Senior Contributor

Joe Patti

Focus Areas

Marketing, Legal Issues, Operations (backstage and front of house), Arts Presenting and Producing, Business Models, Outdoor Festivals Presenting Contemporary Indigenous Artists, Arts and Technology, Leadership in the Arts, Collaboration (between organizations, communities, artists-all permutations), Professional Development and Training, Organizational Culture, Volunteers, University Arts Environments

About

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 include leveraging the architecture of The Grand to provide safe programming during Covid, producing a devised work to explore ways to address blight that didn’t involve bulldozing, producing an opera in the Hawaiian language and a dance drama about Hawaii’s snow goddess Poli’ahu.

I have been trying to think of subjects to address on ArtsHacker, but my goal is to create entries that are relatively evergreen and with Covid, I feel like so much is being rewritten in terms of process and expectation. I think the addition of Eric Rubio is awesome. He is preaching to the choir when he talks about keeping your books up to date as you rather than scrambling at the end of the year or during an audit.

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Copyright, Public Domain, and Fair Use Guidance Provided Here

Questions about Copyright, Public Domain, and Fair Use abound in the arts. Fortunately, the fine folks at the American Library … Read more
Deeper Dive Into Full Costs Incurred By An Organization

Deeper Dive Into Full Costs Incurred By An Organization

I have written before about how to discover the True Cost of organizational programs. This is helpful when it comes … Read more
Those Pesky Board Minutes Bear More Attention Than You Are Giving Them

Those Pesky Board Minutes Bear More Attention Than You Are Giving Them

You may view the minutes of board meetings as an annoying procedure to which you can pay little attention, but … Read more
bank-vault-meeting-room

Is Your Non-Profit Subject To Open Meeting Laws?

Did you know that your non-profit organization has to allow anyone to attend your board and committee meetings and turn … Read more
Primer On Ethically Contracting Engagements

Primer On Ethically Contracting Engagements

In other posts here on ArtsHacker, we covered how contracts should be viewed as part of a communication process, preferably … Read more
commission-and-co-production-agreement-points-of-discussion

Commission and Co-Production Agreement Points of Discussion

This post is related to a couple of earlier ones about basic concepts arts organizations should understand about contracts as … Read more
Parts of a Contract

What Are The Parts Of A Contract?

[box]Author’s note: this post is a continuation of my earlier one about basic concepts arts organizations should understand about contracts … Read more
Change Your Fundamental Concept of Contracts

Change Your Fundamental Concept of Contracts

After attending different regional conferences over the last couple decades the one subject that it seems will never grow stale … Read more

Light Choices Weigh Heavily

When backstage technical staff have a negative interaction with performers, they will frequently mutter something along the lines of “if … Read more
Quickly Tell Me About The Rules For Non-Profits

Quickly, Tell Me About The Rules For Non-Profits

It can be difficult to communicate the different legal regulations that non-profits operate under in order to help people understand … Read more
Understanding Non-Profit Financial Statements

Understanding Non-Profit Financial Statements

A few months ago, I wrote about How Financial Statements Are Born, which explained how different financial statements were related … Read more
Helping Your Donation Page Help You

Helping Your Donation Page Help You

With an increasing number of people looking to make donations online, your organizational website has to perform many of the … Read more

Ask Your Doctor If This Non-Profit Funding Model Is Right For You

We frequently read discussions about the need to communicate the differences between the business models of for-profit and non-profits. What … Read more

How To Run A Museum (And Teach Others To As Well)

The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) website has a guide for running museums written by the International … Read more
How Financial Statements Are Born

How Financial Statements Are Born

If you have been in a meeting about the financial status of your organization and are confused about the differences … Read more
You Can See I Would Be Totally Justified

You Might Get Hurt: Volunteer Waivers

I have often told my siblings that if they committed action I found offensive, there would be consequences. When I … Read more
Your Guide To Great Community Project Guides

Your Guide To Great Community Project Guides

If you have been inspired by all the great community projects you see different arts groups doing and dream of … Read more
Henry David Thoreau Spyglass

Better Research During Your Job Search

Always Doe Never Bucks One of the most frustrating experiences in a job search is the salary line in a … Read more

Board Recruitment & Rising Expectations

Non-Profit Quarterly recently hosted a webinar to present “The Completely Revised Guide to Great Board Recruitment.” If you have been … Read more
Most Favored Nation

Most Favored Nation (or Give It To Them, Gotta Give It To Me, Too)

In international trade, having a most favored nation agreement means that your country will receive trade terms on par with … Read more