Making Venue Upgrades Pleasant For Everyone by Joe Patti

I don't remember exactly how, but I became aware of a grant program administered by the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta (CFGA) called "A Place to Perform," which supports the effort…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 4:37am on August 25, 2022☆⚑

"…I had all this music inside…but I could not express it through an instrument" by Joe Patti

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend a screening of the short documentary, Conducting Life, about Roderick Cox, a man who grew up here in Macon, GA who went on to become an associate co…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:49pm on August 22, 2022☆⚑

Placemaking As A Space To Process Trauma by Joe Patti

Earlier this month, CityLab had an interesting article on the subject of trauma informed placemaking. For the most part, the article focuses on artistic projects which have given communities…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:54am on August 18, 2022☆⚑

99 Economic Concerns, But Admission Price Ain't One by Joe Patti

In a recent post Colleen Dilenschneider reported that recent research reflects the title of this post.  While inflation is a big concern for people right now, ticket/admission pricing doe…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:33am on August 17, 2022☆⚑

Consent Agenda Probably Most Useful Than Ever Before by Joe Patti

In an ArtsHacker article I wrote back in 2015, I had advocated for the use of consent agendas as a way to quickly dispose of routine matters at board meetings and leave time for discussion o…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 7:12am on August 16, 2022☆⚑

Comp Tickets Are Not Cost Free Transaction by Joe Patti

Last month Drew McManus had box office manager Tiffin Feltner make a guest post on his Adaptistration blog on the topic of comp tickets.   It has taken me about three weeks to stop gri…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:12pm on August 10, 2022☆⚑

Try On Theatre, It May Fit Better Than You Think by Joe Patti

American Theatre recently had a great piece about an interesting approach Princeton University is using as an alternative to auditions called "Try On Theatre Days." They describe the program…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:54pm on August 9, 2022☆⚑

You're Not Meant To Eat Everything On The Menu by Joe Patti

Many of you may have seen the news about the accusations of "wokeness" being leveled at the restaurant chain Cracker Barrel for adding plant based breakfast sausage to the menu. To be clear,…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:24pm on August 8, 2022☆⚑

You Now Have Permission To Have An Authentic Response by Joe Patti

Last month the San Francisco Chronicle ran an opinion piece by Nataki Garrett, the Artistic Director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, titled Theater can help drive economic recovery in S.…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:37am on August 4, 2022☆⚑

Resisting The Corruption Of The Violin by Joe Patti

Recently I have been seeing stories about violin scammers. People performing in shopping centers and other public places with signs asking for money. What is interesting about these stories …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:12am on August 3, 2022☆⚑

How Do You Take Your Program, Digital Or Printed? by Joe Patti

Last month, Washington Post Classical Music Critic Michael Andor Brodeur wrote a piece about why people like himself are unhappy with classical music organizations ditching printed programs.…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:12am on August 3, 2022☆⚑

Time To Review Programming And Rental Procedures by Joe Patti

Many people probably heard about a Minnesota venue cancelling Dave Chappelle's show hours before it was suppose to occur.  Something similar happened a few weeks ago at a venue on the oth…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:54pm on July 27, 2022☆⚑

Toward A More Artistic European Union by Joe Patti

As promised, I am following up on Monday's post about about the first European Union (EU) wide survey of performing arts. I wanted to note some of the recommendations made in the study. One …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:48am on July 27, 2022☆⚑

More Europe Performing Arts Orgs During Covid by Joe Patti

Last week German arts administrator Rainer Glaap made a Facebook post linking to the first ever study of theatres across the European Union (EU).  Additionally, some of the survey partici…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:12pm on July 25, 2022☆⚑

Instagram=High Engagement, But Don't Make Marketing Decisions Based On A Blog Title by Joe Patti

Earlier this month Colleen Dilenschneider wrote a post providing data that showed Instagram was the social media platform with the highest levels of audience engagement and conversions (deci…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:12pm on July 20, 2022☆⚑

Encouraging Signs In Theatre Internship Programs by Joe Patti

American Theatre had some encouraging news about a trend to improve summer theatre internship programs.  The need for this was seen last year as interns and other staff were walking off t…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:03am on July 20, 2022☆⚑

Strong Opposition To Warehousing Charitable Funding In DAFs by Joe Patti

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about how donor advised funds (DAF) had surpassed charities like the United Way as recipients of charitable giving.  I noted this is a problem because unli…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 8:37am on July 19, 2022☆⚑

Finally, Some Details About Artistic Practice Informing Scientific Genius by Joe Patti

We often hear about how scientific geniuses had an arts related hobby that contributed to their process, (Eisenstein and his violin are mentioned a lot), but we rarely get any detailed insig…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:24am on July 14, 2022☆⚑

Repeat Of Board Tensions In Chicago by Joe Patti

If you hadn't caught the news in the last week, there is a major crisis at Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago which saw the mass resignation of their current cohort of resident artists. This…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:03am on July 13, 2022☆⚑

Dance As A Gateway Drug To Coding by Joe Patti

Via Artsjournal.com was a Chalkbeat story about DanceLogic, a program in Philadelphia "designed to educate, inspire, and cultivate girls of color in STEM."   The premise: Both coding and …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:37pm on July 11, 2022☆⚑

Similarities, Yes, But Important Differences by Joe Patti

" Older audiences will only be around so long. If you teach the rising generation that the theatrical experience is completely extraneous, that experience probably won't be around for the ne…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:42pm on July 6, 2022☆⚑

Arts Orgs Are Shifting Approach Post-Pandemic, Will Grantmakers? by Joe Patti

A link to a video presentation about a study the Michigan Arts and Culture Council commissioned of SMU DataArts popped up in my feed last week. I am not sure what inspired me to listen all t…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:24pm on July 5, 2022☆⚑

When Good Climbing Shoes Are Important For Vocal Warm Ups by Joe Patti

The Artsjournal daily newsletter today linked to a Smithsonian Institution article using the title "Warm-Up Vocal Exercises From Three Very Different Classical Singing Disciplines."  From…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:07am on June 30, 2022☆⚑

Donor Advised Funds Receive More Giving Than Public Charities by Joe Patti

Earlier this month Vu Le of the Non Profit AF blog linked to a piece reporting that Donor Advised Funds (DAF) had surpassed charities as recipients of charitable revenue.  The problem wit…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 6:48am on June 29, 2022☆⚑

Wait, Top MBA Programs Block Grade Disclosure? by Joe Patti

This post might go a bit on the cerebral side, but bear with me it should go along pretty quickly. Thanks to Marginal Revolution blog I learned that top MBA programs have a policy of grade n…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 6:48am on June 29, 2022☆⚑