Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Until The 1880s Anthropologists Researched In Libraries. When They Finally Went Into The Field...
Instead of sitting in libraries, they began to study “primitive” cultures for themselves, across Africa, Asia and the Americas, living with their subjects for...
Authentication Wars: She Bought A Chagall. Years Later Sotheby’s Suggests She Sell. Panel Says...
To Ms. Clegg’s dismay, the expert panel in Paris declared her Chagall to be fake, held onto it and now wants to destroy it....
Journalists Prize Access To Sources. But Too Much
I’ve come to believe that one of most overrated aspirations in journalism is access. This is particularly true in any story involving people who...
It Took War For North Americans To Learn About Ukrainian Music
There has been little known in the West about Ukrainian composers until recently, especially in Canada and the U.S., according to experts. “North Americans...
Japan Is Conflicted About Resuming Tourism
Japan's opening up to mass tourism over the last decade brought an economic boost — a record 32 million tourists visited in 2019 and...
Why We Need To Cultivate Toleration
Toleration involves putting up with something that you would rather not be the case. This doesn’t have to involve moral disapproval: perhaps you just...
Bumping Up On The Limits Of Wellness Culture
Experimental psychology and data science would be used to develop clearer (and sometimes counterintuitive) recommendations for improving users’ lives. Bestselling books were written in...
UK Schools Delete Irish Writers In Bid To Diversify Curriculum
Irish writers have been dropped from the exam curriculum in British schools in favour of writers from more diverse backgrounds. Poets Seamus Heaney and...
How The Pyramid-Builders Lived
The portrait these documents convey is of resourceful workers who roamed from the country’s sacred core to some of its most remote precincts gathering...
How Social Media Platforms Decide Which Ideas Are Allowed
Platforms often claim that they are not in the business of creating the content that appears on their platforms, and that’s usually true. But it doesn’t...
The Remarkable Turnaround Of The Atlanta Symphony
The ASO has announced a new three-year collective bargaining agreement with its musicians, and its eighth consecutive year with a balanced budget. The orchestra...
The Peril Of Being Surrounded By Admirers
Admirers agree with you “even if you say something totally crazy.” And that’s bad: “You need people who can tell you what you don’t...
The “Insignificant” Details That Bring Historical Writing Alive
As a writer, the key is not so much assembling reams and reams of material, but finding the details that make a period or...
How Design Can Cause People Not To Use Public Space
In cities around the globe – from Algiers, Auckland and Chicago to Hanoi, Mexico City and Seoul – research shows that transforming public spaces markedly affects the diversity of what...
Harold Rosenberg Was A Towering Critic. How Did He Disappear?
One of Rosenberg’s most celebrated essays skewered those whom he dubbed “The Herd of Independent Minds”: scholars and critics who roundly dumped on an...
The Young Conductor Who Replaced Muti On A Moment’s Notice And Wowed The Chicago...
“I wasn’t expecting it, but somehow, I took more notes than usual on the Brahms that day,” she says. - Chicago Tribune
Someone Thinks Orchestra Music Died In The 20th Century
In order to begin to reclaim orchestral music of the 20th century, John Mauceri poses the following question: “If we put aside the unquestioned...
The Cathedral Climbers Working On Salisbury Cathedral
It is neither practical, nor desirable, to keep erecting scaffolding. “Scaffolding can be intrusive. You have to attach it to the building and you...
After 51 Years, A Boston New Music Institution Calls It Quits
Boston is losing an essential purveyor of invigorating new music — after 51 years, 109 commissions, 20 recordings, and 243 world premieres. Until now,...
Movie Theatres Have An Aging Audience Problem
Older audiences will only be around so long. If you teach the rising generation that the theatrical experience is completely extraneous, that experience probably...
How Lilith Fair Changed Music 25 Years Ago
For the artists and fans who experienced it, Lilith Fair felt revolutionary. It's success upended concert industry norms and created a new place where...
Seattle To Remove Two “Culturally Inappropriate” Totem Poles From Pike Place Park
“They don't tell a story about me or my people, and it really makes me feel less-than because we are being represented by totem...
How MacIntosh’s Iconic Glasgow School Of Art Was Recreated After The Great Fire
Reflecting on the row over the second rebuild plans he describes how an academic, from the school. Professor Ray McKenzie, had said publicly that...
A Great Writer/Editor Partnership: Robert Caro And Robert Gottleib
When Caro was almost finished with “The Power Broker,” he got an agent, Lynn Nesbit, and she matched him up with Gottlieb. If there...
YouTube Has Grown Its Own Critic Class
Importantly, these commentators were not professional journalists, concerned experts or onlookers from outside the YouTube world. They, and their audiences, come from the same...
