Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
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...
Why Orchestra Percussion Sections Aren’t Diverse
At minimum, percussion students need a room to practice in — usually in a large single family home and not an apartment — over...
One Of Canada’s Top Contemporary Groups Calls It Quits
“We have been here for 35 years. We have made 300 creations, several international tours, 11 Canadian tours, and 70 concerts across the country....
Why The World’s Best Chess Players Are Too Good To Win
Accurate is the word of the match so far. Inevitably, the string of draws is the main narrative out of Dubai; no one has won...
The Rise Of The Media “Comfort Creator”
“With the terror of a global pandemic sending anxiety sky high and rendering TV one of the few safe entertainment outlets, the desire for...
It’s Been Ten Years Since Robert Battle Took Over Leading Alvin Ailey Company
“The knee-jerk thing is to overcorrect,” he continued. “But sometimes you need to double down in your mission. Sometimes you have to think about...
Author Alice Sebold Apologizes To Man Cleared Of Her 1981 Rape Featured In Her...
“My goal in 1982 was justice – not to perpetuate injustice,” she said. “And certainly not to forever, and irreparably, alter a young man’s...