ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

Douglas McLennan

Douglas McLennan
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Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal

In North Carolina, A New Statue Will Honor Formerly Hidden History

A few days ago, David Zucchino's book on the 1898 Wilmington Massacre won a Pulitzer Prize. Now, a new statue is about to go...

Theatre In A Slowly Reopening Canada Worries It’s Being Left Behind

One Vancouver AD says that his colleagues are extremely burned out - and also worried about what's coming. On the other hand, post-pandemic: "I...

Sony Writes Off Artists’ Debts

This means that groups and single artists who were still trying to pay back debt - and thus were not eligible for royalties -...

Envisioning A Kinder, More Beautiful Apocalypse

Filmmaker Jim Mickle: "I started asking questions like, 'What if you could make an apocalyptic story where you actually want to go to that...

Cultivating Creative Community In The Midst Of The Pandemic

It's not easy to find creative community at the best of times. Sometimes you just need an outside force - say, an "art incubator."...

Trying To Replicate An Unexpected, Grand Success

That's what season 2 - and sophomore novels - are all about. Overwhelming numbers for a TV series or book can scare artists off....

Boston Merges Ballet And Virtual Reality

It's impressively intimate: "As you stand in the middle of an undulating semi-circle of bodies, each moving with snakelike ports de bras, you discover...

Jeanne-Claude And Christo Drew Up Plans In 1962 To Wrap The Arc De Triomphe

Now, their plans are becoming reality. According to Christo's nephew, "A photo montage of how it would look was done but they never proposed...

When A Movie Understands A Generational Dilemma

In the Heights might have opened to disappointing box office numbers this weekend, but those who did see it had the chance to learn...

The Healing Power Of Queer Coming Of Age Stories

Books can be intensely powerful for some people, especially when the books do the work of repairing past pain. "'So many queer people 'have...

The Next Streaming Wars Are Coming

Coming to those who are interested in Spanish-language media, to be a little more precise. Disney, Netflix, and Warner Media, and Univision all have...

Food Travel Shows Desperately Need New Gatekeepers

Take Netflix's new High on the Hog as an example: "The narrative about Black food is often one of resilience—a history of dishes and...

Everybody Plagiarizes

And that's fine. "Published authors, more often than not famous ones, have had few scruples when it comes to committing literary larceny. 'Authors are like privateers,' claimed Samuel Johnson, 'always...

How To Be Everywhere Online

First, meme well (and second, make She Memes Well the title of your memoir). In her new book, comedian and meme power user Quinta...

Ned Beatty, Prolific Actor Of Stage And Screen, 83

Beatty's roles "captured the full spectrum of humanity — from sincerity to villainy, buffoonery to tragedy — and made him one of the most...

The Blogger Preserving Jewish Ballet

In college, Beatrice Waterhouse started wondering where she could find information about Jews in the ballet world. So she created a Tumblr site, "'People...

Quantum Computing Will Not Change Everything

Despite the hype, the reality is different - and to resist the hucksters, we need to understand why. - Wired

The Fights Over Robert Indiana’s Estate Come To An End

It's been an expensive and draining series of legal battles. "After three years of courtroom hostilities, the estate of the artist Robert Indiana and...

Brexit May Cause A Royal Mess With Copyright, Authors Warn

Living authors like Kate Mosse and Philip Pullman are worried because as Britain exits the EU, protections have changed. "Authors and publishers fear that...

A Guide To The Pulitzer Prize Books

Northern Hemisphere summer reading plans, here you go. - The New York Times

Yusef Komunyakaa On Poetry And The Pandemic

Komunyakaa: Writing poetry "feels like one has been chosen as a caretaker of observation. There's a certain reality, but also there's a certain kind...

Netflix’s ‘Selena’ Disrespected The Singer And The Latinx Staff, Writers Say

The story of Selena Quintanilla is quintessentially American - so why did Netflix order it as a Latin American original with a tiny budget...

Juilliard Students Lead Music, Dance-Filled Protests Over Tuition Hikes

After a planned protest in one of the school's buildings, the students "were barred from the Diamond building, and the school told them that...

The Formerly Hidden Histories Of Africans In England

English Heritage commissioned six portraits to emphasize the history - including Roman emperor Septimius Severus, who ordered the strengthening of Hadrian's Wall while on...

How Historical Fiction Became Literary Again

For decades, the literary world disdained historical fiction. "It has been seen as its own fusty fashion, relentlessly uncontemporary and easy to caricature, filled...
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