All stories by Joe Patti on BroadwayStars

Monday, May 1, 2017

Whose Theater Is It Anyway? by Joe Patti

I have written about stakeholder revolts where people in the community force non-profit boards to reconstitute themselves, usually in reaction to a planned closing of the organization. …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 09:02PM[SHARE]
Thursday, April 27, 2017

If Everybody Sings, We Can't Be The Best by Joe Patti

In a recent article on Salon, music professor Steven Demorest, talks about the way music education in schools can create anxiety in people about singing. He cites a scene from the Oscar winn…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 04:18AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, April 26, 2017

So I Joined A Cult by Joe Patti

Do you have a few moments so I can share some information about a cult I joined? No, wait, wait, before you run away. This is not that type of cult. In fact, this cult demands much less in t…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 03:31AM[SHARE]
Monday, April 24, 2017

Classical Composers Were The Rock Stars Of Their Day. Would They Be Allowed To Be Rock Stars Today? by Joe Patti

I don’t often advocate for specific performers here on Butts in the Seats. I get enough requests to review things on my blog and hundreds of emails from artists at my day job that I do…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 08:36PM[SHARE]
Thursday, April 20, 2017

Is Creativity Really The Best Aphrodisiac? by Joe Patti

Well I am glad I mentioned yesterday how fulfilling I found all the creative projects I have been involved with over the course of my career. Today in The Atlantic, they had a story about th…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:48PM[SHARE]

Protecting Yourself Against Embezzling Grannies by Joe Patti

Every couple months the treasurer tells our board of directors how easy it would be to embezzle funds due to the lack of sufficient checks and balances. She is especially wary of the fact th…

SOURCE: artshacker.com at 03:00AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Wherein I Muse About The Value of Self Investment by Joe Patti

Recently I have been thinking back about different projects I have participated in over the last 10-15 years that I really found fulfilling. I invested a lot of time in those projects and di…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:36AM[SHARE]
Monday, April 17, 2017

Well-Established, Innovative, Accredited, Untested Terminology Does Not Have Generation Specific Appeal by Joe Patti

Back in February, Seth Godin made a post about “The two vocabularies (because there are two audiences),” discussing how the vocabulary that appeals to people who consider themsel…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:54PM[SHARE]
Thursday, April 13, 2017

Cosette Before and After by Joe Patti

I bookmarked this story years ago and I don’t know why I never wrote about it. Back in 2015, the Toronto Globe and Mail did an 8 part story on the rehearsal and performance process of …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 01:42AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Breeze It, Buzz It, Easy Does It by Joe Patti

This week Jonathan Mandell addressed an issue that has been troubling me for a few years. I have noticed more and more frequently that actors don’t seem to be taking the time to decomp…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 01:18AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Unbiased Hiring Practices Have Been Around For A Long Time (Just Not Around Here) by Joe Patti

Drew McManus has been discussing diversity in programming for the last week or so on Adaptistration.  With those thoughts bopping around my cranium, it was probably only natural that a po…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:54AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Toward De-gamification of Job Interviews by Joe Patti

This week Barry Hessenius wrote about the process of interviewing someone for a job.  One of his points was not to use other people’s interview questions/generic questions you pull …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:06PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, April 4, 2017

All The Boring Moments Of The Creative Process by Joe Patti

I have been paying attention to what people do as part of their creative process lately. So I was happy to read George Saunders’ piece in The Guardian from last month, “What writ…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:42PM[SHARE]

Arts Council Director Who Discovered He Was An Artist by Joe Patti

For two-three years now I have regularly revisited the situation where generally people have an easier time identifying themselves as a participant in a sport than as an artist. Earlier this…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 04:18AM[SHARE]
Monday, April 3, 2017

You Want To Be A Non-Profit? You Have To Start Acting Like One by Joe Patti

You know how they say you need to dress for the job you want rather than the job you have? In much the same way, this is true for pursuing non-profit status. A few years back Ellis Carter li…

