Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
We Need New Thinking About Looted Art
‘Looted’ is a contested term: it covers a spectrum from out-and-out pillage to ostensibly legal transfers of title that may have occurred under coercion...
NPR Revenue Only Declined Two Percent Last Year
The public radio network’s operating revenue slid just two percent in 2020 to $270.1 million. And last year’s revenue was actually up seven percent...
Why English Is Such A Chaotic Collection Of Letters And Pronunciations
From the early Middle Ages, various European languages adopted and adapted the Latin alphabet. So why did English end up with a far more...
Theatre Critic Assumes Fellow Critic Is White, Then Has To Reassess When She Discovers...
I felt ashamed of my mistake, for not seeing a colleague for who he really is. “How limited your perception is, Lily!” I thought....
Barry Diller: Only Ten Percent Of Movie Theatres Will Survive
“Because of streaming, because of the pandemic, because of the enormous production of longform content … the word movies — what we think of...
Our Habits Aren’t Just Mindless — They Actually Help Make Us Smarter
Even our most mundane habitual routines actually display a great deal of intelligence. Indeed, they are often intelligently context-sensitive and flexible in such a...
ABT Executive Director Says She Will Depart To Work On Social Impact Fund
Kara Medoff Barnett will be leaving to lead social impact marketing and strategy at First Republic Bank and develop the recently established First Republic Foundation. -...
The Difference Between Music Education and Not
"I felt so small. A half Navajo and half Apache girl writing 'fancy' music for a quartet — something I had never dreamed of...
YouTuber Deepfakes Mandalorian So Well That LucasFilm Hires Him
One of those fans did so well, Lucasfilm has hired him to help it ensure its upcoming projects won't feature underwhelming de-aging and facial visual effects....
Documentary: What Made Alvin Ailey Ailey
The Ailey company has performed on six continents for millions of people. His 1960 ballet “Revelations" is considered a cultural treasure. - Washington Post
Is There A Future For Film Festivals?
American film festivals faced an identity crisis even before the pandemic. An impenetrably dense media landscape, the proliferation of on-demand content, and market instability created a...
The Singular Voice Of Janet Malcolm
The kind of writing that Malcolm practiced so beautifully had been disappearing for a long time when she died, and today it is nearly...
Study: Seeing Theatre Increases Empathy, Influences Behavior
Seeing theatre changed people’s behavior. After seeing the plays, people donated more to charity — whether or not the charity was related to the...
How DeepFake Voices Are hanging Hollywood
The voice imitation revolution is already here, and artists, technologists and companies in several industries who use the new tech are grappling with the...
Why Do We Go To War? It’s Quite Simple, Really
There are only three such impulses: greed, self-defense, and ideas or emotions. - The Nation
Why Framing The Question Is The Most Important Part Of The Debate
Any question, any debate must be formulated. How and whether the question can be resolved is contingent on the way it is formulated. - 3...
New Data On Who Leads America’s Dance Companies
There have been 207 Artistic Directors employed by the Largest 50 US ballet companies to date. Of the 207 Artistic Directors, only 60 have...
Abusive Philanthropy…
When donors require stewardship – due to insistent input on the inner workings of the organization, threats of withholding financial support, or continual adamant requirements to...
How Cincinnati Opera Is Reinventing Itself… Outdoors
“When we made the decision that we couldn’t perform indoors in Music Hall, the hunt was on. Of course, the first obvious choice would...
A Lackluster Opening Olympics
Unfortunately, the messaging was muddled — the ideas crowding one another out — by a ceremony most notable for how small and muted the...
Where AI Is Scariest? Its Ability To Speak
Artificial intelligence is an ethical quagmire. Its power can be more than a little nauseating. But there’s a kind of unique horror to the...
Misconceptions About The Relationship Between Arts And Sports
While there are many sports devotees in the Australian arts sector (as a search for the Twitter hashtag #aflartsmafia reveals), the fallacy continues that...
How Much Of Your Life Has Been Determined By Fiction?
"There is a kind of bibliomancy, the use of books in divination, to being a reader of fiction. This magical concept begins while book...
Can US Cultural Policy Better Reflect American Values?
The US is one of the largest markets for cultural goods, so it makes good sense that our country has taken a leading role...
How US Teen Culture Took Over The World
Universal secondary education not only elevated Americans by spreading relevant knowledge and skills to the masses. It also gave rise to a more complex...