Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Getty Sues Hedge Fund Over Massive Losses
The Getty invested $60 million in the fund, which was titled “structured alpha,” in 2016. Three years later, the investment had grown to $73...
Why We’re Built To Forget
It used to be thought that forgetting anything — from minor things like the name of a casual acquaintance to the more painful loss...
Tracking The Word Choice Vectors In Rap Music
There’s an appealingly simple sociolinguistic view, one my grizzled inner skeptic appears to have embraced, whereby words function as vectors of status: where vocabulary...
Ken Robinson: What Does Education Mean Now?
What does it mean to be educated now? As we all live in two worlds—the world within you that exists only because you do,...
Geffen Hall Is Fully Funded And Will Open Year Early
The project’s leaders announced on Wednesday that they had raised their goal of $550 million to cover the cost of the renovation, and that...
How Did Intelligence Evolve Biologically?
The processes of intelligence are so intricate, so multilayered and baroque, no wonder some people might be tempted by stories about a top-down Creator....
100 Years After It Sank, Shackleton’s Ship Found In Antarctica (and In Remarkable Condition)
The Endurance was found off the coast of Antarctica, approximately four miles south of the position originally recorded by its captain, Frank Worsley. It...
Arts Venues Sue Small Business Administration Over COVID Money
Nearly 50 rejected venue grant applicants have taken the SBA to court, including escape rooms, a dance convention, a circus arts company, a ministry,...
Is Having Two Museum Directors Better Than Having One?
“There’s a lot of structural change underway and nobody knows where this is going. I think there’s a strong desire from all the actors...
How To Fight Disinformation
So is a country’s level of media literacy anything more than a measure of the wealth and the education of its population? How can...
Careful Of Boycotting Russian Artists and Institutions. It’s Difficult To Come Back
"Almost on the hour, we’re hearing about cultural boycotts, departures of curators and directors, and the shuttering of institutions. The moral convictions behind these choices cannot be doubted....
Agreement: Museums Can Remove Sackler Name Without Penalty
The Sacklers would also lose their naming rights at museums and other entities that have received their financial contributions a win for activists who...
Smithsonian To Return Benin Bronzes
A spokeswoman for the Smithsonian, Linda St. Thomas, said most of the 39 pieces would be returned. But she said it was not clear...
Iraq’s National Museum Reopens After Three Years
The newly renovated national museum had closed its doors in 2019 amid escalating anti-government protests in Baghdad. Home to artifacts dating from ancient Mesopotamian,...
Could Technology Help Preserve Musical Theatre Voices?
“Similar to how your iPhone nowadays tells you, ‘Oh, you listened to music a little too loudly this week; watch out, because we don’t...
Why Do So Many Americans Believe Things That Aren’t True? Maybe Because Of How...
Daily journalists, for better or for worse, are hard-wired to leap on departures from the norm, regardless of how miserable, unethical, unfair, and doomed the norm...
Blurring Lines Between Performers And Audiences
The creative potential of the relationship between performers and audience has preoccupied Berlin-based Australian composer Cathy Milliken for decades. - The Guardian
Countries Are Only A Social Construct
A common mistake is to confuse a country with its inhabitants with its government. This leads to statements that are strictly meaningless at best...
Why The Rich Stay Rich
The Italian communist Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937) would argue that it was precisely through the proliferation of such norms in our culture—wherein the inequalities of...
Overwhelmed By Culture (What To Do?)
For years now, each day has brought a torrent of new TV shows to watch, movies to see, albums to listen to, podcasts and...
Sensitivity Readers? Why Publishers Need Them
"My background as an author is in young adult fiction, an area in which sensitivity readers are common, especially in the US, so I’m...
Is Tourism Bad For Us?
Tourism is attractive because it underwrites a desire that, when we go overseas, stuff doesn’t get too strange, risky or foreign. Increasingly, we travel...
Can The New Bandcamp Save Indie Music?
Bemused gamers and tech experts, meanwhile, wondered what possible uses a company such as Epic – itself 40% owned by Chinese gaming megacorp Tencent...
Peak Subscribe: Are You Paying For Too Many Subscriptions?
The maturity of the subscription market varies by industry, but in some of the categories best known for these kinds of services, there are...
Netflix Quits Russia
Earlier this week, the streaming service had announced that it would pause all future projects and acquisitions from Russia, joining a growing list of...