Home Page

I Nearly Wet My Pants Trying Not to Laugh

January 23, 2006

by:

Joe Patti

I don’t buy or rent a lot of DVDs. I don’t go to the movies all that often, truth be told. It isn’t because I think live performance is superior or anything, it is essentially because growing up in rural New York, we didn’t get out to the movies much. I have never really been in the habit of attending too many movies.

I did read a lot and as such did attend the Lord of the Rings movies when they came out and did ask for the box DVD set for Christmas. Amazon had it on backorder for quite awhile so it just arrived today.

As I was covertly previewing the first five minutes at work today, you know, just to make sure there weren’t any problems with the disk, I got to thinking what a great tool the performers and production team commentary would be for teaching people the basics about the arts.

It would be an expensive undertaking to pull the video production resources together to produce a DVD. However, I think foundations that support audience building and arts education efforts would probably be happy to underwrite the creation of a tool that could be easily duplicated and distributed to serve large numbers of people.

In fact, foundations would probably be more interested in paying for generic educational videos that many organizations could use rather than ones that specifically prepared audiences for shows in an upcoming season.

I think it would be very helpful to people to have the ability to watch a play and then go back and listen to the actors comment on what they might have been feeling during the show (I nearly wet my pants trying not to laugh) or to the director and designers talking about their choices and how it contributes to the feel of the performance.

The same could go for dance and music. A dancer may comment on how their heart soars at a particular place in a ballet even after performing it 50 times or how a piece looks deceptively simple but actually involved hours of practice. Symphonies could break the commentary down by section and conductor, perhaps.

If the commentary was designed well, pointing out what people should look for, explaining the process and providing points of reference to which people can relate, (parallels between elation during performances and sports activities, for example), it could become a powerful educational and intimidation allaying tool.

At the speed with which video can be delivered over the internet, the videos wouldn’t necessarily have to be only available on DVDs at the organization or local library. Arts organizations could have the videos available for download or streaming on their website or on a hosting site specifically designed with the bandwidth to host video.

Heck, maybe the local cable company would be interested in having it in their free video on demand library. Given that they would probably advertise it as a service to their subscribers, the cable company might go as far as add a little bit at the end saying “if you feel like checking out live ballet in your area, here is a listing of companies in your region.”

As I write this, ideas are forming in my head about how it might turn this into a reality. As a presenter, I don’t have an opportunity to do something like this with the groups I bring in because they visit for such a short time. But I do know some local companies that I might inspire and some video production people who might work on it.

Watch this space in the coming months, I might have something to report.

Arts in an Age of Technology

2 Comments

Get A Job in DC

January 18, 2006

by:

Joe Patti

Have to give a shout out to DC Arts Jobs blog.

The purpose of the blog is “An informal collection of job postings at arts organizations in the Washington, DC area, focusing on development and special events, but encompassing other functions and other cities as well. Some light commentary is provided where the author thinks she has the scoop.”

The listing isn’t comprehensive, just what comes to the writer’s attention. The thing I like about the blog is that while it is similar to some theatre blogs that only list area performances (in this case, jobs), Christina also highlights issues that could impact one’s ability to find a job. (And the entry titles clearly differentiate the news and info listings from straight job listings)

Amidst recent job listings you can also find entries with commentary and links on the economics of dance, how to deal with getting fired, how to get a job in philanthropy, planning for succession when leadership retires and the labor relations problems the Washington Ballet is having.

There are also links in the sidebar to other arts issues blogs, arts job sites, arts policy sites, headhunting companies and arts organization sites broken out by discipline.

Just wanted to bring some attention to Christina’s work because it is an interesting approach to arts blogging that I hadn’t seen before. Hopefully it will inspire other people to create similar blogs for their geographic areas.

Arts in an Age of Technology

No Comments

Faithful Enthusiasm

January 17, 2006

by:

Joe Patti

Back when the earth was cooling, the occasion of myfirst entry was having a letter I wrote to The Artful Manager appear on the Artsjournal website.

The letter essentially talked about tapping into community leaders, among them church leaders, to help increase attendance at performances. I am doing well with leaders in other communities giving me a hand in getting the word out, but the church situation has me a little puzzled in some ways.

We have a church rent the theatre every Sunday and see very little cross over to our performances. We have posters with upcoming events plastered all over the building so it is hardly a mystery about what is coming up. Yet we get very few comments made to us or on our surveys saying they heard about the show because they come every Sunday.

Our programming is far from being offensive and is quite appropriate for the family. We just aren’t seeing the results one might expect and I don’t quite know why.

What gets me to thinking about this is that for the next three nights, we have an entirely different church having a worship conference in our space. Most of it will be a lot of praise and worship gospel singing and preaching. Tomorrow they kick the whole thing off with a half hour performances from one of the biggest gospel singers around.

In preparation for this half hour performance, the church has come in and painted our dressing rooms (we have a lot of classes during the year so the facility gets quite a bit of wear and tear) and when I left work tonight, they were carrying in leather sofas for her use.

That’s a heck of a lot of enthusiasm they are investing into making things right for a real short show.

It is also the type of energy I wish I could tap in to.

Next year we are looking at some gospel singers and that will certainly connect with the church audience. However, we are looking at these musicians because they are great musicians first and not to attract the churches.

