Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Is It Important To Distill One’s Philosophy To A “Saying”?
When I think of sayings, I think first of the early Greek philosophers—the so-called pre-Socratics—whose ideas, if they wrote them down at all, survive...
What Does It Mean For Writing To Be “Great”?
The Swedish Academy is not here to tell you what writers you might like. Greatness is not the same as popularity. It may even...
Exploring The Dudamel Phenomenon
Not since Leonard Bernstein has a conductor done as much as Dudamel to make classical music accessible — or so thoroughly captured the public...
Today’s AJ Highlights
Good morning: Is there any reason opera shouldn't be THE art form of 21st Century? We live in a time of story, of multimedia,...
Longtime Houston Alley Theatre Managing Director To Step Down
The Alley put out a press statement that included a long list of financial achievements during the years Dean Gladden has been managing director....
The Fake Van Goghs That Fooled The Experts
Experts at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam say three paintings in private collections previously believed to be by the artist are fakes, including...
The Case For Why Painting Still Matters
In an age of cold digital screens and AI-enhanced visual manipulation, we have been told that canvas, oil and pigment are becoming irrelevant, or...
Kansas City’s Iconic Nelson Atkins Museum To Expand Again
The institution has launched a global competition as part of a larger rebranding for the museum, unfolding in 2025. The renovation, it hopes, will attract wider...
Richard Serra And The Tension Between Site And Context
"If you go into a community to make a work and you try to follow the demands of the local people, which are never...
Can Opera Ever Be Widely Popular Again? (And What Would It Look Like?)
“We can’t dumb down the audience. We have to continue as composers of opera in the 21st century to move people, and you don’t...
For A While, Podcasting Was the Future…
The money for the sound-rich, years-long documentary projects seems to be mostly gone, though some exceptions remain... - NiemanLab
Are Our Houses Too Big?
"I think our houses are generally too big; they are, in design terms, a bit lazy in this sense. We’d benefit enormously by cutting...
How Netflix Has Changed The Viewing Experience
The library we enjoy today may have been built with debt instead of venture capital, but its sheer enormousness reveals it as a visitor...
How Artists Have Historically Documented Climate Change
“What’s really surprising … is that there was an understanding of human impact on the environment much, much earlier than most people understand today.” -...
Today’s AJ Highlights
Good morning: The Internet Archive is either a piracy orgy violating the copyrights of millions of authors, or it's a library or archive record...
Imagining A New Definition For Participating In Art
What gets defined as “art” often reflects a very specific perspective in our culture. Expanding our definitions of art and participation to include nontraditional...
Is London’s Art Market As Bad As People Are Saying?
Ahead of the 21st edition of the fair, which has now expanded to four cities around the world and brings week-long celebrations as well...
How Our Notions Of “Privacy” Have Changed In The Digital Age
“Privacy is valuable not because it empowers us to exercise control over our information, but because it protects against the creation of such information...
What Are The Mythologies That Define America?
Those stories that Americans tell about themselves in the name of the “imagined community,” manifest through public rituals like fireworks shows, public school curricula,...
Is Intellectual Humility Really A Virtue?
Part of living well is thinking well. Our souls have an intellectual, as well as a practical, part; we cannot live fully flourishing lives...
Artist Who Used AI To Create Images Says Copyright Office Ruling Is Anti-Creative
The US Copyright Office ruled that content created using AI tools, including Midjourney, can't be copyrighted. However, Allen argues that "the Office ignore the...
The Internet Archive Is A Library Of The Digital Age, A Record Of Civilization....
Though Kahle’s ideals have never wavered, his creations were subsumed by a Silicon Valley behemoth feeding off all things antithetical to his vision of...
The Met Opera Just Extended Yannick Nezet-Seguin’s Contract. Should It Have?
When he was first named as the next music director back in 2018, the Met asserted that he would conduct a minimum of five operas per season. What...
Today’s AJ Highlights
Good morning: Last week Smashing Pumpkins' frontman Billy Corgan suggested that music editing software like ProTools had "made music worse." He said: "Pro Tools,...
This Week’s AJ Highlights
Good morning. Here are this week's highlights:
Asheville’s Arts District Devastated by Flooding from Hurricane HeleneAsheville's River Arts District, home to galleries, studios, and performance...