Joe Patti

I have been writing Butts in the Seats (BitS) on topics of arts and cultural administration since 2004 (yikes!). Given the ever evolving concerns facing the sector, I have yet to exhaust the available subject matter. In addition to BitS, I am a founding contributor to the ArtsHacker (artshacker.com) website where I focus on topics related to boards, law, governance, policy and practice. I am also an evangelist for the effort to Build Public Will For Arts and Culture being helmed by Arts Midwest and the Metropolitan Group. (http://www.creatingconnection.org/about/) My most recent role was as Executive Director of the Grand Opera House in Macon, GA. Among the things I am most proud are having produced an opera in the Hawaiian language and a dance drama about Hawaii's snow goddess Poli'ahu while working as a Theater Manager in Hawaii. Though there are many more highlights than there is space here to list.

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Do U2 Fans Like Ballet?

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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 head to target U2 fans to attend the show with a “Does Bono Like Ballet?” ad campaign.

You can read about my rationale for attempting this and what the results of my little experiment were.

It was difficult to actually identify how many U2 fans came, though we had a good number of people buy tickets using the discount phrase according to the sales records.

Just for the record, the band did reschedule to just before Christmas. I went to the concert and had a great time.

Still Cool As Hell After All These Years

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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 the site working because, you know, he is cool as hell.

It is worth listening just to hear his customary lead in, but as I observed when I first wrote about the interview, Vogel has some interesting things to say:

“She does say some interesting things about the messages artists are getting these days. Among them are her feelings that “Darwin and captialism are very bad models for art” (3:15) and art begets art.

I was also intrigued by her idea that even though she was a klutz, she had to learn to play sports and as a result, all athletes today, artists of the flesh she calls them, speak for her inner athlete. She hopes for the day that every creative artist speaks for the inner artist housed in everyone.

[…]

She does present some quotable moments like “art is a dog that you feed that bites you” (7:05) when arguing that art should challenge society but the agenda of arts funders is to make art palatable and devoid of challenge.

Thomas Jefferson, Artist

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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 Ben Franklin press Martha Jefferson about what attracted her to Thomas Jefferson, she lists many of his impressive accomplishments as a landowner and statesman. But as to what really smote her, she says it is because he plays the violin. What arts person doesn’t like it when the art gets the girl?

2- I like the concept that playing the violin makes Thomas Jefferson a complete person.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T23elli1Vc

Still Asking Why The Show Was Not Advertised

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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 people who have attended the event for which they are bemoaning the lack of advertising, obviously something worked to get them in the door.

Often they did see/hear an ad or a story or heard about the show from a friend. The problem they have is that they learned about the show close to performance time and had such a great experience, they are concerned that having almost missed it, they will lose out on something equally great in the future.

I made this post 6 years ago so my marketing mix has changed a bit from the one I describe, but many aspects still remain the same, including the fact I get the same question.

What is interesting to me as I think about this phenomenon is that while something we did was clearly effective at getting them into the theatre, some people have an expectation that they will hear about performances from a very specific source, often print media.

I would be curious to know what others do when faced with this situation.