Tyger Tyger, Burning Bright by Joe Patti

There was an interesting and rather lengthy article in the Chronicle of Higher Education last week about the puppetry program at West Virginia University. It is apparently one of the few deg…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:13am on August 8, 2023[SHARE]

California Politicians Ask T. Swift To Postpone Shows In Solidarity With Union Strike by Joe Patti

Via the CityLab newsletter, Politico recently reported that the Lt. Governor of California, Eleni Kounalakis, was among a number of politicians calling upon Taylor Swift to postpone her show…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:33pm on August 2, 2023[SHARE]

NYC TKTS Booth Turns 50 by Joe Patti

On June 25, the TKTS booth in Times Square turned 50. I have written about some precursors to the discount ticketing booth The whole history is pretty fascinating, especially if you view it …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:07pm on August 1, 2023[SHARE]

Do You Remember Your First Concert Experience? by Joe Patti

Last week Washington Post contributor Theodore Johnson reflected back on the first concert he saw when he was 9 years old (The Fat Boys). He noted that due to Covid restrictions, this summer…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:49pm on July 31, 2023[SHARE]

Bad News As Portland Announces Withdrawl From Regional Arts Group by Joe Patti

Some disappointing news out of Oregon. Portland is withdrawing support and participation from the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC), an independent organization that handles grantin…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:07pm on July 26, 2023[SHARE]

How Will The New Albright-Know Be Received By Buffalo's Working Class by Joe Patti

Bloomberg had an article about the renovated Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, NY, now rebranded Buffalo AKG Art Museum. Prior to the renovation, the director said people would frequentl…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 8:43pm on July 25, 2023[SHARE]

More Funding, But For Status Quo Or Difficult Change? by Joe Patti

There was a lot of chatter on the Twittersphere last week (which I guess is the X Corp-sphere now?) over a NY Times editorial that Isaac Butler wrote advocating for the federal government to…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:25am on July 25, 2023[SHARE]

Covid Era Virtual Programming Continues To Be Successful For Some Arts Orgs by Joe Patti

Amid all the stories of arts organizations closing and scaling back, I saw a piece about a dance company in Dallas that has seen their situation improve with virtual and live programming dur…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:04am on July 20, 2023[SHARE]

Will Airline Fraud Provide Impetus For Google To Stamp Out Clone Ticketing Sites? by Joe Patti

About a month ago, I wrote about the Fix the Tix Coalition which is advocating for laws to change exploitative ticket practices. Among the practices they were trying to change is websites ma…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:25pm on July 18, 2023[SHARE]

Quotas For Low Value Degrees by Joe Patti

This morning Arts Emergency, a UK based organization which advocates for the arts & humanities and puts a lot of effort into finding mentors for young creatives, post the following on Tw…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:49pm on July 17, 2023[SHARE]

Will Lunch Conversations & Bespoke Experiences Replace Fundraising Galas by Joe Patti

A post by Jason Lewis who writes The Butterfly Effect on substack suggests taking a donor to lunch is going to be a much better investment of time and resources when it comes to doing a bett…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:19am on July 13, 2023[SHARE]

Will Irish Artists Sleep Better With A Guaranteed Basic Income by Joe Patti

I have written before about Ireland's plan to provide a guaranteed basic income for artists. A couple weeks ago, NBC News posted a story about the program on their website. In all, 2000 arti…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:55am on July 12, 2023[SHARE]

You Can't Measure The Value Of Arts In Dollars, But Not Having It Will Cost You by Joe Patti

A couple weeks ago in The Globe & Mail, Max Wyman wrote an opinion piece declaring the value of art and culture in Canada shouldn't just be measured by economic standards. Long time read…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:33am on July 11, 2023[SHARE]

You Wanna Be Where Everybody Know Your Name by Joe Patti

I am not sure when Culturebot fell off my daily reading list, but the last time I referenced a post was 2014. Thankfully Artsjournal.com linked to a piece by Andy Horowitz this week so the b…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:43pm on July 3, 2023[SHARE]

Interesting History of Drag In Twin Cities by Joe Patti

As Pride Month comes to an end, I wanted to call attention to an interesting piece that appeared earlier this month about the history of drag performances in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area du…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:07am on June 29, 2023[SHARE]

Not A Good Sign When People Are Googling How to Shutdown A Non-Profit by Joe Patti

In a sign of an alarming possible trend, the For Purpose Law Group blog cites an observation by the CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits that (my emphasis): ….an "ominous sign" is tha…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:49am on June 28, 2023[SHARE]

Culture May Often Be A Pawn, But The Importance Transcends by Joe Patti

So in an illustration of the importance of the exercise of soft power, the U.S. has agreed to rejoin UNESCO and pay back dues to the tune of $600+ million. The US stopped paying dues in 2011…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:33am on June 27, 2023[SHARE]

These Sets Ain't Gonna Build Themselves by Joe Patti

There was a big story in American Theater this week that discussed the challenges theaters were having finding tech staff and designers, and to a lesser extent, sourcing the raw materials th…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:04am on June 23, 2023[SHARE]

Water, Water Everywhere, But Not A Drop To Drink by Joe Patti

A public radio station's report on the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's (OSF) finances is a good illustration of how restricted endowments can imperil the health of a non-profit organization. O…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:13pm on June 20, 2023[SHARE]

The Bar That Hosts Open Mic Operaoke Nights by Joe Patti

Fun article I think I found on Artsjournal.com.  There is a bar in Portland, OR called Mendelssohn's, run by a descendant of composer Felix Mendelssohn who has some opera and classical mu…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:07pm on June 14, 2023[SHARE]

Fix The Tix Coalition Makes Bold Demands To End Exploitative Ticketing Practices by Joe Patti

A little over a month ago, I wrote about the newly formed Fix the Tix coalition which is urging the US Congress to pass legislation to protect ticket buyers from exploitative ticket pricing/…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:55am on June 14, 2023[SHARE]

Questions of Relevance Not Limited to the US by Joe Patti

German arts colleague Rainer Glaap has been feeding me interesting articles over the last couple weeks. I was going to follow up on some content he sent earlier, but he hit me up with an int…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:19am on June 13, 2023[SHARE]

Providing Attendees With A Happy Ending by Joe Patti

About a year ago, I wrote about a post Colleen Dilenschneider made showing a link between museum gift shops and museum memberships.  She recently wrote a similar piece about how gift shop…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:04am on June 7, 2023[SHARE]

Be Careful Monetizing Those Vacation Videos by Joe Patti

So as you are getting out there traveling to enjoy the natural beauty of the U.S. National Parks this summer, you may want to take a cautionary note from a case Gordon Firemark wrote about i…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 5:43am on June 6, 2023[SHARE]

Is There A Way Past Fighting And Bad Behavior At Shows? by Joe Patti

So either the disruptions at performances in the UK are growing increasingly problematic or the topic has become a favorite bete noire of news outlets because I continue to see stories on th…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 9:54pm on May 31, 2023[SHARE]