I book with an eye to taking advantage of the opportunity to bring in great musicians that I think people will enjoy. If there are interested Latino groups available on an annual basis, I will happily grab them because I know people will buy tickets. But I am not looking to fill a Latino slot on my roster every year. Nor am I interested in discarding great opportunities because they don’t fit into gospel slots.

Smart thing to do though might be to co-produce similar events in the future. Promote the event in my brochure, run ticket sales through my box office, let the enthusiatic church members handle hospitality, security and technical equipment since that is where their strengths lay and then split the box office proceeds.

A partnership that plays to our individual strengths might be beneficial to both of us. I don’t know that we will ever generate a crossover interest from the audience, but what we are doing now isn’t meeting with much success. A partnership of this type might also not make economic sense since we experience little financial risk in renting to the group. But we would also realize less of a loss than if we had engaged an artist on that date ourselves since we aren’t bearing all the costs.

The question will be, if we do co-produce with them, is it replacing a show we would have done alone or are we doing it in addition to the shows we would have done and therefore are losing on the potential gains of a rental opportunity?

I will let you know how things shake out next season!

State of the Arts

No Comments

What Am I Promoting?

January 12, 2006

by:

Joe Patti

Mitch from McCallum Theatre made some comments on my entry yesterday and said something at the end which I thought would be the basis of a good entry.

I am a new reader of your blog. I read it because it was called “Butts in Seats.” I’m not sure that is really what you are promoting.

It is a good observation because while I have been writing about what it is I am doing in emails to people, it has been awhile since I stated it in the blog. Given that projects like this can evolve over time, I thought the start of a new calendar year might be a good time to state what it is I am trying to accomplish at this stage.

The blog isn’t simply about putting butts in the seats. The purpose is to talk about the environmental/financial/social challenges, debates, idealistic conflicts, emerging opportunities, solutions, what have you, inherent to running a not-for-profit arts organization.

For-profits are primarily concerned with putting butts in the seats. They aren’t challenged with the necessity of having to balance serving the community with financial stability. They may decide to make it a paramount concern, but it rarely is part of their founding mission statement and not a statutory requirement of their corporate status.

So what the blog is all about is filling the seats and trying to address all that too.

Mitch is absolutely right in his comments, it is the job of the organization to reflect the desire of the community. There have been shows of certain genres that I have been involved with that appealed to absolutely no one in my organization, from the executive director to the maintenance workers, but filled the house because we booked a high quality act in that genre and the community clearly expressed an interest in that genre. Most of the time your job as a performance booker isn�t to showcase your personal taste even though you are hired based on your good taste.

What I was mostly addressing in yesterday’s entry was the fact people can be convinced a mediocre violinist is talented because they look good in a slinky dress. They rush to buy tickets, but stick up their noses at the great violinist because Eastern Europe dentistry isn’t what it is in West.

As I mentioned earlier, there is an internal debate that typically goes on in a lot of non-profit arts managers minds and hearts as they try to figure a balance between these two violinists. What enhances the community life more–1000 people whose experience is broadened by exposure to a poppy rendition of classical music or 300 people who choose to attend a concert that requires more concentration to understand, performed by a person with great mastery of the subject.

Will any of those 1000 people become interested enough by this first exposure to classical music to try out more challenging fare? If so, then booking that performer is a wise choice as part of serving the community pursuit of personal growth.

If the answer is no and booking the performer actually diminishes people’s respect for classical music but fills the coffers and allows the organization to continue, then the decision to engage the performer is less clear cut.

When I talk about being cynical and elitist, I am actually just trying to show the internal dialogue going on so that readers can gain some insight into the process and perhaps not feel they are alone in these thoughts. It’s no crime to have elitist thoughts as long as you recognize they might unfairly narrow your view of things and seek a more equitable method of making booking decisions. (Consulting with community members whose judgment you trust, for example.)

In the arts there is always going to be the debate between idealism and practicality. You can lean against the stage door and groan “why do people like this crap” but the truth is, you booked the performance despite your personal taste because it isn’t about you, it is about the community you serve.

Many times the value to the show isn’t in whether it is good art. Sometimes you are teaching kids about dinosaurs, sometimes it is about diverting a community’s thoughts from a great tragedy that has struck them, other times it is to create community bonding by getting everyone to bring their awful voices together to sing Christmas Carols.

I won’t make the claim that I am not an elitist in some respects, but I am very much aware of my own pedestrian tastes in many areas including the arts. One of my mottos is “Customers are idiots. I should know, I am one.”

If you read back in the blog a bit you will see that I join other bloggers in acknowledging that many arts organizations take a condescending view of their patrons. Proposed solutions to this include trying to find ways to create an atmosphere in which more effective patron conversations transpire.

These programs aren’t aimed at making people smarter about factual information as much as knowledgeable about how and why choices are made and the relationships between things. Drew McManus’ docent program for example aims to foster discussions about things like the intention behind a particular mix of pieces chosen for a symphony concert. Why Haydn is an important composer is part of this conversation, but it isn’t the conversation.

Mostly why I write this blog is to help me clarify my position on things and give people something to think about to clarify theirs. I hope that someone is reading bits from time to time and it isn’t all just falling into the ether of the net.

Certainly I hope for constructive feedback and criticism because all this blog is really is a less anti-social way to publicize my internal thoughts and discussions than talking aloud in a public place. Talking to myself, no matter how impressed I am with what comes out of my mouth, will only get me so far in developing effective approaches to arts management.

General Musings

No Comments