Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Joseph Stalin, Intellectual?
“Stalin was no psychopath but an emotionally intelligent and feeling intellectual. Indeed, it was the power of his emotional attachment to deeply held beliefs...
The Hermitage Has Become Isolated
Once a leader in Russian cultural diplomacy overseas, the Hermitage is now isolated by the cultural boycotts of Russia that have multiplied through the...
The Good And Bad Of Virtue Signaling
Virtue signalling is more nuanced and more interesting than the picture painted by conventional wisdom and political rhetoric. As it turns out, there are bad and good things...
Uffizi Became Italy’s Most-Visited Attraction Last Year
Once a slow-changing bastion of tradition, it was announced on Monday that the institution famous for its Renaissance masterpieces had last year leapt past...
How Languages Figure Out In What Order Words Occur
So, what is grammaticalization? Roughly speaking, it is the series of steps by which collections of individual words that refer to objects and actions...
America’s Cities Are Losing Their Hangout Places
These days, the art of hanging out seems to be waning in cities. The American Community Life Survey reported last year that only 25...
Why Jon Batiste Was The Grammys’ Unexpected Big Winner
So he is a traditionalist choice to win—but a traditionalist choice for an institution that has been changing. Following years of accusations about gender...
How NFTs Are Upending The Art Market
What’s happening now is larger than the traditional tension between art and commerce, and it’s occurring at internet speed. - Alta Journal
A Computer Creates Poetry That Works
Computer scientists had been trying to coax machines to write verse since at least the 1960s, and Racter was a singular example of how...
Saltz: A Whitney Biennial That Works
It’s great to have the Biennial back — to talk about, to love and hate — after it was postponed a year because of the pandemic. The...
Pianist Joseph Kalichstein, 76
Over a career that spanned half a century, Mr. Kalichstein presented thoughtful, impassioned and deeply musical performances of the piano repertoire from Bach, Mozart...
The Choreography That Works On TikTok
Although the dance challenge “aesthetic” has undoubtedly fed the app’s popularity, there’s more going on in the dance world of TikTok. - Dance Magazine
How Technology Is Connecting Musicians With Audiences
Here's an app that helps connects smaller bands and audiences with venues off the beaten path, some of them way off. The majority of concert...
Are Audiences Returning To Broadway?
In aggregate, Broadway grosses are on the rise, consistent with what’s typically seen as spring begins in New York and a spate of new...
Daniel Harding With Some Wisdom About Conducting
At the beginning, you say something about legato, and people look at you like, “I don’t know what he’s talking about.” After a year, they...
Bolshoi Ballet Performs In Support Of Russia’s War
Among its goals are "support for the Russian audience, those who help our army" and "assistance to evacuees from Donbas", referring to eastern Ukrainian...
On Reforming Classical Music’s Canon
The very concept of a historical canon has become toxic, and with classical music no longer the player it was 75 years ago, this...
Cliburn Competition Chooses Six Russian Pianists To Compete
While decrying the invasion, a statement from the Cliburn says the Russian-born pianists “are not officials of their government, nor is their participation in...
TikTok Investigates (Or Its Users Do, And It Isn’t Pretty)
In just the past half year, TikTok mobs have dived headlong into engagement-baiting investigations of recent murders, online “pedophile rings,” and the legitimacy of popular...
Are You Stuck In “Goblin Mode”?
“Goblin mode” is taking the current pandemic-ridden world by storm. This state of being is defined by behaviours that feel reminiscent of deep lockdown days –...
How To Stop DoomScrolling
“Doomscrolling is essentially an avoidance technique used to cope with anxiety, so wherever you are vulnerable to anxiety, doomscrolling can become an unhealthy coping...
Scientist Proposes That Information Might Be The “Fifth State Of Matter”
The mass-energy-information equivalence principle Melvin Vopson proposed in his 2019 AIP Advances paper assumes that a digital information bit—used for digital data storage today—is not just physical, but...
Why Australia Needs A Ministry Of Culture
There is abundant evidence to show the government’s financial support for the arts and culture has been significantly reduced over many years. Today the arts don’t...
Time For Hollywood To Rethink Its China Strategy?
In 2021, just 20 revenue-sharing U.S. titles were released in Chinese cinemas, compared with 31 U.S. tentpole releases before the pandemic, in 2019. -...
Conservative Media Groups Says It Will Spend $100 Million On Kids Programming (To Counter...
“Americans are tired of giving their money to woke corporations who hate them,” said Daily Wire co-CEO Jeremy Boreing in a statement. - Axios