Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Idaho Teacher Ordered To Remove “Everyone is Welcome Here” Poster From Classroom
West Ada School District administrators stood firm on their statement that the sign — which displays an array of hands with different skin tones,...
Publisher Sold, Leaving Writers Wondering If They’ll Get Paid
The unique selling point of the publisher, launched in 2011 by QI researchers John Mitchinson and Justin Pollard, and Crap Towns author Dan Kieran,...
The New Yorker Parts Ways With Its Art Critic
Jackson Arn, who joined the magazine in 2023, was accused of making inappropriate overtures to some of the attendees and appeared intoxicated at the...
Inside Trump’s Meetings At The Kennedy Center (Unions? What Are They?)
"Somebody replied that, in a break with the past, the center would be doing some shows not affiliated with Actors’ Equity, the union representing...
To Use A Movie Intimacy Coordinator (Or Not)
Some professionals say the decision of whether to use an intimacy co-ordinator should rest with more people. - CBC
The UK Is Losing About 40 Libraries A Year
According to those who depend on them, local libraries are far more than a repository of books - they are community focal points and,...
Graydon Carter And The Golden Age Of Magazines
The truism has it that most great New York magazine editors come from away—from the West or the Midwest or across the Atlantic—and arrive...
We Worry To Much About Misinformation At The Expense Of Focusing On What’s True
There are two errors we must avoid if we want to get closer to the truth: we shouldn’t believe things that are false, and...
Italian Newspaper Publishes First All-AI Generated Edition
The initiative by Il Foglio, a conservative liberal daily, is part of a month-long journalistic experiment aimed at showing the impact AI technology has...
Why Beckett Is Perennially Relevant (But Especially Now)
Beckett is perennially timely because his works concern themselves with those eternal questions that the political emergencies of the day cannot override. Even as...
Fast Company’s List Of 2025’s Most Innovative Architects
Innovation doesn’t have to mean reinventing the wheel: Often it just means making it better, more relevant, and a lot easier to use. -...
Trump Tours Kennedy Center, Declares It Substandard, Vows To Fix It
“It’s in tremendous disrepair, as is a lot of the rest of our country, most of it because of bad management,” Trump told reporters...
Edgar Allan Poe’s Life Was A Mess. He Wrote To Compensate
Through all his binges and bankruptcies, through every setback and depressive spell, he kept making art because he knew that’s where the best of...
American Universities Under Threat As Government Uses Funding Threats
“If the federal government can show up and demand a university department be shut down or restructured, then we don’t have universities in this...
On Further Reflection, Was “Mona Lisa” A Vampire?
Looking again at how the myth of the Mona Lisa emerged, I believe that her fame is due not just to the painting’s display...
Fairy Tales Seem Like Common Culture. They’re Not
Folk tales offer a kind of fabular impersonality, where an author’s voice is lost in a wider fiction machine or culture of storytelling. That...
The Art World Is In Peril. How Do We Make It Better?
What do we talk about when we talk about the ‘Art World’ in 2025? It definitely doesn’t describe everyone who makes art, or buys art, or...
Forget Blue-Chip Art. We Live In A Red-Chip World
Red-chip art comes in many guises, but certain visual patterns predominate: super-flat cartoons, a street art/graffiti aesthetic, and multi-colored chrome. A crypto component is...
Human Cognition Worldwide Is Declining. Why?
Obviously, there's no single answer as to why people seem to be struggling with cognitive skills, but one key indicator is the sharp decline...
OpenAI Appeals To Trump To Let Its AI Feast On Copyrighted Work (Or We’re...
"If the PRC's developers have unfettered access to data and American companies are left without fair use access, the race for AI is effectively...
Trump Moves To Close VOA And Institute of Museum and Library Services, Which Funds...
One order signed Friday night calls for the agencies — some of which are focused on minority business enterprises, museum and library services, and homelessness prevention...
Disney’s Huge “Snow White” Mess
At the heart of the stunning decision appears to be Disney boss Bob Iger’s determination to avoid the wrath of Trump and the MAGA movement, which has put the entertainment...
Trump Canceled Marine Band Performance With Kids. Musicians Found A Workaround
This past Sunday, at the music center at Strathmore, near Washington, 22 students who had lost their chance to play tuned up with the...
AI Versus Copyright Just Got More Hard Core: Google Gemini Removes Watermarks
Gemini 2.0 Flash will uncomplainingly create images depicting celebrities and copyrighted characters, and — as alluded to earlier — remove watermarks from existing photos. - TechCrunch
Is There Any Such Thing As A “Mainstream” Media Now?
What was once the mainstream media—the networks, the newspapers, certain magazines—years ago lost the command that it had of the nation’s attention and with...
