Strippers Organizing, But Not Unionizing In Minneapolis by Joe Patti

Earlier this month I saw a news piece about strippers in Minneapolis organizing to form a guild in that city. Stories about people organizing to take collective action and engage in bargaini…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:48am on March 25, 2025☆⚑

Seeing Opportunities To Diversify Revenue by Joe Patti

I was recently drawn to the story of Rock School for Dance Education in Philadelphia opening a retail dancewear store out of their location. They spent $150,000 renovating a space that used …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:36pm on March 18, 2025☆⚑

Go Get My Guitar by Joe Patti

There is a lot of conversation among arts organizations these days about the need to create connection and show the value of arts organizations to the community. I worked with an artist this…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:54am on March 18, 2025☆⚑

Still Trusted, But Some Perceptual Barriers to Overcome by Joe Patti

In my post yesterday I briefly referenced research Colleen Dilenschneider and the folks at IMPACTS Experience have released showing that arts and cultural organizations have gained an increa…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 3:48am on March 13, 2025☆⚑

Communicating What You Are Good For Rather Than Good At More Important Than Ever by Joe Patti

Last month, Forbes website hosted an article "6 Things That Arts Leaders Should Do Right Now" It is written in the context of all the funding cuts and policy changes being promulgated on the…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 3:54am on March 12, 2025☆⚑

Being In Charge When There Is No Benefit by Joe Patti

Seth Godin recently made a post that resonated with me. He wrote about how in large organizations and bureaucracies things often fall through the cracks partially because no one is specifica…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:18am on March 11, 2025☆⚑

Some Thoughts On Why Customers Complain by Joe Patti

To expand a little on yesterday's post about the customer always being right, Seth Godin recently made a post about why people complain. One of the reasons he cites is, of course, to effect …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:42am on March 5, 2025☆⚑

The Customer Is Always Right… by Joe Patti

I have been seeing a number of claims that the full quote ends with "…in matters of taste." As much as I would love that to be true given that retailers have been bludgeoned with the phras…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:32pm on March 3, 2025☆⚑

Varying How You Make Donation Appeals by Joe Patti

Short, interesting piece in the Chronicle of Philanthropy discussed research that found when non-profits varied their messaging on Facebook, they received more donations. They are careful to…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:12pm on February 26, 2025☆⚑

Understanding Barriers To Entry By Visiting Stores That Cause You Discomfort by Joe Patti

Nina Simon posted that she had been interviewed on Kyle Thiermann's podcast (also on YouTube if you want view a video of them talking.) They talk for awhile about Nina's transition from runn…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:54am on February 26, 2025☆⚑

No Print At Home & Added Will Call Charge Increasing New Barriers To Entry by Joe Patti

Over the weekend I received a comment on a post I made in October 2019. The post dealt with the theory that the response that an arts and cultural experience was "not for me" might be based …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:32am on February 25, 2025☆⚑

Working Out Those Work From Home Arrangements by Joe Patti

If you have staff working from home or are considering moving in that direction, I recently made a post on ArtsHacker regarding some tips for creating a successful asynchronous work environm…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:32am on February 20, 2025☆⚑

Pittsburgh Arts Council Employing AI Tools by Joe Patti

In the last few weeks I came across a blog post by the CEO of the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, Patrick Fisher, laying out the ways in which the Arts Council would be using new technology…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:06am on February 19, 2025☆⚑

New Compliance Requirements For NEA Grants by Joe Patti

There appear to be some significant changes in the grant procedures for the National Endowment for the Arts. In addition to the end of the Challenge America grant program American Theatre Ma…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:48pm on February 17, 2025☆⚑

What To Say About Your DEI Efforts by Joe Patti

Yesterday someone posted a Harvard Business Review article on LinkedIn dealing with the topic of corporate DEI programs. The authors, Kenji Yoshino, David Glasgow, and Christina Joseph, stat…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:54pm on February 12, 2025☆⚑

More Room For Customer Focused Info On Book Covers? by Joe Patti

In a case of insiders recognizing that stuff they think is important isn't really viewed as valuable to consumers, the publisher of Simon and Schuster books announced their writers will no l…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:32pm on February 11, 2025☆⚑

Why You Should Be Expanding Your Audience, By The Numbers by Joe Patti

Colleen Dilenschneider and the folks at IMPACTS Experience laid out some interesting data about audience sustainability for different types of cultural organizations. (subscription required)…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:06pm on February 10, 2025☆⚑

Getting People To Reveal The Boxes They Want Checked by Joe Patti

Seth Godin recently made a post that set off all sorts of thoughts in my brain. I was going to say it checked a lot of boxes for me, but that is the title of his post and it felt a little re…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:48am on February 5, 2025☆⚑

Reducing The Crowd Doesn't Increase Satisfaction By Itself by Joe Patti

Last week The Guardian had an article about people being so dissatisfied with their attendance experience at The Louvre, they were determined never to visit again. It isn't just the crowds, …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:36am on February 4, 2025☆⚑

It Takes A Village To Get Everyone To Take Vacation by Joe Patti

Another interesting research piece that Bill Byrnes included Management and the Arts was related to burn out in non-profit organizations. A brief excerpt recounting the efforts the behaviora…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:36pm on January 29, 2025☆⚑

When Where You Say You Are Is Who You Are For by Joe Patti

Colorado Public Radio has a weekly Q&A feature they run. A recent question about why some sports teams are named for Denver and others for Colorado even though they are all based out of …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:12pm on January 28, 2025☆⚑

Getting An Early Start On The Show by Joe Patti

League of American Orchestra's Symphony.org site had an interesting piece on concert start times recently. It wasn't really surprising to learn that organizations were experimenting with dif…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:48pm on January 27, 2025☆⚑

Where Would You Like To Sit? by Joe Patti

Bill Byrnes recently released a resource update to his textbook, Management and the Arts which included a research article about what factors influence what seating locations ticket purchase…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:12am on January 23, 2025☆⚑

There Will Always Be A Few Successfully Operating At An Elite Level. As For The Rest? by Joe Patti

Seth Godin made a post about elite vs. elitism a couple months ago. His argument is that people can operate on an elite level (i.e. Olympic athletes, surgeons, teachers, etc) but that this d…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:42am on January 22, 2025☆⚑

Not Creating Enough Of A Negative Impact To Be Worthwhile by Joe Patti

About a year ago, we were contacted by a company proposing we enter a contract to use their reusable cup service. They would deliver the cups, retrieve them from the special collection bins,…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:18am on January 21, 2025☆⚑