Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
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...
Celine Dion Warns Fans About AI-Generated Music That Impersonates Her
“It has come to our attention that unsanctioned, AI-generated music purporting to contain Celine Dion’s musical performances, and name and likeness, is currently circulating...
The Songs Of Canada Versus Trump
The pro-Canada songs currently spreading across social media, including some by Canadian celebrities, reveal a range of reactions to Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats,...
Sofia Gubaidulina’s Place in The Musical World
Gubaidulina’s work is not the kind of thing you put on during morning yoga. She makes sounds of struggle and disorder; of awaiting some...
Balanchine Wasn’t Just Important In Dance
Balanchine’s relevance to visual art is not just in direct collaborations and affiliations with artists in his lifetime. His formal gestures and patterns make...
IATSE Stagehands Protest Show Cancelations At The Kennedy Center
“Behind-the-scenes workers need to feed our families and have neither participated in any decisions relating to booked content, nor have we considered social issues...
JD Vance Booed At Kennedy Center Concert
On Thursday night, the Kennedy Center concert hall was awash in nearly a minute of howling, passionate booing. It started with one or two boos...
OpenAI Urges Trump Whitehouse To Allow Its AI To Train On Copyrighted Work
In its proposal, OpenAI urged the federal government to enact a series of “freedom-focused” policy ideas, including an approach that would no longer compel...
What Cancellation Of Big Bird Tells Us About The State Of Our Public Good
The cancellation of Big Bird and co. would be a loss, but there’s something bigger going on. Sesame Street’s fate is symptomatic of a larger...
Italy’s Politicians Fight Over Protecting Heritage
The Italia Nostra heritage group warned that “downgrading interest in landscape” posed a “serious risk to the heritage of the widespread community”. - The...
Understanding Music Editing
Like a page turner for a pianist or a sheet music librarian, music editor is the kind of job that only the idiosyncratic structures of...
Actors Unions Frustrated In AI Negotiations With Video Game Industry
According to SAG-AFTRA, a recent proposal submitted by the major video game makers was filled with “alarming loopholes that will leave our members vulnerable...
