Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Yes, Your Sense Of Wellbeing Comes From Your Gut
Everything changes around you, but your internal organs are always there, always broadcasting signals to the brain, always playing their thorough bass in the...
“Nutcracker” Is So Yesterday. Meet “Graham Cracker”
In this version, Clara tries to get her hands on a coveted s’more during a holiday bonfire. She successfully sneaks one away, soon slipping...
Genre-Bending Opera Wins $100,000 Grawemeyer Award
The work — a subversive blurring of genre, time and politics reflecting on how little has changed over the centuries, yet how much change...
How Crowdfunding Is Helping Indie Bookstores
“There’s been a groundswell of support for indie bookshops. I’m very open and honest online about what it is like to run a bookshop...
Actor Declares Himself A Non-Profit
"There was something quite liberating about going, alright, I'll put large amounts of money into this or that, because I'll be able to earn...
Take Care Of Yourself — It’s Now An Industry
Self-care might be thought of as the newest form of the art of living well, the understanding of a good life that exists in...
Why Innovation In Education Is So Difficult
Is it that much easier for the average 5-year old to sit still for hours on end and listen to a teacher talk in...
The Best Books About Dance In 2021
By chance, this year unleashed a profusion of memoirs about Balanchine and New York City Ballet. This ever-present magnet in our field is counter-balanced...
The Best Theatre Of A (Weird) 2021
If theater matters differently than television and film it’s not just because you have to leave your home to be part of it, but...
How “Web3” May Change Value In The Arts
The NFT confers public proof of ownership and authenticity of an item, which may or may not include copyright — just as in the...
How Stories Are Adapted For Opera
“Opera’s superpower is subtext,” says composer Missy Mazzoli, “and being able to say more than one thing at once.” - Van
Jane Campion’s Bones
“I’m an old dog in the game,” Campion says, smiling. “I’m careful about the bones I care to chew on. I want something with...
Florida School Called TikTok High, After Dance Videos
The videos featuring students – many of them uniformed athletes at Venice High School – dancing at the school with the staircase as their...
A Dancer Who Doesn’t Look Like The Others
The 23-year-old has returned to dance from injury and uses his wheelchair and crutches to perform. He said it should be easier for others...
How Amazon Made Book Selling The Way We Read
The populist turn has put into question whether a comparatively very small group of authors—no matter how diverse—should really hog the scholarly limelight, especially...
Chicago Art Institute Fired Its Docents – A Struggle To Redefine American Museums
The ramifications of what happened at the Art Institute will play out for years. Depending who’s talking, it’s about diversity, gratitude or merely the...
Bookstore Lost 400,000 Books In A Fire. Then The Community Stepped Up
Thousands of books, filling two shipping containers, have been donated - and more are coming in all the time. - The Leader
Why It’s So Difficult To Design Communities Resilient To Climate Change
The recent passage of a $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure bill is a big step toward tackling some of those problems, but as East River...
NBC’s Live “Annie” Was “Pleasant”
You probably tuned in to NBC’s “Annie Live!” for one reason: to see if it would be a train wreck. - Washington Post
It’s Not You: Why It’s Getting More Difficult To Understand Movie Dialogue
"It's really a gumbo, an accumulation of problems that have been exacerbated over the last 10 years … that's kind of this time span...
Sondheim And The Art Of Mentoring
As a mentor, as a letter writer, as an audience member who showed up far beyond Broadway to witness new work, he quietly, faithfully...
If Democracy Is Institutions, What Institutions Are Democracy?
Political institutions differ considerably from one purportedly democratic society to the next. Voting procedures, representation schemes, conceptions of free speech, and judicial arrangements are...
Has America Lost Its Imagination?
Americans used to go to movie theaters to watch new characters in new stories. Now they go to movie theaters to re-submerge themselves in...
The Art World Power 100 List
NFTs (and with them cryptocurrency and all that comes with it) have upended the art market, bringing contemporary art and millennial meme culture crashing...
The Universal Story (But Why?)
From one point of view, it’s obvious that, despite exceptions, most stories portray “goody-baddy” dynamics—from nursery rhymes to juicy gossip, from ancient folktales to...