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Siloing Can Restrict Staff Professional Development

March 25, 2026

by:

Joe Patti

Apparently there is a growing concern in the museum world about the reluctance of younger generations to assume leadership roles given the challenges museum leaders face. This has been something I have seen pop up for at least 15 years for non-profits in general in the course of writing this blog.

On the American Alliance of Museums site, Ariel Waldman, writes a companion piece to research about generational perceptions of leadership roles. Waldman collects some anecdotal responses from colleagues and other Millennial and Gen Z professionals.

Many responses reflect expectations that administrative roles will take them away from enjoyable interactions with visitors and art works. Some that had made the transition found that their practical interactions were valued when it came to discussing changes in policy and procedures and that there was a degree of satisfaction in being able to contribute in that manner.

Waldman makes a number of recommendations about cultivating younger leaders that include supporting them through mentorship and allowing them to gain experience applying their skills on a larger scale or challenge than they might encounter in their current role.

One thing that caught my eye was the discussion of professional development opportunities being siloed by role and/or job title. Waldman notes that often funding is only available to expand skills and knowledge in an employee’s current role. She advocates for earmarking funding to cultivate an employee’s general leadership capacity.

Some people may not see their own leadership potential, so managers having the ability to recommend someone for training may be an opportunity to bolster someone’s confidence and belief in themself.

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I often read about the need to break down the silos between departments in arts and cultural organizations so that staff in roles like development, marketing, and front of house are unified in providing a consistent and informed level of service and experience to visitors.

I hadn’t really considered that the siloing can also result in fewer professional development opportunities for the staff in those roles, constricting their opportunities to grow in their careers.

Art(ist) Education, Leadership, Management Philosophy, Working In The Arts

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If You’re Bored, You Might Enjoy This Article On Boredom

March 23, 2026

by:

Joe Patti

Back in January there was an article on Nautilus about boredom and the trend of people trying to endure forced boredom.

There are “Do Nothing Challenges” and “Rawdogging” where people intentionally do nothing. Rawdogging is especially something people try to do on long flights where they won’t watch videos, listen to music, or read.

Except you’re not really deriving much benefit from the practice.

But the Do Nothing challenge and the rawdogging trend suggest a fundamental misunderstanding of how boredom and disconnection work, says James Danckert, a researcher in the Boredom Lab at the University of Waterloo. Boredom is closer to hunger than to holiness, he argues, and forcing it on yourself for hours on end doesn’t by itself have restorative power. Instead, the feeling suggests something about your attention, agency, or meaning is out of alignment.

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Danckert goes on to say that people aren’t listening to what boredom is telling them which is to try to find something meaningful to do. He says meaningful doesn’t necessarily refer to curing cancer. It could be tackling an enjoyable challenge like a tough Sodoku puzzle.

He also mentions that some people are actually seeking disconnection when they engage in one of these challenges. He says it is fine and important to veg out and relax, but it shouldn’t take the form of enforced discomfort.

Danckert also addresses what he feels is a myth about the connection between boredom and creativity. He says that boredom driving people to engage and practice a skill is what results in creativity, not just sitting around bored until inspiration strikes.

The creativity idea has been a bit of a bugbear of mine, and a number of my colleagues who do boredom research feel this way, too. I think there’s this great desire in people to want to believe that boredom will somehow make you creative.

[…]

The story I’ve used in the past a lot is from Jimi Hendrix. Somebody sees Jimi Hendrix play for the first time, and is just blown away and corners him backstage and says, “Man, where have you been hiding?” And Hendrix replies, “I’ve been playing the Chitlin’ Circuit, and I was bored shitless

[…]

But the kind of music that was expected in the Chitlin’ Circuit was old and not to Hendrix’s liking. So he did something else and became the guitar virtuoso that we know. But the logic there is all wrong. Boredom didn’t make Hendrix a genius. Practice made Hendrix a genius. Trying to do different things made Hendrix a genius.

