Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
The Enduring (And Contemporary) Art Of The Tartan
Far from being a dyed-in-the-wool slice of historic Caledonian kitsch, tartan design is very much alive and well in the 21st Century – as...
The Hucksterism Of Selling Culture In The 20th Century
Any given work—1984, say, or Bonnie and Clyde—isn’t much of anything until it becomes a counter in other people’s games. How much pure hucksterism...
The Perils (And Uneasy Promise) Of Artificial Intelligence
“Some glitches are mild, like an Alexa that randomly giggles (or wakes you in the middle of the night, as happened to one of...
Power Of The Press? From Op-Ed To Federal Writers Project Bill In Congress
Like his forebears under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration, David Kipen rolled up his sleeves and went to work. He started writing letters...
A New York City Ballet Principal Writes About Returning To The Studio
Russell Janzen: "This is the longest I have danced with someone else in quite some time, and after running it in this first...
The Diversity of Performing Arts Audiences: Weighing Organizational Factors and Business Decisions
The pursuit of audiences and artists who come from, and speak for, various subgroups can enrich any shared arts experience aesthetically, emotionally, and socially....
Disinfectant Theatre: CDC Says Super-cleaning Surfaces Isn’t Necessary. Theatres Are Doing It Anyway
This aspect of theater hygiene has turned out to be little more than — well — hygiene theater. Experts have been saying since last...
Trying Very Hard To Ask Bruce Dern Interview Questions
"'Wait a minute, let me tell you about this first,” says Bruce Dern, embarking on what I think is his fifth discursive anecdote in...
UK Will Fast-Track Visas For Anyone Who’s Won An Oscar, Grammy, Golden Globe Etc.
The U.K. Home Office revealed on Wednesday that people who have won any of these awards will be able to skip the endorsements previously...
The Heated Battle Over ‘Hooked On Phonics’ (Yes, There Was One)
"As strangely ho-hum as Hooked on Phonics feels now, it was once a juggernaut in the educational space, selling hundreds of millions of dollars'...
Whoosh — Chicago Arts Scramble To Get Back In The Game
The city had most all of its nonprofit arts constituencies in line like eager petitioners: as soon as the mayor spoke, they hit “send”...
Getting Students To Seriously Wrestle With Cancel Culture And ‘Loving The Art But Hating...
"For 20 years now, … Harvey Weinstein was still feared, Kanye West was still about the music, and museums exhibited portfolios of amoral...
The Science Of Victimhood?
A study identifies a negative personality trait they call TIV or Tendency toward Interpersonal Victimhood. People who score high on a TIV test have...
Daniel Libeskind To Redesign Pittsburgh’s Tree Of Life Synagogue, Site Of 2018 Shooting
"Libeskind, who designed the Jewish Museum in Berlin and the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa, has experience responding to traumatic events through architecture. He...
Book Of Antoine De Saint-Exupéry’s Love Letters Marks End Of 18-Year Legal Battle Between...
The letters were between the French author of The Little Prince and his wife, a Salvadoran artist of whom his family sternly disapproved. The...
Did Kim Kardashian Traffic A Looted Antiquity?
According to a newly filed lawsuit, in 2016, U.S. Customs seized a fragment of an ancient Roman statue that it believed had been stolen...
Why Broadway Isn’t Restarting Until September
"With as many as eight shows a week to fill, and the tourists who make up an important part of their customer base yet...
Britain’s NHS Tries Prescribing Song Playlists To Alzheimer’s Patients
"A test among people with dementia found an algorithm that 'prescribes' songs based on listeners' personal backgrounds and tastes resulted in reductions in heart...
Austin’s Arts Funding Down By A Staggering 93%
"Money for Austin's municipal arts funding comes from the Hotel Occupancy Tax of which the arts receive 15% of the city's allocation. Funding levels...
‘Sesame Street’ Was A Radical Experiment
"It's easy to forget now, given the show's 52-year ubiquity, that the original program was a shot in the dark – the first show...
Technology In The Arts After COVID
Rachel Moore: "Performing arts organizations experienced a steep learning curve that dictated a digital competency most probably never aspired to. Whether this new learning...
How Data Science Is Analyzing The Arts
"Computer scientists are writing algorithms to identify the emotional arcs of novels. Sociologists are building statistical models to analyze why certain works of visual...
“Multitasking” Is A Lie
The American Psychological Association has reported that even brief mental blocks created by shifting between tasks can cost as much as 40% in productivity....
The Moral Imperative For Releasing The Patents On Vaccines
"The pharmaceutical industry and the governments of several vaccine-producing countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as the European Commission,...
Celebrate Napoleon? Well, It Is His 200th Birthday…
This isn’t the first time that commemorating Napoleon or the events of his reign has posed a problem. In 2005, the then president of...