More People In The Loop For Arts & Culture Than Business by Joe Patti

So a little bit of good news out of Chicago. For a few years now I have been posting data showing how visitation at arts organizations compares to 2019 numbers. Some organization types are a…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 3:42am on October 28, 2025☆⚑

Even The IRS Is Questioning Value of DAFs by Joe Patti

Last week Alan Harrison did an analysis on Donor Advised Funds (DAF), the relative value of the funds disbursed and some of the loopholes provided by DAFs. One of the things he notes is that…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:18am on October 22, 2025☆⚑

Should There Be More Discussion of Mid & Long Range Collective Advocacy Plans? by Joe Patti

Oregon Arts Watch (h/t Artsjournal.com) provided some insight into a state advocacy group's two year plan to propose a redesign of the state's funding arts model in light of the national pol…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 6:48pm on October 20, 2025☆⚑

State Of Independent Venues In Your State by Joe Patti

The National Independent Venue Association released the results of their first survey showing the economic impact of independent venues in each of the 50 states and Washington D.C.. The info…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 5:06am on October 16, 2025☆⚑

Studio Tours Shouldn't Replicate The Gallery Experience by Joe Patti

For two weekends this month, the local Creative District is operating their annual artist studio tours. There are other associated activities, but the artists' opening their spaces for peopl…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 4:36am on October 15, 2025☆⚑

Post-Pandemic Cultural Habits Are About Set by Joe Patti

About twice a month Colleen Dilenschneider and the folks at IMPACTS Experience release some interesting data they have compiled about trends they are seeing that may impact arts and cultural…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:18am on October 14, 2025☆⚑

Are The Ordinary Bits Of Beauty Being Designed Out Of Our Lives? by Joe Patti

Tyler Cowen of the Marginal Revolution blog posted a short video meant as a preview of a long movie project discussing how we have eliminated ordinary beauty from our lives in the name of ef…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 8:18pm on October 8, 2025☆⚑

Kitchener-Waterloo Musicians Still Keeping Symphony Going Two Years After Bankruptcy by Joe Patti

Over the last two years I have been monitoring the story of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony which abruptly declared bankruptcy taking the musicians who had just negotiated a raise completely…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:54am on October 8, 2025☆⚑

The NEA At 60, Through The Eyes Of Past Chairs by Joe Patti

Last week, the Arts Management program at American University released a series of video interviews with the former chairs of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) on the occasion of the…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 7:42am on October 7, 2025☆⚑

Casino Developers Betting On Museums by Joe Patti

Hyperallergic had a story about a couple casino developers who offered to build museums as part of a bid open some casinos in NYC. According to the story, one would have developed a $15 mill…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:24pm on September 30, 2025☆⚑

Do Ghost Lights Comfort Or Scare Ghosts? by Joe Patti

I have been holding an article in reserve for quite awhile as I waited for the Halloween season to roll around. 10 years ago this week Atlas Obscura had an article about why theaters place g…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:06pm on September 29, 2025☆⚑

Economist View Of The Conflicting Tensions In Arts And Culture by Joe Patti

Economist Tyler Cowen was interviewed by his colleague Alex Taborrak about Cowen's 1998 book, In Praise of Commercial Culture . (Transcript) Apparently this was the book that put Cowen on…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:54am on September 24, 2025☆⚑

Picture Yourself Patronizing Businesses In A Construction Zone by Joe Patti

This seems to be the week for pictures on the old blog. About a month ago I wrote about an effort to use art projects to mitigate the impact of road construction occurring across five blocks…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:12am on September 17, 2025☆⚑

Sometimes The Gallery Labels Have As Much Appeal As The Art by Joe Patti

I have written a number of posts in the last year about the value of labels in exhibits. There are a number of people who don't think they are of much use visitors. The opinions of those who…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:42pm on September 15, 2025☆⚑

Will CTE Help Preserve Arts In Schools? by Joe Patti

Earlier this summer Colorado Public Radio (CPR) ran a story about how high school theater teachers are focusing instruction on the technical aspects of their discipline in order to tap into …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 4:03am on September 11, 2025☆⚑

2025 Arts Revenue Trending Down Even As Attendance Trending Up by Joe Patti

SMU DataArts released their National Trends study for 2025 in the last couple weeks. At first there is a brief flicker of optimism when you read that earned and contributed revenue is return…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 3:36am on September 10, 2025☆⚑

Being Clear About Who It Is For by Joe Patti

Seth Godin recently made a post on the question of "Who Is It For?" as a measure of the success of an endeavor. He says that while the concept of "maximizing shareholder value" is often cite…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:06pm on September 8, 2025☆⚑

What Will Transit Cuts Mean For Philly Theater Audiences by Joe Patti

Funding cuts for Philadelphia's transit system known as SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) is causing a lot of concern around that city. SEPTA runs both trains and bu…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 7:32pm on September 3, 2025☆⚑

Not Easy To Provide Cultural Experiences To A Nation's 18 Year Olds by Joe Patti

Via a LinkedIn post by Rainer Glaap, I was disappointed to learn that Germany's KluturPass program is being discontinued. (In German but most browsers can translate pretty well.) The program…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 7:06pm on September 2, 2025☆⚑

All That You Can't Leave Behind by Joe Patti

Folks may remember that in June 2024 the University of the Arts in Philadelphia pretty abruptly announced they were closing after about 150 years in operation. This came as a shock to facult…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:06pm on August 27, 2025☆⚑

Why You'll Frickin' Love This Collection by Joe Patti

Earlier this month, Hyperallergic had a short article about a video that actor Steve Martin made for the Frick Collection in NYC. What I appreciated was the way the information in the video …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 4:48am on August 27, 2025☆⚑

Baseball Team Seeks Good Singers by Joe Patti

You may not have heard about the Savannah Bananas baseball team. Or rather it may be more accurate to say Banana Ball team because they play a game that is a heavily altered version of baseb…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:24pm on August 25, 2025☆⚑

Your Website Is Doing The Heavy Lifting Getting Visitors In The Door by Joe Patti

Colleen Dilenschneider and her colleagues at IMPACTS Experience recently released data on social media engagement for cultural organizations. If you don't intend to read any further in this …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:54am on August 21, 2025☆⚑

Showing Off An Art Prescription by Joe Patti

While I was scrolling through Reddit this weekend, I came across a post about a doctor's office in the San Diego area prescribing visits to the New Children's Museum for the poster's 4 year …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:32am on August 20, 2025☆⚑

Perception of Cultural Orgs By Party Identity Not As Different As You May Think by Joe Patti

When I saw that Colleen Dilenschneider and the folks at IMPACTS Experience had posted data about whether Democrats and Republicans feel differently about cultural organizations (subscription…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:12am on August 19, 2025☆⚑