:54PMWashington Post music critic Anne Midgette wrote a piece this week about the difficulties classical music outreach efforts face. (h/t Artsjournal) My first reaction was one of mild intrigue …
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 03:36AMTuesday, January 15, 2019
Arts Professional UK had a great piece on developing a customer relationship management strategy (CRM). It is chock full of great resources including case studies, guides on how to choose a …
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 03:12AMMonday, January 14, 2019
If you have ever applied for a grant, especially from an entity or program receiving funds from the federal government, you have likely been asked to provide your organization’s DUNS (…
SOURCE: artshacker.com at 12:59PMWednesday, January 9, 2019
I was excited to see Aubrey Bergauer posted a follow up to her original 2016 Orchestra X post regarding how the California Symphony was acting on the feedback it has received about the conce…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:54PMTuesday, January 8, 2019
Last month I made a post about the evolution of women’s restroom lounges resulting in a short, but interesting exchange about theater restroom facilities in Germany and Sweden. Las…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:32PMMonday, January 7, 2019
I recently experienced a confluence of reminders that not all experiences with arts and culture result in positive responses people anticipated. I am not talking about works of poor quality …
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:12PMWednesday, December 19, 2018
C4 Atlanta’s tweet of an Arts Professional UK story today made me growl in dissatisfaction. (I got no beef with C4 Atlanta,that is just a long way of giving them a hat tip for the …
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 09:36PMTuesday, December 18, 2018
Recently over at Nonprofit AF, Vu Le talked about the problem of decision fatigue experienced by executives and other leaders. He mentions that his organization has been using an alternative…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 09:12PMMonday, December 17, 2018
There has been a fair bit of evidence that people are not generally aware whether the place they are having their entertainment experience is a non-profit or for-profit business. An experien…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 08:48PMThursday, December 13, 2018
I have written a few times about the way people are organizing themselves in Giving Circles. It seems like an interesting approach to philanthropy because it is social and communal the way s…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 01:04AM 
