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Who You Think It Is For

February 11, 2026

by:

Joe Patti

A decade ago when Nina Simon mentioned in a talk she did that not all the programming at a museum was necessarily for everyone, and that is alright, it was an eye opening moment for me. It has had me looking at the way I program experiences a little differently.

An example she used was that of restaurants adding vegetarian or heart healthy options, people don’t decide to stop eating there. (Cracker Barrel being one exception) People aren’t meant to eat everything on the menu.

Seth Godin made a blog post along the same lines. He notes that the way you process feedback often depends on whether a good or experience was created with a particular person in mind.

If the work we made was intended for someone just like this, and they don’t like it, we need to do a better job next time. The criticism will help us understand how to improve.

But if the work we made wasn’t for someone with the hopes, needs and expectations of the person we’re hearing from, we can forgive ourselves (and them) by acknowledging who it’s for and why.

Source

This being said, many times artists discover that those encountering their work invest it with meaning that the artist hadn’t intended. It can be worthwhile being a little flexible in your view about who the work is for. The unanticipated audience may be quite large.

Audience Relations, Building Public Will For Arts And Culture

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It IS The Little Things That Matter

February 10, 2026

by:

Joe Patti

Reimagining The Civic Commons (RCC) made a post on Medium about the contribution of even brief passing nods and greetings on the street have in establishing our sense of belonging.

They cite studies that have found that it is the variety of interactions which people have that contribute to a sense of well-being, not just the deeper, long term interactions we have with family and friends. Brief spontaneous smiles and “hey how ya doing” in hallways, offices, classrooms ease loneliness and increase a sense of connection.

My impulse is to think that such interactions provide an additional layer of validation that you are acknowledged by more than just your immediate circle of friends and family.

They cite the importance of public places in facilitating these interactions.

Because parks, trails and libraries are open to everyone, they can create “moments of density,” a time and place where people naturally cross paths and small interactions can unfold. When these spaces invite people to linger, make eye contact, or share a brief exchange, they foster the kind of everyday connection that supports happiness and well-being. While private sector spaces are too often built for speed and efficiency, public spaces — places that can focus on more than just the bottom line — have the unique opportunity to intentionally encourage these moments.

Source

This is something for arts and cultural organizations should consider when looking at the spaces and places in which they offer experiences. It bears observing how people are using the space and reinforcing that in addition to creating opportunities for people to interact.

The RCC piece cites of people high fiving at Portland Timber soccer games after each goal or the act of passing peace at church services as examples of ritual interactions with (near) strangers. But they also mention interior and exterior spaces which allow people to interact to varying degrees.

Gehl identified three broad types of “social infrastructure” that can help communities nurture a full range of connections: Hubs, Havens, and Hangouts. Hubs bring people from different backgrounds together around shared activities; Havens create spaces of belonging for specific groups; and Hangouts support the casual, everyday public life of a city — chats over coffee, park strolls, and neighborly nods. The takeaway is simple: people interact more often when community spaces are designed for many kinds of interaction, across a mix of spaces, sizes, and experiences.

Source

Arts and cultural organizations can create opportunities for all these interactions.

Arts Facilities, Audience Relations, Building Public Will For Arts And Culture

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Price Of Disruption

February 9, 2026

by:

Joe Patti

Seth Godin had an interesting take on pricing and market disruption. He noted that books, records, and other products often have uniform pricing that doesn’t really reflect the demand. You might have found a Harry Potter book was a little more expensive than another novel with the same page count on another shelf, but generally the pricing was in an expected range with similar books. That is still pretty much the case now.

The same holds for ticket prices at the movies. There may be some popular movies where the theater won’t allow passes and the IMAX screening may be more expensive than the conventional screening of the same movie, but the ticket price is pretty much the same for every movie you want to see.

Godin says that when a company disrupts the stability of a market, the backlash generally isn’t based on economics but at the introduction of instability.

When concert tickets went dynamic, the backlash wasn’t about economics. It was moral outrage. Artists who adopted surge pricing weren’t just changing strategy; they were declaring themselves to be a different kind of person. The fans noticed.

Amazon didn’t share publishing’s allergy to profit. Ticketmaster didn’t share the old promoter’s loyalty to fans. They weren’t optimizing within the culture—they were violating it.

[…]

… But if you want to understand why things cost what they cost, don’t ask what’s efficient. Ask what kind of person would be embarrassed to charge more. Or embarrassed not to.

Source

There is definitely a lot that arts and cultural organizations need to do differently to shift to post-digital business model. It also bears considering that there may be a benefit in positioning aspects of the experience you offer in contrast to those things causing outrage.

Clearly, there are some people who value an experience enough to hold their nose and swallow their outrage long enough to achieve the desired end or companies wouldn’t continue to operate in this manner. There is also the issue of a situation persisting long enough it becomes a norm everyone accepts.

But the norm can allow quite a bit of space in which to operate. When you are able to promote an experience as an opportunity to relax and unwind, or a time to stimulate your kids’ imagination and creativity–and legitimately deliver on that promise–you are offering something of value. Often it is the loyalty to fans and customers other companies discarded.

Arts in an Age of Technology, Audience Relations, Business Models, Marketing/PR, Pricing

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Digital Ticketing Has Resulted In Broader Fraud

February 3, 2026

by:

Joe Patti

Last month Fast Company had a piece about how digital ticketing hasn’t really stopped fraud as well as people expected. The article talks about how prior to the NFL going to digital ticketing, a really sophisticated counterfeiter managed to re-create the tickets of many high profile athletic competitions. These counterfeits had the holographic features, heat sensitive ink, and invisible printing that the authentic tickets did.

Once the NFL moved to digital ticketing, the instances of hard ticket counterfeiting nearly disappeared, but it was replaced with other types of fraud involving stolen credit cards, cash app transfers, multi-factor authentication scams. Granted these type of fraud plague other types of transactions than ticket sales.

However, the move to digital means the fraud is able to occur internationally rather than locally and regionally. In a scheme that targeted big tours like Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, a couple of people in Kingston, Jamaica working for a Stub Hub contractor were able to divert the delivery of links that allowed access to purchased tickets away from the buyers to their accomplices who would then resell the tickets.

StubHub has since revamped their ticket delivery process and have AI analyzing how tickets are changing hands in order to detect further fraud. Services like Ticketmaster are using digital bar codes and QR codes that change every few seconds to prevent screenshots from scanning as valid

But of course, only the largest venues can afford the technology to read those dynamic codes leaving smaller venues vulnerable to fraudulent ticket use.

Arts Facilities, Audience Relations

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