Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Kennedy Center CEO Demands Consequences For “Les Miz” Artists Who Decline To Perform
Ric Grenell, reacting Wednesday to headlines about cast members of Les Misérables who are planning to boycott President Donald Trump’s scheduled appearance next month, demanded career-altering consequences for...
How To Respond Thoughtfully To Offensive Comments
Rather than freezing, fleeing or fighting, I propose that you forge. Forging ahead is an intentional approach to engaging with people who say or write...
AMC Says Movie Box Office In Q1 Was “An Anomaly”
“Anyone trying to draw any conclusions about the success or appeal of movie theatres from the results of the first quarter of 2025 is...
Paris Museum Show Reminds Us About The Dangers Of Political Suppression Of Art
This French museum’s show offers a flashback to the era when, apart from the works including those displayed here, the artists who created them...
Disney Reports Robust Business At Its Theme Parks
The company said operating profit at its domestic theme park division had climbed 13 percent from a year earlier, to $1.82 billion. Revenue increased...
Can Hong Kong Grow As A Cultural Center?
The concept of “cultural-retail” has seeped into the fabric of Hong Kongers’ lives, with new properties such as Airside and The Henderson finding inspiration...
Classical California Radio Is Thriving
The sheer size of Classical California’s listenership is remarkable in the face of algorithmic streams and the wide array of music available only a...
Every Arts Director At The NEA Resigns
All 10 directors who oversee grants in various disciplines of the arts — such as museums, theater, design, and folk and traditional arts —...
Up Next: Taxing Endowments?
In recent years, the idea has made the leap to the MAGA right. Along the way, it has become something very different: not a...
Public Media Gears Up To Fight Elimination Of Federal Funding
It’s an attack on the free press, and the very idea of an American public sphere: where information and ideas flow freely, everyone has...
Immersive Dance That Brings It To The Audience
Dances that put artists and audience members in close proximity—whether they’re immersive, invite (or demand) audience participation, or have moments where the fourth wall...
An Opera Production In South Dakota That Shows What Opera In A Community Can...
The most enthusiasm was reserved for Delta David Gier, who was closing out the South Dakota Symphony’s season with one of the ensemble’s great...
Soprano Picked To Lead Opera Theatre Of St. Louis
Patricia Racette, who made her debut at the Met in 1995, is known for her portrayals of Puccini heroines. She has also ventured into...
Our Depopulation Crisis
Fewer working-age adults entails a shrinking tax base, even as the need for public services swells. Education, healthcare, infrastructure, public safety and welfare will...
How Do You Tariff Foreign Films? Here’s A Better Way To Help The Movie...
While tariffs are unlikely to have the effect Trump claims he wants, a federal tax credit program for filmmakers—something California politicians spent years advocating...
Trump’s Kennedy Center CEO Attacks Lin-Manuel Miranda And “America’s Got Talent”
Ric Grenell complained after Monday’s episode revealed that Miranda, who has declined to perform at the venue after its Trump-led makeover, will be mentoring contestants in...
The Uncertain Future Of One Of The Smithsonian’s Most Popular Museums
Now it is in the cross-hairs of President Trump, who issued an executive order in March that seeks to address what he described as the Smithsonian’s...
How LACMA’s New Building Will Change The Art Inside
The discussion offered a glimpse into the animated debate that the museum’s 45 curators have been engaged in over the last five years, reimagining...
How Spotify Came To Own The Music
If you spend enough time on Spotify, it’s easy to sense, inchoately, that the platform is taking advantage of everyone involved. - The Nation
How JMW Turner Became The Painter We Know
A fellow painter, Benjamin Robert Haydon, thought that “Turner’s pictures always look as if painted by a man who was born without hands” who...
Is The Future of Theatre Immersive?
"I think it's an empowering situation when participants are able to not just immersive themselves in a world but actually affect that world and,...
Trump Versus The Arts World
Trump has depicted the Kennedy Center as a crumbling building that he will return to its former glory. Never mind that he has offered...
France And EU Establish Enormous New Fund To Attract American Researchers
“The role of science in today’s world is questioned. The investment in fundamental, free and open research is questioned. What a gigantic miscalculation,” von...
Beloved Indie Florida Bookstore At Center Of Censorship Fight
Management began reviewing all store materials after receiving a complaint from a customer against profanity on a greeting card. What began as a purge...
Why Do So Many Artists Come From Broken Homes?
Paradoxical though it may seem, studies have found that many creative people had difficult childhoods. Indeed, many well-known artists owe their genius to tough childhood events, from...
