Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
TV Has Done A Bad Job At Portraying Poverty
We need productions that embrace social realism without condescension, interrogate class insightfully, and present characters that are not caricatures. - The Walrus
LA’s Theatres Face Big Issues In Reopening
Two issues: Uncertainty as to when theatergoers will be ready to cram into small black boxes, and a 2020 state law that stands to...
9/11 Museum’s Twentieth Anniversary Show Canceled For Budget Cuts
Before the coronavirus pandemic, curators had discussed a large anniversary exhibition examining music’s role in uniting Americans after 9/11 and other tragedies. -...
Today’s Newsletter Boom – A New Literary Genre?
The first-person informality that has been present since the earliest days of web writing achieves its business apotheosis in the newsletter: from personal essay...
Meet Andrew Lloyd Webber, Activist
Lloyd Webber — who redefined musical theater with shows like “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Cats,” and served for years in the House...
Why Debate Over Critical Race Theory Has Nothing To Do With It
Recall the central claims of CRT. Racism is a big, systemic problem in America. If you don’t recognize that, if we can’t at least...
What To Do With The Artists Who Were Bad People?
So little of what well known thinkers and artists did or said is actually reflected in public consciousness, assuming it makes a showing at...
Buying Culture? Unopened Super Mario Brothers Game From 1986 Sells For $1,56 Million
The auction house was shocked to see a game sell for more than a $1 million two days after the Zelda game broke its...
Vijay Gupta’s Path To Music
Being “in dialogue with an audience that otherwise would never have access to that music” opens up what Gupta calls “a mutual space of...
When Artists Decided To Make Pop Culture The Raw Materials For Their Work
In the 1950s and 60s artists increasingly looked at the products of pop culture as ideas and materials they could use for their own...
Bookshop Fined By Hungarian Government For Selling Book Featuring LGBT Families
The shop has been fined for selling a children’s story depicting a day in the life of a child with same-sex parents, with officials...
How They’re Planning To Televise The Tokyo Olympics Without Fans
Those plans include an “online cheer map” and a “fan video wall” that will be made available to TV rightsholders, and which will also...
Study: Public Broadcasting Has To Do Better Programming for Teens
“Overall, our interviews suggest that there is a significant gap in youth understanding of the value of public media as something distinct from commercial...
Claim: Streaming Is A Dark Hole That Is Killing Indie Films
Independent filmmakers “need the real curators, the festivals, academies, critics. We need producers who will fight for a voice that is unique, rare, ambitious...
Why The American Sitcom Has Endured for So Long
“If you look at what people watch on streaming platforms, it’s all sitcoms. What’re the most valuable properties out there? - The Guardian
What’s At Stake For Arts Venues Stranded By Bungled Federal Assistance Program
Since the program was created with the passage of the Save Our Stages Act in December, the grant been plagued by glitches and delays....
Just How Do You Determine What’s Cultural Appropriation?
Scholarly consensus regarding cultural appropriation has long accepted that the lines between cultural appreciation and appropriation may be difficult to clearly determine in real...
We All See The World Through Our Own Lenses. So What About a Lens...
As we emerge from the pandemic, we’re not just walking around without masks, we’re learning how to re-enter our bodies. - The New York...
Don’t Be So Quick To Call It A Cult
If we accept that cult members have some degree of volition, the job of distinguishing cults from other belief-based organizations becomes a good deal...
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Welcome to the New ArtsJournal
Hello!
Dear Reader: Several updates to tell you about:
1. Our New Website
For a long time, the organizing idea about the stories we collected on ArtsJournal...
Stolen Picasso, Mondrian Found In Ravine In Greece
In custody is not a gang of thieves who planned a Hollywood-style heist, but a 49-year-old construction worker, with the Twitter name ArtFreak, who...
Why Writers Need Agents
Writers need agents more than agents need writers. They have needed them since the late 19th century, when an increasingly literate public fed by...
Let’s Talk About Green Things In Movies (Fascinating)
What makes a good greensperson? The best of them know how and where to get things, no matter how rare or obscure or out...
How The Pandemic Has/Is Changing The Ways We Look At Art
What I did not expect was how these installations would speak to one another, and to me, about the pandemic. - Artnet
