Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
DC City Council Approves Two New Arts Commission Members Over Objections Of Its Chairman
The controversy comes as the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities has dramatically reshaped its policies to focus on diversity and equity and to broaden...
Jazz Guitarist Pat Martino, 77 — Overcame Amnesia To Perform Again
In 1980, brain surgery left him with no memory, but he painstakingly relearned the instrument, and his own past, and went on to three...
The Cultural Revisionism Industry
Over the past few years, a certain genre of media has found opportunity in debunking false conceptions of the semi-recent past and meditating on...
Rehabilitating Chuck Close
Where Close’s work ultimately lands in the canon of American art will serve as the art world’s first test case for how an artist...
What Do Hybrid Performances Look Like After COVID?
It may be counterintuitive, but the consensus view is the best way to produce the emotional intensity of a live performance is to create...
JackTrip: Solving The Internet’s Latency Problem For Musicians?
“We now have 60,000 users and we just hit the 100,000-hour mark of people making music on our platform. We’re excited to be a...
Orchestras Continue Progress On Diversity During COVID
With racial sensitivities heightened since the 2020 murder of George Floyd, classical music groups nationwide have increasingly highlighted BIPOC performers and composers. - Dallas...
Mark Zuckerberg As Cultural Director Of The Internet? Er…
Though the term “metaverse” suggests a fully articulated sci-fi realm, Zuckerberg is using it to glamorize a network of virtual and augmented reality apps...
How To Memorize Something Complex? There’s A System For That
To earn the title of Grand Master of Memory, one must be able to memorize a 1000-digit number in one hour. The next hour...
High School Teacher Abruptly Cancels Play After Students Complain About Script
Students complained of a script they felt made light of sexual assault victims and contained inappropriate language and stereotypes that made cast members uncomfortable....
Justice Department Seeks To Block Giant Publishing Merger
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement, “If the world’s largest book publisher is permitted to acquire one of its biggest rivals, it will...
Hermitage Employee Breaks Visitor’s Nose (Captured On Social Media, Of Course)
“I am at the General Staff building of the Hermitage right now and an employee broke the nose of the person I was with....
Amid Chicago’s Grand Architecture, Its Ugliest Buildings
Chicago loves its architecture and loves showcasing it to the world and tourists. But if everything you’re seeing is great and beautiful, you need...
Esperanza Spalding And Wayne Shorter Were Making An Opera. So They Made An Opera...
The famed architect Frank Gehry came on to draft the set designs, and the director Lileana Blain-Cruz came aboard to bring the story onstage....
Toronto Declares A Year Of Public Art To Revitalize The City
The initiative will feature more than 350 new works and provide funding to just under 100 organizations. Moreover, ArtworxTO kicks off a 10-year public art...
How Do Hot Creative Streaks Happen?
Research found that artists and scientists tend to experiment with diverse styles or topics before their hot streak begins. This period of exploration is...
Why Amsterdam Just Decreed That All New Buildings Be Made Of At Least 20...
Increasing the use of timber in the city's construction projects is hoped to reduce reliance on steel and concrete – materials that create large...
Williamstown Theatre Festival Artistic Director Mandy Greenfield Resigns
The move comes after a Times investigation, published in September, in which 25 current and former festival workers alleged that WTF exposed them to...
Writing About Dance Isn’t A Profession Anymore
The truth is that culture writing that doesn't involve celebrities or popular culture or scandal fills an increasingly small niche in the mainstream press....
Before Time Began And We Were Free
The whole symbolic apparatus of cultural evolution aimed to make freedom—which they define as the freedom to move, the freedom to disobey orders, and...
The Essential Philosophical Question: Have Philosophers Lost Their Way?
Today, few philosophers believe philosophy is a way of life, let alone the fullest and most complete way of life. Or if they do...
What Architects Want Out Of The Climate Change Conference
Leading architecture and design figures attending the summit expressed concerns that the built environment is not being talked about enough, as well as calling...
A Hard Truth? Democracies Aren’t Up To Big Challenges Like Climate Change
The common theme in all these accounts is that the public are not to be trusted – they do not understand, or care; they...
What To Make Of The Montreal Symphony’s New Music Director?
As a successor to Dutoit and Nagano, Payare seems a bit slight. He’s a largely unknown quantity in the music world. The orchestras he’s...
Study: More Diversity on Screen Boosts Viewership
The study found that ratings and social media engagement for most groups, including white audiences, peaked for shows that featured casts that were at...