Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
When Libraries Were Quieter
Books are removed, and replaced with coffee bars and spaces for socializing. In case people don’t get the message, librarians now put up signs discouraging quiet...
Book Sales Slump
Sales of adult books dropped 9.6% in the month, with fiction sales off 8.3% and nonfiction falling 11.3%. For the first five months of...
The Unnerving Takeover Of Video Games By AI
Most experts acknowledge that a takeover by artificial intelligence is coming for the video game industry within the next five years, and executives have...
Site Santa Fe, The Indispensable Art Outpost
Site Santa Fe opened in 1995 in a former warehouse turned nonprofit gallery in the city’s art-filled Railyard District, but it stretches to museums...
How Classical Music Can Boost Sports Performance
A growing body of research suggests classical music can offer measurable benefits to athletes: helping regulate nerves, boost balance, reduce perceived effort, and even...
Thinking Is Becoming A Premium Subscription
The idea that technology is altering our capacity not just to concentrate but also to read and to reason is catching on. The conversation no...
Canada’s Arts Sector Produced $40 Billion In Revenue In 2024
Total revenues in the arts, using my imperfect and partial measurement, were $37.9 billion in 2024, representing 29% of all cultural products. - Hill...
Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera Shrinkage Poses Warning/Challenge To City Arts Organizations
“We have to decide where does the art in our town that's made in our town sit versus touring productions, and what does it...
Is Harvard Caving To Trump Attack?
Neither Harvard nor the government has publicly detailed potential terms for a settlement and what allegations the money would be intended to resolve. -...
The Books That Made This Year’s Booker Prize Longlist
This year's list of nominees for the prestigious Booker Prize is a varied lot in terms of style, scope, length and subject matter. - NPR
Redefining What A Pro Sports Dance Team Can Be
The dance team of the New York Liberty is a shot of adrenaline, a burst of vitality. All insist on the power of movement...
LA Philanthropist Wallis Annenberg, 86
Wallis Annenberg, a deep-pocketed philanthropist who helped transform the city through massive donations to arts, education and animal welfare causes, died Monday morning at...
The Unknown Stokowski
No Leopold Stokowski could exist today, in the face of prying social media. Notwithstanding his glamorous marriage to Gloria Vanderbilt and an affair with...
John Williams’ New Piano Concerto
Williams’s classical output includes a symphony, chamber music and concertos for a dozen instruments (including flute, violin, cello and bassoon). And yet, Williams said,...
The Last Recordings Of Woody Guthrie
“It’s like this huge puzzle, a thousand-piece puzzle, and every time a release comes out, we’re adding another puzzle piece. That is giving us...
The Rise Of X-Rated Novels
While younger generations, at least, have said in recent years that they want to see more platonic friendship and less sex on screen, reading appetites...
Hispanic Festivals Cancelled Over ICE Safety Fears
THING NW Festival 2025 cancelled its Aug. 16 Latinx musical performance lineup. All other Saturday musical events are still scheduled to go on as planned...
Satirist Tom Lehrer, 97
Mr. Lehrer — an Ivy League mathematics teacher who spent his early academic career on the periphery of show business — created a repertoire...
Will AI Kill Social Mobility?
Social mobility will become progressively locked as AI progresses. What is at risk is not simply job loss, but the very idea of income distribution. The concept...
Books By The Meter: The Art Of Looking Well-Read
There is social capital to be gained by simply looking as if you are a cultured person who listens to music on vinyl and reads lots of...
Today’s Fraud: The Dark Art Of Manipulation
Many companies are taking our time and money by practising the dark art of manipulation. They hide crucial terms in fine print. They automatically...
The Week Comedy Fought Back
If anyone thought Colbert's cancellation — which won't come until his contract ends in May 2026 — might tamp down political commentary in other areas...
A Century Later, The Death Of Art Deco’s Democratic Dream
It has been a century since the term “Art Deco” was coined, a shortened version of the name of the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative...
AI Hype Masks Evil: Creative Destruction And Theft Of What Others Have Built
It’s the kind of moment that invites a familiar concept: creative destruction. I originally associated the phrase with Joseph Schumpeter, but it actually has...
Ode To What Used to Be The Arts Events Listings
As mainstream culture grows ever narrower, once-robust subcultures are struggling for survival. Perhaps social-media influencers are today’s critics and curators, but even as our...