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If you’re bored, you might find reading the whole article about boredom interesting. It cites a number of studies and findings on boredom, including some Danckert and his colleagues have just about debunked. He cites one about a series of nine experiments where people were asked to sit alone with their thoughts for 15 minutes. In one of the nine, people were allowed to administer electric shocks to themselves.

Quite a number of people who had been shocked prior to the isolation and said it was so uncomfortable they would pay to avoid being shocked again actually shocked themselves rather than sit and do nothing for 15 minutes. One guy shocked himself 196 times in the 15 minute period.

creativity

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They’ve Been Slicing And Dicing Classical Music For Awhile Now

March 17, 2026

by:

Joe Patti

Recently in The Guardian, Tom Service suggested the classical music exponents stop trying to misrepresent the nature of the genre. He feels it does the music a disservice to try to create appeal by packaging it into short snippets when it requires a long attention span.

…it’s no wonder that classical music is in a psychological state of defensiveness and a perennial struggle for relevance, and ends up trying to do things on terms that are set by the streaming companies and social media, not by the art form or the artists themselves.

[…]

The embarrassment comes in what can all too easily happen when classical music tries to get down with the kids with new formats. Visuals! Apps! Short excerpts instead of whole symphonies! All of which can patronisingly say: we’re just like the pop cultures you love: we’re groovy too! With, er, our public subsidy and private sponsorship and expensive instruments. No. You’re not.

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I take his point about organizations allowing social media to dictate the terms of how classical music is delivered and consumed rather than letting the art form be the art form.

However, the use of visuals and short excerpts has been around a long time. Looney Tunes was integrating classical music into cartoons back in the 1940s and 50s. Blue Danube Waltz in Corny Concerto in 1943 and What’s Opera Doc in 1957. (I am not saying these are the first time theses pieces were in a cartoon.)

To be clear, I was not alive in 1940s or 50s but regularly consumed these cartoons so multiple generations were exposed to the music in this manner. Plus many of these compositions have appeared in movies as short snippets for closing in on a century. I find the suggestion that just because the delivery mode is a cell phone this combination of short snippets with engaging visuals is problematic to be a little disingenuous.

Yes, people listening to the whole composition it came from may find the unfamiliar parts to be a little boring. But people who are familiar with those sections can find their attention wandering as well.

The music isn’t so sacred and special it can’t survive being chopped up and slid into popular entertainment. As many like to remind us, the composers were rock stars of their day after all.

That said, arts organizations having a handful of programs every year targeted to appeal to younger audiences and then reverting to their usual programming has been a problematic bait and switch for decades. If people are creating visuals that misrepresent the baseline experience of a frequent attendee that is an issue.

It is valid to criticize organizations for promising one thing and not adjusting their programming to include at least a respectable part of that promise.

Arts in an Age of Technology, Audience Relations, Building Public Will For Arts And Culture

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Solo Numbers Are Growing

March 16, 2026

by:

Joe Patti

NPR had a story earlier this month about theaters’ efforts to appeal to solo attendees. Apparently the Broadway League has noted that solo attendance during 2024-2025 season was double previous years.

The NPR story focuses mostly on the Solo Seat program at San Francisco’s Orpheum Theatre being run by ATG Entertainment that provides a discounted orchestra ticket, a pre-show mixer with other Solo Seaters, and a complimentary drink.

However, they emphasize, this is not a singles night:

“This is not ‘singles night,'” said Kane. “If a meaningful connection happens, that’s a bonus. But at the end of the day, it’s really about being comfortable going solo to a show and enjoying it with people who have that same experience.”

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The goal of breaking down the stigma attached to attending events alone is mentioned a numbers of times by different people in the story.

Given the implication that this may be a growing social trend, it is probably worth beginning to consider how you might market your organization to create a greater appeal and sense of welcoming for solo visitors.

Audience Relations, Marketing/PR

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