Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
How Theatre Is Being Reimagined After The Lockdown
I do think that there is a new energy, there’s a new kind of way of engaging with live performance that is very exciting....
What Our Repeated Mistakes Tell Us About Our Culture
"As fallible as human transmission can be, the fact that our mistakes in transmitting cultural information occur in systematic and directed ways, rather than...
Broadway Announces New COVID Mandates For Its Reopening
Masks will also be required for audiences inside the theaters, except while eating or drinking in designated locations. - Deadline
How Can The Uffizi Sue Over An Image In The Public Domain?
Italian law strongly protects its heritage. The definition of cultural heritage itself under Italian law is broad: any works which “are of artistic, historical,...
A Good Death (From A Literary Perspective)
"I cannot expect to have a good death if my life did not accomplish certain specific things. And these things are not material." -...
NFTs Of Chimpanzee Art Raised (Again) The Idea Of Animal Art (And Creativity)
The launch of these NFTs is the latest chapter in a long and complex history of non-human animals in the art world. - The Conversation
Cash-Strapped Mexico Reburies Petroglyphs
“The global health contingency caused by COVID-19 forced the institutions of the different levels of government to prioritize the allocation of resources for the...
Atlanta Ballet CEO Steps Down After Reinventing The Company
Arthur Jacobus's 12-year tenure has seen the company rebrand itself as an organization committed to creativity and innovation, followed by a reversal of that...
Selling Out? When I Wrote Just For Money
"This was a question I also grappled with: could my creative prostitution involve high art, be the literary equivalent of Belle de Jour (1967), stylish and sexy,...
The Complicated Psychology Behind Our Attraction To Video Games
If video games are play, they’re an expression of our highest capacities as humans—our love of freedom, of imagination, and creative whim. But when...
Why Scarlett Johansson Is Suing Disney (And Why It Matters)
A star of her scale taking on a studio of an even bigger scale, potentially burning whatever bridges remain, is an unusual gambit but...
Dallas Symphony Is Selling Music As NFTs
Proceeds go to the musicians of the Met — which still isn’t regularly performing. KERA
Reconsidering The Point Of Translating Literature
Translations exist only in their own time. While literature is out of time, translations are always, in the hapless plod of linear time, out...
TV Pitchman Ron Popeil, 86
Mr. Popeil’s mastery of television marketing, dating to the 1950s but spanning several decades, made him nearly as recognizable onscreen as the TV and...
Cautionary Tale: How A Music Festival Went Horribly Wrong
The new HBO film Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage offers a chilling demonstration of how greed, cultural rot, and the vagaries of crowd behavior can...
Navigating The Line Between Reality And Imagination
To perceive the outside world, our brain combines signals entering our brains through our eyes with what we expect the world to look like...
How Conspiracy Theorists Learn To Believe Their Own Fake News
When online surveyor YouGov conducted a survey asking over 8,000 US adults, “Do you believe that the Earth is round or flat?,” only 84...
Scarlett Johansson Sues Disney Over “Black Widow”
Scarlett Johansson is suing Disney over the simultaneous digital rollout of “Black Widow,” saying it breaches her contract with the company to release the...
…As The Dance World Returns Without Me…
"These days, dance brings me a deep pain and pronounced lack of joy that I never fathomed it could. The excitement with which I...
Survey Of LA Artists Documents Instability
The results of the survey are a snapshot of the art community’s struggle for financial stability even before COVID-19 shut down galleries and museums...
Netflix CEO: The Movie Business Is In Revolution
In four short years, Netflix has done more to reshape the way that movies are made, distributed and consumed than perhaps any other single...
Epic Labor Battle At Sydney Bookstore
Such disputes reflect a growing recognition across the publishing industry that the prestige and attractiveness of working in and adjacent to creative and cultural...
Enough With The Era Of Visionary Museum Directors
That era should be over. The director’s job is to set clear priorities for staff, to mentor, coach, and be clear-sighted about what is...
Lessons From Shared Crises: Community Connection Matters
As the Blitz and other collective crises have taught us, resilience is not a given and has to be managed with an understanding of...
Report: Worldwide Building Of Arts Facilities Was $5.9 Billion Last Year
Despite last year’s dip, there’s reason to think that the cultural sector is coming back strong. Even amid global uncertainty about travel, cities doubled...