Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Studies Say Trigger Warnings May Be Harmful
The results of around a dozen psychological studies, published between 2018 and 2021, are remarkably consistent: trigger warnings do not seem to lessen negative...
New Vision For Orchestral Pops?
Orchestral pops programming now ranges from film scores, cartoon medleys and video game music to rap artists and jazz and circus acts. It’s whatever...
Uh Oh – A Looming Book Shortage?
“This fall, the global publishing business can expect disruption in shipping, increases in costs throughout the supply chain, shortages in consumables used for packing...
Why You Shouldn’t Be Defined By Your Work
Just as our entertainment culture encourages us to self-objectify physically, our work culture pushes us to self-objectify professionally. - The Atlantic
Toronto International Film Festival’s Joana Vicente Is New CEO Of Sundance
While in Toronto, she navigated how TIFF will meet the challenge of showcasing Hollywood and world cinema as younger filmmaking talent increasingly opts for...
Jasper Johns – Where Is The Love?
Almost everything you want from art is present: cogent ideas, flawless execution, a sweeping sense of history and a personal stamp that identifies every...
How The Smithsonian Crowdsourced Weather Reports In The 1800s
The Institution handed out weather monitoring equipment to 150 volunteer observers across the country. Each day their reports arrived by telegraph, and the Smithsonian...
Hong Kong’s Art Market Is Flourishing. But New Security Laws Threaten
Never before has the vitality of the market felt so disconnected from the everyday lives of Hong Kong people. - Artnet
Assessing The Pause On Broadway
"I always say the pandemic was the universe telling everyone to go to their room and think about what they’ve done. And while we’ve...
Amazon Wants To Robotize Your Home. Do You Want It?
Science fiction is clearly a leaping-off point for Amazon's next wave of product ideas. Suri Maddhula, director of software for Amazon's Astro, even said as much:...
Netflix Reveals Its Most-Watched Shows
Shonda Rhimes’ “Bridgerton” Season 1 scored as the No. 1 series based on both number of Netflix households and time spent viewing (in the...
TikTok Passes One Billion Users
TikTok’s popularity soared during the pandemic, becoming the most-downloaded app in the world in the first quarter of 2020, with some 315 million downloads in that...
The Case For The Greatness Of “Singin’ In The Rain”
In Singin’ in the Rain, the late Clive James felt he encountered “the absolute concentration of an entire popular culture at its most powerful.” As...
Meet The Boston Symphony’s New Leader
The orchestra has a deep pool of artistic talent, a fiercely devoted following, and Gail Samuel’s predecessor, Mark Volpe, grew the BSO’s endowment to roughly...
Ten Rules For How To Deal With Critics
Here are ten rules I try to live by in my own experiences with harsh feedback. - Ted Gioia
San Francisco, St. Paul, Pilot Minimum Guaranteed Incomes For Artists
Both pilots have received private funding. In San Francisco, after initial city funding, the team raised an additional $3.4 million from #startsmall, a pandemic-relief fund...
This Year’s MacArthur Fellows
"As we emerge from the shadows of the past two years, this class of 25 Fellows helps us reimagine what's possible," said MacArthur Fellows...
Why Remote Work Is The Future
“A remote-first company can access the best talent in the world. An office-first company can only access those who live within a certain radius...
Is Literature “Technology”?
Angus Fletcher claims that fairy tales, free indirect discourse, autobiography, and such are “technology,” and that their primary purpose is medicinal, so that neuroscience...
Why We Need To Get Comfortable With Ambiguity
If freedom-minded people are to rid ourselves of “the habits of paranoia, despair, and policing” that Maggie Nelson believes to be menacing the left...
Facebook Isn’t A Platform, It’s A Country
Facebook is not merely a website, or a platform, or a publisher, or a social network, or an online directory, or a corporation, or...
Melting Glaciers In Mongolia Reveal And Imperil Ancient Artifacts
Frozen heritage is melting from mountain ice in every hemisphere. As it does so, small groups of archaeologists are scrambling to cobble together the funding...
What Graffiti From Venetian Quarantine Facilities Of The 1400’s Tell Us
In their free time, some of the porters wrote on the large walls of the tezon grande, a room over 105 yards long that was...
Why Is This Noted Antiquities Scholar Being Accused Of Theft Of Artifacts?
It is an understatement to say that the dispute over Dirk Obbink and the papyrus has shaken a scholarly world where ancient texts are...
Some Worrying Trends In Fundraising For Public Radio
Since FY16, median new donor counts have fallen 8%. During that time, median sustaining donors have dropped nearly 18%. - Current