Respect The Authority of The Resource by Joe Patti

Hat tip to Nina Simon for calling attention to a post about how the Barnes Foundation is working toward changing their user experience. Even though the Barnes Foundation art collection was m…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:24am on April 19, 2018☆⚑

Have You Hugged Your Grant Panelist? by Joe Patti

Short post today because I just returned home after serving on a grant review panel for the state arts council. The deputy director of the council was reminiscing about the days in the not s…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:05am on April 18, 2018☆⚑

Are They Taking A Picture Of Your Powerpoint Because They Like It Or Because They Can't Read It? by Joe Patti

In his reflections on attending the 2018 Nonprofit Technology Conference, Drew McManus noted how many presenters at the conference packed too much text on to Powerpoint slides. He observes t…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:42pm on April 16, 2018☆⚑

Yes! Long Awaited Good, Bad and Ugly of Tech RFPs (Far More Interesting Than It Sounds) by Joe Patti

For over a year now I have been excited about the session on writing Requests for Proposals (RFP) Drew McManus and Ceci Dadisman are presenting today at the NonProfit Technology conference s…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 8:34pm on April 11, 2018☆⚑

You Have To Know How They Define Community Before You Can Tell Their Story by Joe Patti

I don’t know what inspired me to do so, but last week I visited ProPublica’s website and learned that Free Street Theater and ProPublica Illinois were teaming up to offer theater…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 7:22pm on April 10, 2018☆⚑

Creating Connections To "Why Didn't I Think Of That" by Joe Patti

Last week Arts Midwest held a webinar to provide some examples of the way in which different arts organizations were putting the Creating Connection messaging and research into practice. The…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 8:28pm on April 9, 2018☆⚑

Repetition & Establishing Good Habits by Joe Patti

I was recently involved with a strategic planning session for a non-arts group where  staff and representatives of community constituencies  were intermingled at different tables. When…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:05am on April 5, 2018☆⚑

Probably The Only Time Comic Sans Is Appropriate In A Planning Document by Joe Patti

Back in February CityLab covered an effort by residents of the Frogtown neighborhood of St. Paul, MN to get people invested in contributing to the Small Area Plan for their neighborhood. …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 7:23pm on April 3, 2018☆⚑

Focus On Art, Extend Your Attention Span? by Joe Patti

A common complaint in live performing arts is that no one has an attention span anymore. The sense is that cell phones, videos, bright flashing lights, etc have ruined our brains. But accord…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 8:31pm on April 2, 2018☆⚑

Kickin'"Erm, Springboarding Infographics Up A Notch by Joe Patti

Hat tip to Andrew Taylor for calling attention to ever awesome Springboard for the Arts’ “Year In Review” report which consists of a short letter from Executive Director La…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:06pm on March 28, 2018☆⚑

Enough Sins To Go Around by Joe Patti

A couple weeks ago Ali Webb wrote the provocatively titled Philanthropy's Seven Deadly Sins on Non-Profit Quarterly. According to Webb they are, Blindness to privilege Dismissing community k…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:23pm on March 27, 2018☆⚑

You Are Not Alone In Thinking It Can Be Good To Be Alone by Joe Patti

Last month the BBC had a story on their site about the creative benefits of being a loner. One reason for this is that such people are likely to spend sustained time alone working on their c…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:04pm on March 26, 2018☆⚑

You're Not Art's Type by Joe Patti

National Geographic had a photo essay featuring pictures of ballet dancers in Nairobi’s largest slum.  As I looked at it, I was reminded of El Sistema, the effort that provided free…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:13pm on March 21, 2018☆⚑

Is Innovation A Scientific Or Artistic Endeavor? by Joe Patti

Really interesting research piece on Plos One asking if the arts are the “secret sauce” that helps drive innovation or if it is the nice to have “cherry on top.” They…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:00pm on March 20, 2018☆⚑

Not Just For The Kids by Joe Patti

Though it was only a week ago, I can’t quite recall where I came across a link to Ozan Varol’s post, “Stop asking children these seven questions (and ask these instead)R…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:15pm on March 19, 2018☆⚑

Being On The Right Side of Copyrights by Joe Patti

I recently had a piece on ArtsHacker addressing questions about copyright which I see as a complement to an earlier piece I wrote for ArtsHacker that directed readers to tools that can help …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 8:32pm on March 14, 2018☆⚑

Oh The Places You'll See When You Can Ride The Rail For Free by Joe Patti

Last week CityLab wrote about the European Union’s plan to offer 18 year old residents a free 30 day Interrail pass this summer.  What this means is that potentially 20,000-30,000 t…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 8:31pm on March 13, 2018☆⚑

Where To Perform Based On Where They Have Performed by Joe Patti

One of the toughest tasks when it comes to programming for a performing arts venue is trying to bring new experiences to the community that audiences will attend in large enough numbers to m…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 8:30pm on March 12, 2018☆⚑

Often We Pay More For The Illusion Of Control by Joe Patti

If you want a lesson in the power of custom and pricing psychology winning over objectively better options, check out this New Yorker piece on failed attempts by restaurants to eliminate tip…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 8:29pm on March 7, 2018☆⚑

Move Over Laughter, Singing May Be The Best Medicine by Joe Patti

When Daniel Pink tweets that choral singing might be the new exercise, you know I have to investigate even if it is just clickbait. There seems to be some scientific basis to the claim, howe…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:41pm on March 6, 2018☆⚑

Could It Be That Pretty Much Anything Is More Engaging Than Test Focused Learning? by Joe Patti

Via Artsjournal.com is a piece from the Brookings Institution titled, “An unexpectedly positive result from arts-focused field trips.” After crunching some numbers as part of res…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 8:23am on March 6, 2018☆⚑

Fundraising Is Now Everyone's Job Too by Joe Patti

Yesterday I noted that I was interested to learn that $5 million in revenue was something of a dividing line between theaters which supported themselves primarily by ticket revenue (above $5…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:23am on March 1, 2018☆⚑

The Broadway Box Used To Be Such A Nice Neighborhood Til Those Non-Profits Moved In by Joe Patti

Rob Meiksins had a piece on Non-Profit Quarterly that discussed what the non-profit Second Stage Theater’s recent ownership of the Helen Hayes Theater on Broadway might portend in term…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:22pm on February 27, 2018☆⚑

Love/Hate Relationship With Focus Groups by Joe Patti

The Guardian had a long read piece on focus groups earlier this month. As I was reading, about how the companies commissioning the focus groups had difficulty accepting the results, I was st…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 7:52am on February 27, 2018☆⚑

Can Your Organization Afford Empathy? by Joe Patti

For about a month now I have been pondering a post Seth Godin made about the limits of empathy and how it might apply to customer relations in an performing arts setting. In the context of a…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:19pm on February 21, 2018☆⚑