
About 8 years ago I received a copy of Presenting Dance by Mindy N. Levine, a book that provided some great insight about dance gleaned from conversations at National Dance Presenters Leader…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 04:48PM[SHARE]I am going to be away for about a week for the holidays. As always, I have prepared some posts to fill in for my absence. Since we are coming to the end of the year and non-profits are makin…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 02:54PM[SHARE]Createquity just released a valuable tool for arts advocates. They compiled the data from all the studies they could find to provide a comprehensive report on Everything We Know About Whethe…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 08:48PM[SHARE]In Arts Professional (UK), José RodrÃguez recently wrote about how non-profit arts organizations frequently misunderstand what a business model is. The first misconception he lists is th…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 08:24PM[SHARE]I have written before about how to discover the True Cost of organizational programs. This is helpful when it comes to budgeting, evaluating your programs and soliciting support for those pr…
SOURCE: artshacker.com at 03:00AM[SHARE]No, this isn’t a moral posting about how it is better to give than get during Christmas. I have been writing a lot recently about the transactional view of arts and culture, namely val…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:48AM[SHARE]I was recently talking to a conservatory trained pianist who has taken a position teaching at a liberal arts college this last semester. He was complaining about the politics and bureaucracy…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:24AM[SHARE]Last week I was initially dismayed to read 85% of audiences in Washington D.C. patronized one theater. I try to promote the concept that all arts organizations in a community need to work to…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:06AM[SHARE]Two days ago I wrote about how “experience” is increasingly valued by consumers over things like brand, product and opportunity. Hopefully you noticed that I attributed my en…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:18PM[SHARE]There has been some trepidation among members of the Kentucky arts community following the governor’s recent dismissal and reconstitution of the state arts council. Gov. Bevin dismisse…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 09:54PM[SHARE]Last week Drew McManus posted about the difficulties sports teams are having filling their seats. The reasons for this problem are very similar to those faced by the arts –an approach …
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 09:31PM[SHARE]You may view the minutes of board meetings as an annoying procedure to which you can pay little attention, but they are actually important documents that form the legal basis of a non-profit…
SOURCE: artshacker.com at 03:00AM[SHARE]My post on Monday about employing a new definition to distinguish between amateurs and professionals garnered a couple comments and multiple loooonnnng emails (you know who you are!) in resp…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 01:54AM[SHARE]In the course of 24 hours, two different articles about how to manipulate people into doing what you want came across my Twitter feed. Okay, it isn’t totally mind control but rather ho…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 01:32AM[SHARE]About 10-15 years ago, the idea of Pro-Ams, emerged. Pro-Ams are essentially amateurs who pursue an avocation with such diligence it was difficult to discern them from people who employed th…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 01:06AM[SHARE]A few weeks ago economist Alex Tabarrok wrote about a strange “pay what you want” promotion a shoe company was running. It struck him and many commenters of the Marginal Revoluti…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:02PM[SHARE]As he often does, Seth Godin is speaks right to the arts and culture industry when he suggests that we welcome an environment where there is a lot of activity similar to our own rather than …
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:31PM[SHARE]Recently James Doeser wrote about a program the Italian government started where they granted a culture voucher worth €500 to anyone who turns 18 before December 31. It can be used to …
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:12PM[SHARE]A couple of good articles on the influence non-profits in the community came out this week. CityLab noted that in some communities, non-profits were exhibiting greater influence and leadersh…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 09:03PM[SHARE]Did you know that your non-profit organization has to allow anyone to attend your board and committee meetings and turn over copies of your minutes upon demand? Or maybe you don’t. Ope…
SOURCE: artshacker.com at 03:00AM[SHARE]I was intrigued by an article in The Guardian last month that wondered if we enjoy art when it is anonymous, without any preconceived expectations about what we will experience. During the D…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 08:42PM[SHARE]On blogs like mine that address the concerns of non-profit organizations there is frequently discussion about how we bridle under the suggestion that non-profits need to be run more like bus…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 08:18PM[SHARE]Colleen Dilenschneider made some really important points about misunderstood concepts that lead non-profit organizations to make poor decisions and policies. The “Six Concepts that Vis…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:31AM[SHARE]On this fairly tense Election Day, I wanted to offer a little levity by drawing attention to the 1931 Gershwin brother’s musical, Of Thee I Sing. The university theater department pres…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:06AM[SHARE]I have been listening to On The Media’s series on the way poverty is covered in America and suddenly came to the realization that the language associated with the poor has many similar…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:54PM[SHARE]Some concepts have been banging around in my head for a little while that haven’t quite firmed up yet. I am hoping writing it down and getting some feedback from others might help to s…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:48PM[SHARE]I am interested to see that artists are gaining an increasingly sophisticated view of their role in gentrifying neighborhoods. Non Profit Quarterly reported on a gathering in Miami to discus…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 09:42PM[SHARE]On the Marginal Revolution blog, economist Tyler Cowen quotes bits of a Wall Street Journal article on orchestra strikes by Terry Teachout and ends with what seems to be an implication that …
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 08:24PM[SHARE]There is a video of Nina Simon speaking at the Minnesota History as part of her Art of Relevance book tour early this month. Many things she said jumped out at me and I am going to pass the …
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:12AM[SHARE]One last post about the arts entrepreneurship conference I attended a couple weeks ago. Tomorrow it will be on to other things. There are increasingly productive efforts being made toward te…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:31PM[SHARE]I attended a presentation by Mosaic Education Network about their efforts working in conjunction with the Barnett Center at Ohio State University to provide some entrepreneurship workshop…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:25PM[SHARE]

