Info You Can Use: Many Views of Shakespeare by Joe Patti

Ah March, when a young man’s thoughts turn to love…or backstabbing betrayal. Those cynics among us might says love and betrayal are pretty much the same thing. However, I was mos…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:04am on March 6, 2012☆⚑

Big Data May Be En Vogue, Little Data Still Has Plenty To Offer by Joe Patti

Apropos of my post yesterday about using big data to customize information to the interests of individuals in your community, I happened to come across an interview with Jamie Bennett who is…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:48pm on February 29, 2012☆⚑

You're Sharing Too Much Information About Me With Me by Joe Patti

We are planning a reception next month so a few weeks ago we were checking the website of a printer we often use for postcards to get pricing for invitations. The next day I got a call from …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:39am on February 29, 2012☆⚑

Arts Funding and Diversity in Oregon by Joe Patti

The Oregonian reported this weekend that the city of Portland would start to tie arts funding to the diversity of the art organization’s board, staff and ultimately audiences. Specific…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:52am on February 28, 2012☆⚑

An Idea Eight Years In The Making (And Hopefully Not Nine) by Joe Patti

Thursday is the 8th anniversary of this blog. I made my first post on February 23, 2004. I wouldn’t normally call attention to an oddly numbered anniversary (though 8 is considered aus…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 3:04am on February 23, 2012☆⚑

What Values Matter In Arts Grad Training Programs? by Joe Patti

This weekend Scott Walters quoted an extensive comment made on another blog about the value of MFA acting programs. The gist is, students are ill served by the programs which need to focus o…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:54am on February 22, 2012☆⚑

Info You Can Use: Point Some Strong Light At Your Brainstorm by Joe Patti

Hat tip to Ian David Moss at Createquity who linked to a New Yorker article on brainstorming in one of his “around the horn” summaries. The article talks about how the whole idea…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:17pm on February 20, 2012☆⚑

What Must They Think Of Us by Joe Patti

In diplomacy terms, soft power is a nation’s culture and values as opposed to their economic and military power. Some institutions like McDonalds and Apple cross some of the boundaries…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:49am on February 16, 2012☆⚑

Stuff To Ponder: What About Engaging Arts Organizations? by Joe Patti

Taking up where I left off yesterday, one of the last things I mentioned was that arts people might have an easier time shifting their perceptions to be more inclusive of what constitutes ar…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:46am on February 15, 2012☆⚑

What Is Art? What Is Craft? Whadda I Care? by Joe Patti

Philosophy professor Mike LaBossiere has an entry on Creativity Post in which he discusses the issue of defining art. He cites one of the creators of the Penny Arcade web comic, Jerry Holkin…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:59am on February 14, 2012☆⚑

Info You Can Use: Gen Y and User Generated Input by Joe Patti

Last month, MarketingProfs presented the results of some research that showed Gen Y consumers won’t make purchasing decisions without consulting user generated content (UGC). Interesti…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:14am on February 9, 2012☆⚑

You Don't Tell Me What To Give, Don't Tell Me What To Say by Joe Patti

An interesting question was posed to Kelly Kleiman, the Nonprofiteer, about the practice of suggesting donors increase their giving from the previous year. The writer was offended at being t…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:16am on February 8, 2012☆⚑

Helping The Rising Tide Lift All Boats by Joe Patti

I have been following The Producer’s Perspective, the blog of Broadway producer Ken Davenport, for a number of years now. While I don’t have solid evidence, I suspect he is not l…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:10am on February 7, 2012☆⚑

A Heartbeat Left In The Old Girl Yet by Joe Patti

Though they haven’t played since October 2009 and the symphony filed for Chapter 7 liquidation in December 2010, the Honolulu Symphony musicians saw a new opportunity to perform togeth…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:26am on February 2, 2012☆⚑

Don't Forget Leadership and Teamwork by Joe Patti

I was helping out a local high school by conducting mock interviews with their students today. I enjoy doing this because the school does a great job preparing the students for the experienc…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:54am on February 1, 2012☆⚑

Who Is More Important? The Event Or Organization? by Joe Patti

I had a small disagreement about marketing with one of the people partnering on a show with us that raised the question about what is more important, the artist or the organization. The disa…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 4:19am on January 31, 2012☆⚑

Supernatural Artistic Inspiration And Music by Joe Patti

In the talent vs. practice debate regarding mastery we have Malcolm Gladwell’s suggestion that it takes somewhere around 10,000 hours to achieve mastery (as well as the counter argumen…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:35pm on January 25, 2012☆⚑

Stuff To Ponder: Active Interpretation of Culture by Joe Patti

Participating in the Lead or Follow discussion over at Artsjournal.com, Lynne Conner writes the following about audience participation/engagement in performances (my emphasis). Inviting audi…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:14am on January 25, 2012☆⚑

Stuff To Ponder: Curtain Speeches by Joe Patti

I was reading an entry on the Creativity Post by Thomas Mark about how important audience attentiveness is in live performance. It was interesting, but I wasn’t intending to post on it…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:20am on January 24, 2012☆⚑

Info You Can Use: Forget Dynamic Pricing, Use Placebo Pricing by Joe Patti

I got my sister a gift certificate at Restoration Hardware for Christmas. They sent along a catalog that weighed about as much as my 3 year old nephew so I chose not to carry it on the plane…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:49am on January 19, 2012☆⚑

Teachers Don't Know From Creative by Joe Patti

We all know that arts classes and opportunities have been disappearing from schools at varying rates for decades. It may or may not surprise you to learn that creativity is not encouraged in…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:02am on January 18, 2012☆⚑

Arts And The Four Year Career by Joe Patti

An article recently posted on the Fast Company website talks about how transitory people’s jobs, and increasingly, career paths, are. “According to recent statistics, the median …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 5:40pm on January 16, 2012☆⚑

Desperately Seeking Arts Managers by Joe Patti

Artsjournal.com had a link to a story on ArtSeek about the difficulty arts organizations in the greater Dallas-Ft. Worth area were having finding arts managers. A good many positions are goi…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 4:07am on January 12, 2012☆⚑

Comes The Curator by Joe Patti

While at the Arts Presenters conference, I learned that Wesleyan University has a certificate program in Curatorial Practice in Performance. My first thought was to wonder if there was reall…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:03am on January 11, 2012☆⚑

Arts Presenters 2012 Edition by Joe Patti

I have been attending the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) conference this past weekend. I am sure I will have more to say on the subject in future entries, but I wanted to p…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:56pm on January 9, 2012☆⚑