Talking About Impact of Casinos Now Might Mean You Don't Have To Lose Even If The House Always Wins by Joe Patti

Four years ago I wrote about a coalition of performing arts organizations in upstate NY that was fighting to mitigate the impact of having new casino projects compete with them for performin…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:54pm on October 22, 2018☆⚑

A Lot Of People Got A Seat At The Table by Joe Patti

Yesterday I got to do something I have been dreaming of doing for a long time. Now keep in mind, as an arts and cultural policy nut, my dreams tend to be a little different than everyone els…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:06pm on October 18, 2018☆⚑

What Would You Do If A Funder Encouraged You To Push Them To Do Better? by Joe Patti

I was skimming some entries on the Americans for the Arts blog when a couple sentences made my eyes visually screech to a halt and shift into reverse because I wasn’t sure if I read wh…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:32am on October 17, 2018☆⚑

Literally Prescriptive Arts by Joe Patti

I have been extremely busy preparing for the sponsor reception capping off a $3 million facility renovation at my day job.  (It really well tonight, thankfully) I wanted to briefly call a…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:18am on October 16, 2018☆⚑

Pinatas Today, Politics Tomorrow by Joe Patti

Maybe there is something in the water in Texas. In July I wrote about an artist who created a fake campaign promoting the restoration of El Paso’s trolley system as a thesis project. T…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:04am on October 11, 2018☆⚑

Americans For The Arts Unleashes A Pinwheel of Arts Power!! by Joe Patti

Americans for the Arts just rolled out their Social Impact of the Arts pinwheel this week. Instructions and ideas about how to use it may be found in a blog post and/or video made by Clay Lo…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:36pm on October 9, 2018☆⚑

More Playing In The Streets by Joe Patti

Yesterday BikeWalk Macon sponsored an Open Streets event in town.  Open Streets is a program that started about 30 years ago in Columbia. It closes streets down and turns it over the use …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:12pm on October 8, 2018☆⚑

Feeling Sliced and Stretched Trying To Meet Evaluative Measures? There Is Good Reason by Joe Patti

Last week I linked to the unabridged version of Carter Gillies’ article for the Arts Professional (UK). The shorter print version has since appeared on their site. In his response in t…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:04pm on October 2, 2018☆⚑

Are Church Planting Techniques Suited To The Arts? by Joe Patti

I was recently listening to an episode of This American Life on church planting and found it a little strange to be listening to people use venture capitalist terminology to describe efforts…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 8:32pm on October 1, 2018☆⚑

You Couldn't Tie People To Railroad Tracks Because It Was Copyrighted by Joe Patti

Copyright may seem like a pretty dry subject, but the court cases that lead to the development of the law and theory surrounding copyright law can be pretty interesting. HowlRound posted the…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:48am on September 27, 2018☆⚑

#NotMyMetric by Joe Patti

Carter Gillies shared the unabridged version of a piece he wrote for the Arts Professional UK on his website this weekend.  As Carter is wont to do, he examined statements about quantifyi…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:24am on September 26, 2018☆⚑

Some Last Thoughts On Conferences For Awhile (Probably) by Joe Patti

I know I have been harping a lot on conferences of late, but you know, ’tis the season! Because I had been in the process of moving to a new job, I just caught up with my blog feed thi…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:04am on September 25, 2018☆⚑

Whew, Who Knew Finding Your Passion Was Such Hard Work? by Joe Patti

Back in July there was an interesting piece in The Atlantic examining the value of the claim “find your passion and you will never have to work a day in your life.” As I was read…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:54pm on September 19, 2018☆⚑

More Tales From The Crammed Conference Luncheon Table by Joe Patti

I have suspected it before, but now I really am convinced that Seth Godin is reading my mind. Right after I made my post about perceived value of conference professional development sessions…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 3:36am on September 19, 2018☆⚑

Diverse Faces In Spaces Does Not Equal Diversity by Joe Patti

You know I am a sucker for fun and interesting ideas for arts organization so I read Danielle Jackson’s recent piece on Artsy, Art Spaces Can Bridge Social Divides"But First You Need t…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:06pm on September 17, 2018☆⚑

Show Of Hands- Conference Professional Development Sessions Mostly BS Or Sources of Valuable Info? by Joe Patti

While I wasn’t scheduled to sit on any panels at the ArtsMidwest conference last week, I did end up leading (or at least shepherding) one. Actually, I made a tongue-in-cheek claim I wa…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:12am on September 13, 2018☆⚑

Asking Audiences How They Perceive Our Motives by Joe Patti

I went to the Arts Midwest conference last week and I am still sorting out all the notes and brochures, etc that I picked up. There were a couple general bits of observations I wanted to sha…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:42am on September 12, 2018☆⚑

Sometimes Culture Is Preserved In Overlooked Nooks And Crannies by Joe Patti

If you have ever doubted the contributions niche artistic & cultural practices can make to greater society, read check out this story on the BBC site recounting how puppetry helped prese…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:24am on September 11, 2018☆⚑

They Started Roling Out These Performances Sooner Than I Expected by Joe Patti

When I wrote about using roleplaying games as the basis for character and plot development back in June, I never imagined I would see the basic concept manifest so quickly. Apparently ideas …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:06pm on September 4, 2018☆⚑

Maintaining STEAM Pressure To Manufacture Better Art by Joe Patti

I am going to be attending the Arts Midwest conference this week so I started scouring my archives for content for Wednesday’s entry. Instead, I came across an old post that is a bit m…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 3:36pm on September 3, 2018☆⚑

Even Faced With Challenges, People Choose To Fund The Arts by Joe Patti

On Americans for the Arts blog, Megan Van Voorhis writes about how voters in Genesee County Michigan approved a millage to support arts and cultural institutions in their county. What’…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:48am on August 30, 2018☆⚑

We Believe There Is A Secret Phrase Even If You Say There Is No Secret Phrase by Joe Patti

I wanted to make another visit to the  piece on shared power and transparency in grant making F. Javier Torres and Leila Tamari wrote for Inside Philanthropy which I referenced in yest…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:24am on August 29, 2018☆⚑

Writing Contracts With An MOU Attitude by Joe Patti

Earlier this month, F. Javier Torres and Leila Tamari wrote a piece on shared power and transparency in grant making for Inside Philanthropy. They were reflecting on some of their practices …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:54am on August 28, 2018☆⚑

Is Sitting In A Dark Room With Goggles On Your Head Superior To Sitting In A Dark Room With Other People? by Joe Patti

While I was spending my days last week apartment hunting as part of my move to a new job in Macon, GA, I was spending my nights at the Macon Film Festival. It was suggested it would be a goo…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:42pm on August 22, 2018☆⚑

The Fine Line Between High Quality Data Collection And Stalking by Joe Patti

The marketing director at my new job was discussing the potential of using geofencing with me today and then lo and behold, the first article on my social media feed when I got home containe…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:24pm on August 21, 2018☆⚑