
Today at lunch a musician friend was picking our brains about a fund raiser he wants to do for a cause he really believes in. He outlined his vision and then asked for ideas of places he cou…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 03:47AM[SHARE]Last month there was an article on Fast Company, Why Millennials Don’t Want To Buy Stuff, that claims the focus is moving away from acquisition of things toward access to ideas and rel…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 01:01AM[SHARE]The Chronicle of Higher Education had a piece about the problems inherent to large board size on their website today (subscription required). While the article is about large boards in highe…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:18AM[SHARE]Today faculty and staff on my campus met to discuss what to expect when the accreditation team visits our campus for a week in October. If you aren’t familiar with higher education acc…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 01:06AM[SHARE]As you might imagine, there are a few vending machines scattered around our campus. The one behind our building get cleaned out regularly when we have rental groups with large numbers of kid…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 02:03AM[SHARE]To pick up from my last post about the Set In Stone report, the one aspect of the research I was intrigued by was their survey of people’s perceptions of the impacts (or lack thereof) …
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 01:34AM[SHARE]If you are planning new building construction or a significant renovation, you would do well to check out the Set in Stone research project performed by the University of Chicago. When I fir…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:11AM[SHARE]During the summer many non profit boards of directors suspend their meetings due to the difficulty of scheduling meetings around members’ vacations. When meetings start up again in the…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:26AM[SHARE]Research by the Stanford Graduate School of Business had some surprising results suggesting that even more than extroversion, a sense of guilt may be a strong indicator of leadership potenti…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:29PM[SHARE]While I was out in the middle of the Mongolian steppes gazing out from my yurt, I happened upon a copy of the Oxford Business Group’s report on Mongolia in the dining hall. I put aside…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:43PM[SHARE]Okay, as promised a little bit on my view on the Mongolian stage of my vacation. Mongolia’s biggest asset is its wide open spaces of natural beauty. Only reason I can figure Genghis Kh…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:21PM[SHARE]So I am back from my vacation (my thanks to Drew McManus who kept an eye on the blog). This trip took me to China and Mongolia, both of which will provide content for a few days of discu…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:52PM[SHARE]A few years back, I wrote some reflections on Joli Jensen’s, Is Art Good For Us? I had taken the book out of the library but have since bought a copy of that book as well as John Dewey…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 04:01PM[SHARE]A few years back I reported on an article by Bill Ivey and Steven Tepper in which they reported that surveys show classical music lovers are more likely to have omnivorous tastes and consume…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 04:25PM[SHARE]One of the ideas I have occasionally touched upon here is the idea that perfection is expected in the arts. That line of thought really started for me with an entry I did in 2006. Audiences …
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 04:37PM[SHARE]Last month when I heard that Herb Reed of the Platters had died and was reminded that he had waged a fairly protracted legal battle over the use of the Platters name, I thought back to an en…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 09:00AM[SHARE]Back in 2006 U2 was supposed to play here in town but had to postpone because of an illness in the Edge’s family. We had a dance performance schedule for that day and I got it into my …
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 02:26PM[SHARE]Today I am going to point you back to an interview Michael Rice of Cool As Hell Theatre Podcast did with playwright Paula Vogel. Michael stopped doing his podcast a few years back but keeps …
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 08:10AM[SHARE]On this lovely 4th of July, I point you to the Founding Father’s Musical, 1776. While there are some songs I like a little better, this one appeals to me because: 1- As John Adams and …
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 04:55PM[SHARE]Back in 2006 I was pondering the situation where people came up to me at a performance and asked, “Why Didn’t You Advertise This?” Now given I get this comment most from pe…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 03:35AM[SHARE]So I am off on vacation for a couple weeks. But not to worry, I have plumbed the depths of my archives in order to provide you something to think about while I am gone. While I am taking a v…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 04:19PM[SHARE]Ray Bradbury’s recent death has had me revisiting some thoughts about the issue of who owns the meaning of art. In all the retrospectives on his life, you may have heard he intended hi…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 01:12AM[SHARE]There is potential that cities across the country can ultimately benefit from this economic downturn if they play their cards right and tap into those returning home to help contribute to ra…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 01:45AM[SHARE]If you have been considering using social coupons to increase attendance at your events and attract new customers, you may want to read a study covered last month in MIT Sloan Management Rev…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 01:10AM[SHARE]Last week a very interesting article came down my Twitter feed, (I apologize for not noting the source), written by Les Wallace about the best board meeting he ever attended. What made it th…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:04AM[SHARE]Hat tip to Thomas Cott for bringing Jon Silpayamanant’s intriguing refutation of the idea of Baumol’s Cost Disease being the doom of arts organizations. Silpayamanant correctly n…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 04:11AM[SHARE]Not long ago I came across a job posting for a non-profit organization that listed over 25 duties and marked each one of them as a core responsibility. Now, my first thought was, if every jo…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 03:22AM[SHARE]There was an intriguing piece on Wired last week (h/t Thomas Cott) about an alternative approach to funding events via Kickstarter. Andy Baio talks about funding record projects, conferences…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 04:13AM[SHARE]Since I am on the topic of board decisions this week, Non Profit Law blog recently listed a link about non profits doing business with their own board members. While it is natural for non pr…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 01:29AM[SHARE]A little over a week ago I received the news that one of our partner theatres decided to close its doors. That sent the rest of us scrambling to contact artists to see if we could salvage th…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 06:00PM[SHARE]So as something of a follow up to my post earlier this week asking if foundation boards embrace non-profit values, I wanted to point to an article about what private enterprises can learn fr…
SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 03:26AM[SHARE]

