I Probably Don't Really Know What My Audience Values Even Though I Am In The Lobby Before, After, And At Intermission by Joe Patti

I bookmarked a guest post on Museum 2.0 a month ago. Now I feel guilty for not circling back to it sooner. Nina Simon invited Martin Brandt Djupdræt, a manager at Danish museum,  to wr…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:54pm on May 17, 2019☆⚑

Path To Promotion Doesn't Necessarily Have To Be Vertical by Joe Patti

You have probably heard some form of the Peter Principle expressed before. At its most cynical, it is usually defined as, "A person will be promoted to their level of incompetence."   …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:36am on May 9, 2019☆⚑

Some Reasons Acquiring New Customers Can Be Expensive by Joe Patti

As so often is the case, Seth Godin recently made a post many elements of which are often cited as mistakes arts organizations make. It should be noted that the things Godin lists are not me…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:42am on May 7, 2019☆⚑

The Gallery At The End of The Rainbow by Joe Patti

There was a piece on Hyperallergic last month that seemed to be continuing an ongoing conversation about the fact that most university based arts programs seem to be oriented toward training…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 5:24am on May 2, 2019☆⚑

Do They Know They Are Hard To Reach? by Joe Patti

On the Arts Professional UK website, Imrana Mahmood, discusses her experiences becoming a creative producer in a manner that reminded me of two other speakers/authors I often cite. Mahmood's…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 5:24am on May 2, 2019☆⚑

When You Try To Break Out Of Siloed Thinking, You Suddenly See Them Everywhere by Joe Patti

When I was looking at Arts Professional UK for yesterday's post, I saw an article by Lucy Jamieson about rewiring your thinking. One of the things she talks about is eliminating silos both w…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 5:24am on May 2, 2019☆⚑

Lollipop Philanthropy by Joe Patti

When I was at the Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit last week, one of the other participants asked if there was a way to communicate to funders that they can't just fund a program and f…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 8:30pm on April 24, 2019☆⚑

Take It From The Folks Who Have Done It 7000 Times "Short And To The Point by Joe Patti

A piece from Artsy regarding what they had learned writing 7000 bios for visual artists came across my radar a few weeks ago and I quickly tagged it as something I to which wanted to circle …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 8:00pm on April 23, 2019☆⚑

Is Creative Placemaking The Poor Man's Gentrification? by Joe Patti

Part of last week I was attending the Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit for the South and Appalachian region. I am sorry to say that one of the biggest impressions I came away with is t…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 8:35pm on April 22, 2019☆⚑

Gather Your Neighbors For A Castle Raising by Joe Patti

I am always up for spreading around awesome ideas that people execute. I wanted to give a shout out to my old collaborators, at the Creative Cult. They have been involved with all sorts of c…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 7:56pm on April 15, 2019☆⚑

Theater Seeking Animation With Creative Vitality by Joe Patti

Something I thought might be interesting to readers.  The City of Douglas, GA has issued a request for proposals (RFP) to purchase and run a historical theater.  You don't see this tha…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 7:36pm on April 10, 2019☆⚑

The Games That Are Played In Cultural Facilities by Joe Patti

Hate the fact that your city will provide millions to fund an arena that only gets used 20 times a year but not arts organizations that each host hundreds of events a year? Concerned that th…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:30pm on April 9, 2019☆⚑

Accepting Donations Is Increasingly Complicated Business by Joe Patti

While I have written about this before, of late it seems that the decision to accept a donation from someone is increasingly one requiring deliberation. An article on The Conversation lays o…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:34pm on April 8, 2019☆⚑

That Story Was Old When Gilgamesh's Grandpa Told It by Joe Patti

One arts marketing phrase I have always hated, and thankfully I seldom see it these days, is "…illustrates what it means to be human.." I often dislike the rationale that something tells a…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 8:21pm on April 3, 2019☆⚑

Authentic Air Safety Kabuki Theatre by Joe Patti

Okay, a little break from my weighty opining on the value and philosophy of art. I caught this on the Forbes site recently. All Nippon Airways (ANA) has employed kabuki actors to appear in t…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 7:34pm on April 2, 2019☆⚑

Kids Might Be Motivated To Learn If They Aren't Always Stuck In A Classroom. Imagine That by Joe Patti

Last month there was an article in Forbes about the benefits of field trips and arts education. It started out in a way I dislike, discussing test scores and neurological development as if a…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 7:20pm on April 1, 2019☆⚑

You Are Never Too Young To Start Producing Shows by Joe Patti

So given the context of all the deserved gushing over a North Bergen, NJ's stage version of the movie Aliens with a $5,000 budget and recycled materials,  Ken Davenport's suggestion that …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:56pm on March 27, 2019☆⚑

A Splash Of Color And The Hope That One Day Prince Will Come by Joe Patti

I was half listening to a TED Talk given by Amanda Williams where she spoke about turning abandoned homes in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago into art. She would check the city's regist…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 7:16pm on March 26, 2019☆⚑

Enacting Your Solution Or Your Funder's Solution? by Joe Patti

Often when we talk about arts and cultural organizations applying for grant funding, there is mention of how organizations might try to recast what they are doing in a context that makes it …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 7:22pm on March 25, 2019☆⚑

And You Thought Developing A New Performance Piece Was Hard by Joe Patti

Watching the latest webinar on the Creating Connection initiative from ArtsMidwest, I am pleased to see the progress that is being made. The Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs ha…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 8:27pm on March 20, 2019☆⚑

In Order Have Social Impact, They Had To Kill The Social Impact Statement by Joe Patti

If you haven't seen it already, it is worth reading Joanna Jones' piece on Medium about how the Oakland Museum of California developed and then abandoned their social impact statement. One o…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 7:47pm on March 19, 2019☆⚑

Don't Forget That Failure Is An Option by Joe Patti

It has only been in recent years that a message of embracing and talking about our failure has been part of a public conversation among arts and cultural organizations. I am not sure how man…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 7:47pm on March 18, 2019☆⚑

Even Art Works Undergo High Stakes Testing by Joe Patti

In a literal case of one person's trash is another's treasure, New York Times had a piece about museums grading the works in their collection to decide what to liquidate.  It has long bee…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 8:24pm on March 13, 2019☆⚑

Things To Ponder When Endeavoring To Tell Other People's Stories by Joe Patti

There is a lot of conversation about the need for people to see themselves and their interests reflected in arts and cultural experiences if arts and cultural organizations were going to rem…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:08pm on March 12, 2019☆⚑

If You Like Classical Music And Are In A Movie, You Just Might Be The Depraved Villain by Joe Patti

This past weekend, Artsjournal.com had a number of articles on the benefits of the arts. One in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette asked if Mozart could make you a better runner. The basis of the a…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 7:42pm on March 11, 2019☆⚑