Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Why Do The Oscars Organizers Seem Determined To Self-Sabotage?
The Academy is coming off as “the absolute most insecure girl at the party.” Babe, you’re the Oscars. You should be the most confident person...
The Community Mythologies We Convince Ourselves Of
Whereas historians aim to create a relatively objective account of the past using rigorous professional standards of what counts as evidence, when members of...
America To Get Its Own Song Competition Based On The Long-running Eurovision Model
The extravaganza, prosaically titled American Song Contest, will see musicians from all 50 states, five US territories and Washington DC compete against each other,...
Should The Kennedy Center Be Creating More New Work?
The Kennedy Center’s mission statement says that one of its three pillars is “presenting, producing, and curating world-class art.” In theater, it’s relying these days...
What Can Be Learned From A Hollywood Union’s Attempts To Diversify?
The story of what happened when costumers tried to instigate reform is a tale of the frustrations and barriers to progress that exist in...
When You Talk To Yourself, What’s Going On?
From the perspective of psychology, there have also been many studies on the role of outer and inner speech in our thinking processes. An...
Calgary Arts Commons To Get Major $450 Million Addition
Arts Commons sees the new project as a means of engaging a larger set of Calgarians and providing space for everyday gatherings and informal...
Chicago Dance Community Aims To Take A Broader View Of Dance In The City
The city of Chicago has designated 2022 the Year of Chicago Dance in recognition of an art form that is ubiquitous, burgeoning, diverse—and precarious. - Chicago Reader
Court Says Failed Italian Bank Must Sell Its Caravaggio. But there’s A Big But…
But there’s a hitch: The valuable paintings, including a Caravaggio said to be worth millions, cannot physically be moved from their location due to national...
Why Everyone’s Talking About Defining Consciousness
For much of history, the nature of consciousness was the purview almost exclusively of philosophers and poets. It was not taken seriously as a...
Workers Aren’t Returning To The Office, But They’re Slowly Going Back To Movie Theatres
The return rate to movie theaters in the first week of February was 58% of what it was before the pandemic. Restaurants were nearly three-quarters as...
The Theatre Wisdom Of Stephen Sondheim
I learned all of these compositional principles from Babbitt. What it amounts to is, music exists in time, so how do you make...
Nothing But Guests: A Lineup Of Potential Music Directors For The NY Philharmonic
For the next six weeks, the Philharmonic’s calendar is filled with nothing but guests. - The New York Times
What Does Your Musical Taste Say About You?
Most half-serious music fans would consider their tastes eclectic. Which seems more feasible than a distinct personality type exclusively cleaving to one genre, and...
Why Is Canada’s CBC Moving Away From Classical Music?
The orchestras and concerts have disappeared and so has most of the critical commentary associated with them. To be blunt about it, from a...
How “Infodemics” Of Conspiracies Spread
The current infodemic isn’t just familiar because of this history. Culture constantly recycles materials: stories are re-told, revised and re-told again. - The Conversation
Ghostbusters Director Ivan Reitman, 75
Born in Czechoslovakia and raised in Canada (where he first met such young comics as his later stars Dan Aykroyd and Rick Moranis), Reitman...
Mexico Passed A Cultural Appropriation Law. It Doesn’t Seem To Be Working
To fight back against the plagiarism and dispossession of Indigenous art, Mexico has approved a law meant to protect and safeguard the cultural heritage...
St. Valentine Had Nothing To Do With Romance. So Why A Day?
The name was so popular that over 30 Valentines, not to mention “a few Valentinas,” ultimately achieved sainthood. However, no matter which Valentine you...
When The Olympics Had Arts Competitions
Between the 1912 Stockholm Olympics and the 1948 London Olympics, artistic competition was a vibrant part of the summer Olympic games. There were five categories in...
Welcome Rituals And The Meaning Of Land Acknowledgments
Native land acknowledgements may sound to some like newfangled expressions of liberal guilt, but they have their origin in the centuries-old welcoming practices of...
The Case For Translators As Collaborators
For Jennifer Croft, the campaign to bring greater recognition to translators isn’t just a plea for attention and credit, though it’s partly that. Croft...
The Case Against The Contemporary American Essay
Explanations for the twenty-first-century personal essay boom are as various as the answers to an inkblot test, and nearly as revealing. - The Drift
A Warning That The Bamiyan Valley Will Collapse Within Ten Years
In 2003, the area was put on Unesco’s World Heritage in Danger list. Now rapid building work and digging under the new rule of...
Australia Arts Groups Feel The Freeze
The lack of CPI (which rose by 3.5% in the 12 months to December 2021 according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data) coupled with no increase...
