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Making Videos Illustrating Venue Accessibility

January 12, 2026

by:

Joe Patti

Pretty much every public event space, including theaters, will receive questions about the accessibility of their spaces and programs. There are even more questions when the space is a historic building since staircases, doorways, and hallways tend to be narrower and elevators or lifts between levels may not exist.

We will often have spouses, family, and friends visit our theater in advance of an event so they can walk the potential seating locations and pathways themselves.

Last month an organization serving people with disabilities arranged for a mini-concert with one of the artists performing at our venue. They asked to come in a few weeks in advance to make a video so their participants would know what to expect when they visited. The video showed the entrance, view from the wheelchair seating, location of the restrooms and what it looked like to navigate those spaces, location of the stairs, width of the aisles between seating sections and rows.

They provided us with a copy of the video to post on our website so that other visitors could have that information and possibly not need to visit the venue in advance to scout the space.

It was definitely useful to have someone making the video who was experienced at providing a useful viewpoint. The way they proceeded through the space and started panning from a specific point was different from how I think I would have shot the space. That said, the experience did suggest we could have probably made a similar video ourselves.

This summer, we did for example, create a video directing people to an alternate entrance they should use while the street in front of the theater was under construction. That took a bit of coordination and stitching together.

You can see the accessibility video and the one directing people to our super secret entrance on our webpage – https://www.rialtotheatercenter.org/general-information/

Has anyone seen good examples of accessibility videos/digital tours hosted by other event venues?

Arts Facilities, Audience Relations

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Never Too Old To Start Your Creative Career

January 6, 2026

by:

Joe Patti

Hyperallergic had a great article for artists who are trying to establish their careers later in life. Author Paddy Johnson answers concerts about fitting in with younger, apparently better connected crowds.

Johnson points out that the appearance of ultra-connectedness can either mean a person has been around cultivating relationships for years or that they are rich and have the access that comes with wealth.

Johnson also acknowledges that there is an age based bias that sees the same missteps interpreted differently.

All that said, building a career in the arts gets harder as you get older, doesn’t it? Learning new technology doesn’t come easy, and when you’re older, small tech mishaps on social media can make it seem like you’re out of touch. When you’re young, those same mistakes often read as deliberate choices. Thank you, cultural bias!

Source

On the plus side, Johnson notes that it is possible to network and establish relationships outside of official events. She suggests swinging by galleries with friends during the afternoon if you don’t have the energy to always hit frenetic gallery openings in the evening. The gallery staff is likely to have more time to interact. Though she advises artists not omit openings entirely.

Artist talks and panel discussions are also options.

Similarly, she suggests experimenting with new technologies with an artist friend in order to share the experience and add an element of fun.

Ultimately, be aware that whatever you do is probably going to take you out of your comfort zone. Johnson relates a story illustrating her own discomfort with the wealth disparities she has experienced and acknowledges the disdain some wealth arts patrons exhibit toward the less wealthy classes.

She says artists need to work past that discomfort in order to develop as an artist. Likewise, she says often the discomfort never entirely disappears, it is just the source of the discomfort that changes.

There are a lot of meaningful relationships we can build in the world, and deciding who’s worthy of attention based on wealth and status alone prevents us from building a life of meaning and purpose.

That mindset shift helps, but I can’t pretend it erases discomfort. Think about common worries in your 20s: you’re not attractive enough, too inexperienced, and how any networking looks like gross social climbing. When you’re older, those anxieties just shift: Now you’re intimidated by the fresh energy young people bring, or that they might see you as irrelevant. The specific worries change with age, but the core anxiety stays the same — that our intrinsic value doesn’t align with our culture’s values.

Source

creativity, Working In The Arts

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But Will They Let The Storytellers Cook?

January 5, 2026

by:

Joe Patti

The Wall Street Journal had an article about how Companies Are Desperately Seeking Storytellers. In some cases this seems to be a re-titling of social media, public relations, marketing, podcasting, etc., roles. In other cases, it seems to roll all of these up into one.

Microsoft’s security organization meanwhile is recruiting a senior director overseeing narrative and storytelling, described as part cybersecurity technologist, part communicator and part marketer. Compliance technology firm Vanta this month began hiring for a head of storytelling, offering a salary of up to $274,000. Productivity app Notion recently merged its communications, social media and influencer functions into one 10-person, so-called storytelling team.

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The WSJ article takes a skeptical tone about these efforts, noting that there are often trends of rewriting job titles and descriptions to give them an added luster and excitement.

While the heyday of technology gurus, developer ninjas, SEO rockstars and at least one digital prophet have long since passed, calling salaried communications professionals “storytellers” and the practice of storytelling appears to only have picked up in popularity.

[…]

“People who actually tell stories, meaning people who write novels and make feature films, don’t see themselves as storytellers,” said designer Stefan Sagmeister in a 2014 interview. “It’s all the people who are not storytellers who…suddenly now want to be storytellers.”

Source

Job descriptions using “storyteller” have surged in recent years and the phrase has frequently popped up in earnings calls according to the WSJ.

To a large degree, this reminds me of the frequent citation of studies showing that leadership of big corporations want their employees to be more creative, but also don’t feel comfortable with the uncertainty, risk, and lack of quantitatively measurable outcomes that entails.

I suspect that unless some of these companies are willing to loosen the reins and not require the sign-off of the HIPPO there isn’t likely to be much of a change and someone will decide the company can get the same results and save a lot of money farming out the work to AI.

(For those who aren’t familiar with the “Let Him Cook” meme referenced in the title)

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Inspiring Midwest Quirky Art Stories

December 30, 2025

by:

Joe Patti

I mentioned last week that Arts Midwest sent out a year in review newsletter recently. In addition to the laundromat turned laundrobar in Columbus, OH that has taken a place in that city’s music scene, they mentioned they got a lot of positive reactions on stories about Midwest quirk. (And by the way, the Midwest doesn’t have a lock on such things. Three-four blocks from my apartment is a barber shop with a speakeasy in the bock.)

There is a lot to love about these Midwest stories. Duluth, MN has a smelt parade complete with fish head, erm headgear, and fish puppets. It is worth following the link just for the pictures.

A couple friends in Madison, WI teamed up and bought vending machines which they placed around town to dispense art by various artist partners, all for under $20.

And in Milwaukee, another group leaned into that state’s cheese heritage to help fund artists. The Grilled Cheese grant program invites people to have a community meal and then the attendees vote for the project the proceeds of that meal will fund.

Finally, in Iowa a woman’s first attempt at documentary film making celebrates pie culture in that state with the appropriately titled film Pieowa

I had to leave this one to last because readers will probably hop up from their computers in search of pie after seeing this trailer.