SOURCE: artshacker.com at 03:00AM[SHARE]
Thursday, March 30, 2017

People Like You Read A Blog Post Like This by Joe Patti

Even though it often feels like promoting arts and culture as a non-profit entity requires inventing entirely new methods wholecloth because our emphasis and motivations are not driven by a …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 02:24AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Cultural Intellectual Property Rights by Joe Patti

A few years back I had organized a panel on presenting the work of contemporary indigenous artists at the Association of Performing Arts Presenters conference. We were fortunate to have Moss…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 02:02AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, March 28, 2017

It's That They Think Ticket Prices Are Too High by Joe Patti

A little while ago I came across a presentation by the Wallace Foundation that seeks to aggregate a number of studies to provide insight for building millennial audiences. If you have been f…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 01:42AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Everyone Wants Creativity, But Don't Want To Flirt With Failure by Joe Patti

Now and again I have cited the 2010 IBM study where CEOs worldwide ranked creativity as the most relevant and important skill their employees needed to take their companies in the future.Â…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:12PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Talking To Your Neighbors About Saving The NEA by Joe Patti

Margy Waller’s piece about How To Talk About Saving the NEA has been making the rounds these last couple weeks. You should take a look at it if you haven’t already.  Her piece…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:48PM[SHARE]
Monday, March 20, 2017

Real Men Draw Superheroes by Joe Patti

An interesting article in Pacific Standard came across my feed in the last few weeks. It suggests that male disinterest in the arts is a result of social pressure to conform during the early…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:06PM[SHARE]
Friday, March 17, 2017

Design By Committee, Dictatorship Of The Many by Joe Patti

Ah, Spring! That time of year when an arts organization’s mind turns to thoughts of season brochures and other promotional materials. Whether those materials are created by a board com…

SOURCE: artshacker.com at 03:00AM[SHARE]
Thursday, March 16, 2017

We Accidentally Built An Arts And Community Space by Joe Patti

This really great story on the Americans for the Arts blog caught my eye that I would label as unintentional placemaking. Though I could think of other apt terms. Douglas Sorocco writes abou…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 01:36AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Don't Deny Your Creativity! by Joe Patti

Earlier this month, Kathryn Haydon addressed the insidious personal belief that one is not creative.  I use the term insidious because I view the belief as something that undermines somet…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 01:12AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, March 14, 2017

This Isn't Your Grandpa's Retirement by Joe Patti

I guess I should have waited a few more days before making last week’s post about today’s graying audiences not being the same graying audiences of two decades ago. Toward the en…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:42AM[SHARE]
Thursday, March 9, 2017

Where Have All The Hunters Gone? by Joe Patti

I am pretty open about admitting when I made a wrong call. While I consistently counsel against investing too many resources into the hottest fad, even I have to admit that the Pokemon Go! c…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 02:24AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Don't Undermine A Good Crisis Plan With Minor Daily Inattentiveness by Joe Patti

You and your staff are ready for a crisis. Everyone, including your volunteers, regularly reviews plans for handling your audience in case of fire, tornado, earthquakes, active shooters, etc…

SOURCE: artshacker.com at 03:00AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, March 7, 2017

These Aren't Your Grandpa's Old People by Joe Patti

For the last 20-25 years, audiences have been getting grayer and dying off. We have all heard that statement multiple times in our careers. We have probably made that statement multiple time…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 08:03PM[SHARE]
Monday, March 6, 2017

Cross-Sector Training, So Hard To Get Instructed By You by Joe Patti

Last Fall Grantmakers in the Arts published a summary of key findings from a study about community arts training. The study focused on the increasing focus of local arts agencies into cross-…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 07:36PM[SHARE]
Thursday, March 2, 2017

Music Majors, Special Forces of the Arts by Joe Patti

Going back to the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project special report I referenced yesterday, there were findings in another area that grabbed my interest.  The following chart breaks d…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:06AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Resilient and Adaptable, Arts Grads Could Still Use More Career Training by Joe Patti

The Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) just released a special report that focused on how alumni of creative arts programs across different graduate cohorts felt about the educat…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:36PM[SHARE]

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