"…Black people, are just living works of art, in our culture and being." by Joe Patti

For years now I have been following and writing on the Culture Track survey.   At one time the survey was being conducted every three years or so in order to measure changing trends an…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:37pm on May 25, 2022☆⚑

Ode To The Stage Technician by Joe Patti

There is a saying among those who work in the technical side of live theatre and events that if someone notices what is going on, you are doing your job wrong.  The idea is that for the m…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 4:33pm on May 25, 2022☆⚑

Measuring Our Measures by Joe Patti

Seth Godin recently made a post on one of my favorite topics " valuing metrics that don't really matter. Just because they're easy to measure doesn't mean they matter. […] If you're workin…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 4:07pm on May 24, 2022☆⚑

We Work Anti-Social Hours? Never Thought Of It That Way by Joe Patti

Artsjournal had recently included a link to a Guardian article reporting that people working in performing arts are twice as likely as the general population to experience depression.  Th…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:18am on May 20, 2022☆⚑

Cheaper By The Dozen, But I Only Have One Set of Eyes And Ears To Experience It by Joe Patti

Seth Godin made a post about leveraging the power of word of mouth by incentivizing sharing with friends. Krispy Kreme grew to become a doughnut behemoth in the US. The formula was simple: S…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:24am on May 18, 2022☆⚑

Too Preoccupied To Weed Your Fields by Joe Patti

So I saw the recent Dr. Strange movie this weekend and one of the biggest takeaways I had (no spoilers) was that classical music is powerful no matter what universe you are in. Though, like …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:03pm on May 17, 2022☆⚑

Man Those Backseat Entertainment Screens Are Getting Bigger And Bigger by Joe Patti

I am always interested in seeing the novel approaches people employ to present performances. I happened to catch a story last week on Vice about a guy who is bringing pop up movie experience…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:03am on May 12, 2022☆⚑

Difficult To Heed Polonius' Advice These Days by Joe Patti

Some notable news via American Theatre, for those who have found it difficult to heed Polonius' advice of "neither a borrower nor lender be." (aka pretty much all of us)  The Acting Compa…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 4:54pm on May 11, 2022☆⚑

Would You Pay For News In Return For Tax Credits? by Joe Patti

There was a story last month on Nieman Lab looking at how successful a tax credit for digital news subscriptions has been in Canada.  The intent was to help news organizations stay in bus…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 4:18am on May 10, 2022☆⚑

Art Reflects Life. So Should Your Mission Statement by Joe Patti

Scott Walters made a Twitter post yesterday that suggested organizations start their existence with a Quality of Life Statement rather than Mission Statement or Values Statement.  Intrigu…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 8:33am on May 5, 2022☆⚑

Spend, Not Give Donations? by Joe Patti

The folks on the Non-Profit Happy Hour Facebook group posted a link to a Ohio State University (I'm sorry, THE Ohio State University) post which claims that charities should not use the word…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:54am on May 4, 2022☆⚑

They're Back! But Not Because They Waited For The Audiences To Return by Joe Patti

Apparently the pandemic was good for classical music stations. In a story on the Current site, the general manager WDAV in Charlotte, NC had a hard time believing his station had achieved nu…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:37am on May 3, 2022☆⚑

Inheriting Your Great-Great Grandparents' Investment In Your Future by Joe Patti

Early in April you may have seen that Yellowstone National Park is celebrating its 150th Anniversary by offering an Inheritance Pass for $1500 with the catch that it can't be used for anothe…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:33pm on April 27, 2022☆⚑

People Fund People Not Organizations, So Maybe Do That Even More? by Joe Patti

Last month Marginal Revolution blog posted an excerpt of a piece by Adam Mastroianni about how grant funding is broken.  I immediately hopped over to see what he had to say. While his pos…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 5:18am on April 27, 2022☆⚑

You Don't Have To Wait To Grow Up To Be An Artist by Joe Patti

Last month, Coco Allred, a teaching artist in Philadelphia had a post on Americans for the Arts about President Biden's visit to one of the classes she teaches.  She started out with the …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:54am on April 26, 2022☆⚑

She Made Sure We Ain't Gonna Lose Touch With Soul by Joe Patti

I want to take the opportunity to call attention to an article in the NY Times this past Sunday focused on Zelma Redding, wife of the singer Otis Redding, Jr.  The Otis Redding Foundation…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 8:36pm on April 20, 2022☆⚑

Becoming One Of The Unseen Creative Artists by Joe Patti

Yesterday we had David Grindle, Executive Director of USITT (United States Institute for Theatre Technology) , speak at my theater about "The Unseen Arts Economy." If you aren't familiar wit…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 8:36pm on April 20, 2022☆⚑

Monopolies, Not Lack of Curiosity May Have Killed American Theater by Joe Patti

Scott Walters is a blogger I started following 15+ years ago. His work has gone through various focuses and iterations, but is always very interesting and insightful. He recently returned to…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 8:12pm on April 19, 2022☆⚑

Where Is Your Favorite Podcast Getting Its Material? by Joe Patti

h/t to Isaac Butler who retweeted a somewhat horrifying thread written by author Brendan Koerner recounting how one of his Atlantic articles, two of his books and a WIRED piece he authored h…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:03am on April 14, 2022☆⚑

Can Annotated Press Releases Be A Good Communication Tool? by Joe Patti

Last week Aubrey Bergauer made the following post calling the attention of arts organizations to an annotated press release put out by the financial company Ellevest announcing their success…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 5:42am on April 13, 2022☆⚑

Artist Coding Switch Code Switch by Joe Patti

A couple weeks ago there was an article in the L.A. Times about Artists Who Code, an organization created after the pandemic hit by two Broadway performers to help artists transition into ca…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:12pm on April 11, 2022☆⚑

May Have Spoken Too Soon About Salary Transparency Efforts by Joe Patti

Apropos to my post yesterday about New York City requiring employers to list their salary range starting next month, I was happy to Vu Le's tweet about Washington State passing a similar law…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 3:24am on April 7, 2022☆⚑

Starting Small And Building Momentum by Joe Patti

Last month, The Art Newspaper reported that NYC would begin requiring all employers to disclose the salary range of jobs starting on May 15. Many saw this as a positive step for the arts wor…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 3:03am on April 6, 2022☆⚑

What Do We Need From Artists And What Do Artists Need From Us by Joe Patti

Last week Laura Zabel, Executive Director of Springboard for the Arts, has a piece on CityLab discussing the contributions artists can bring to pandemic recovery. She references a report iss…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:33am on April 5, 2022☆⚑

"Admission Tickets Are Not Bought. They Are sold." by Joe Patti

Colleen Dilenschneider made a post today providing data that shows people's tendency to stay home rather than seek cultural and entertainment experiences has increased over the last decade. …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 6:42am on March 31, 2022☆⚑