Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Literary Studies Are Dying. How Should The Field Cope?
Especially cruel realities face a struggling field like literary studies, with its disappearing majors, budgetary pressures, abysmal job market, fears about academic freedom, and...
Brooke Shields Is Actors Equity’s New President. Here’s What She Wants To Do.
Shields’s music director suggested she consider the opening, and soon enough, she had tossed her hat in the ring, and in May she won the vote...
This Year’s Classical Music Programming Diversity Report
The Donne report found that 78.4 percent of works in 2023–2024 were by historical (deceased) white men, with 30.6 percent coming from the top...
Is Australian Arts Funding At An All-Time Low?
Right now, after the chaos of the COVID years and amid a cost of living crisis, many in the sector are feeling like arts...
Oooh. Now We Have “Malevolent” Creativity
When you think of creativity, you probably imagine a genius behind an easel or at the heart of a brilliantly directed movie. However, people can...
“Carnegie Hall Of The West” Is For Sale
Harvest Rock Church is asking $45 million for the 1,200-seat auditorium near the Old Pasadena district that has also hosted jazz greats including Ella...
LA’s Jazz Clubs Are Under Stress. Can They Survive?
The city is brimming with jazz musicians releasing stellar albums and taking risks live. But is L.A. so expensive and disconnected that it’s risking...
Why Should We Have To Allow Facial Recognition To Use Ordinary Services?
There’s something disconcerting about a sophisticated piece of surveillance technology deployed for something as banal as selling candy. - The Walrus
San Francisco Symphony Threatens To Ban Patron Over Protest Sign
Amid growing public outrage over the Board of Governors’ failure to retain the acclaimed Finnish conductor beyond his five-year contract ending after the 2024-25...
Ownership Of Ancient Culture Is Getting Very Very Complicated
If a statue cast in Rome 2,000 years ago is discovered in Greece, Cyprus or Turkey, would it belong to one of those states,...
US State Department Appoints 11 Musicians As Cultural Ambassadors
The State Department introduced 11 global music ambassadors who are charged with bridging cultural divides through poetry and melody at a time when the...
De-Aging Tom Hanks In The Movies
If Zemeckis can achieve that effect in Here, how long can it be before such de-ageing is as common as using hair dye and...
The Year’s First Movie Blockbuster: “Inside Out 2” Earns A Billion Dollars
After 19 days of release, the animated sequel has grossed $469.3 million in North America and $545.5 million internationally for a worldwide tally of...
Why Is The Academy Of Motion Pictures Museum Making So Many Mistakes?
After the museum initially failed to recognize the Jewish founders of the industry in 2021, this year the exhibit aimed at righting this lapse...
Painting Used For Cover Of The First Harry Potter Book Sells For $1.9 Million
The painting surpassed its $400,000–$600,000 pre-auction estimate, and has now increased in value by more than 1,650 percent since it was first auctioned in...
In Praise Of Roadies
Roadies are fundamental workers in the fulfilment of live music events and concert tours. They are much more than “humpers” who haul road cases...
The Reboot Industrial Complex
When we engage with nostalgic media, we are, in essence, engaging with media that attempts to take us home — often to our childhoods,...
Martin Mull, 80
Mull, who was also a singer-songwriter, rose to fame in the 1970s on Norman Lear’s satirical soap opera “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” and its...
Why Architecture Is Obsessed With The New
Regularly reinventing architecture is exciting, but it faces a number of challenges. Architecture is an art, hence creativity is important, but it is an applied art,...
We Need To Rethink The Whole Idea Of School Grading
Our current system of grading reinforces practices set in a time far different from that of the present, with different values and ideas. As...
Many Of Those Traditional Grammar Rules Are In Error
Many “rules” beloved of self-appointed grammar constables were simply made up quite recently by irritable ink-stained wretches. Using “hopefully” as a modal adjunct, for...
California Arts Funding On The Chopping Block
The first budget proposal the governor made suggested a 58% cut to California’s state arts programs. Among those cuts is a $10 million reduction...
Report: Why Desantis Canceled All Florida Arts Funding
DeSantis said the cause was Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival, which he characterized as being overtly “sexual” and therefore an inappropriate recipient of state funds. While...
The UK’s Next Culture Minister And Her Plans To Boost The Arts
Thangam Debbonaire, 57 — a former professional cellist who danced at raves in her college days and has lines of poetry tattooed on her forearm —...
French Court Rules Ravel Was the Only Composer Of “Bolero”
The heirs of Alexandre Benois, a celebrated stage designer who worked on the original performance of "Bolero", argued that he should have been credited...