Happy Anniversary! Now Get Your Butt In That Seat

I want to take a moment to post a very special happy anniversary shout-out to my Inside The Arts blogging neighbor Joe Patti. His culture blog, Butts In The Seats, turned six years old yesterday and if you aren’t already familiar with Joe’s blog you should be…

In the last year alone, he’s done an extraordinary job at honing his blog into one of the most useful resources available for arts managers. One of my favorite series is his “Info You Can Use” articles, which have been priceless to me by bringing a number of useful if not critical items to my attention that would have otherwise flown under my radar.

These wonderfully practical posts are supplemented with a good bit of observational and thought provoking entries and altogether, they build one of the best culture blogs focused on arts management you can find.

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

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