Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Why Fight Over Equality? Just Define It My Way
In a famous essay, the economist and philosopher Amartya Sen pointed out that we are all in favour of equality. We just disagree about...
The Copyright Wars (In Perspective)
Though invisible to most people, copyright, the authors point out, is the legal matrix underlying the wealth of nations today, with copyrights in design,...
Urban Planning: Street Grids Are Making a Comeback
We were the victims of an American approach to city planning that had lost its way. But the next generation of kids may not...
LACMA’s Looted Art Problem
For experts in museum ethics, LACMA’s handling of the situation — which partisans see as a proxy battle in a larger war over evolving...
Kansas Senate Cancels Public Broadcasting Funding Cut After Embarrassment
Republican senators objected to an LGBTQ documentary. - Current
A New Magazine For Art Criticism
"Our goal is to shift industry standards. Capitalism swallows its own critiques, and we really are dedicated to waiting to scale. We have ambitions...
A Rising Movement For Academic Freedom (But How To Define It?)
Over the past year, faculty groups dedicated to academic freedom have sprung up at Harvard, Yale and Columbia, where even some liberal scholars argue...
Can Humans Survive AI?
“Biological extinction, that’s not the point. The light of humanity and our understanding, our intelligence — our consciousness, if you will — can go on without meat humans.”...
How Arts Council England Coerces
"A number of programming staff at a major ACE-funded organisation recently described to me how they were investigated by its HR department after inviting...
Royal Ontario Museum To Redesign, Make First Floor Free Admission
"We call it OpenROM, a transformative project that will both literally and figuratively open the museum up even more, creating a thriving cultural and...
Like A Switch Flipped: Today’s College Students Have A Reading Comprehension Disability
Now students are intimidated by anything over 10 pages and seem to walk away from readings of as little as 20 pages with no...
Judge Throws Out Some Artist Claims Against OpenAI
In the ruling, Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín threw out claims on vicarious copyright infringement, DMCA violations, negligence, and unjust enrichment. The court did not believe...
The Allure Of The Grand Gesture
Classic grand gestures from novels and films are defined by a kind of sacrifice: hallmarks include the willingness to be rejected. - The Point
BodyTraffic Aims To Be LA’s Dance Company
For most of its existence BODYTRAFFIC has been better known and more appreciated outside of LA than in its hometown, in great part because...
A Transformative Calder Gift To The Seattle Art Museum
Last April, the Shirleys donated 48 works by Alexander Calder to the Seattle Art Museum (SAM). While Calders proliferate in museums across the globe, these are...
A Transformative $60 Million Gift To San Francisco Ballet
San Francisco Ballet has received a groundbreaking gift: It announced on Thursday that it had secured a $60 million contribution from an anonymous donor,...
The Critical Importance Of Thelma Golden In The Art World
"I had known Thelma Golden for a decade before I fully absorbed the critical role she had played, and continues to play, in desegregating...
Tate Modern Has 12.5 Million Social Media Followers. Here’s How
"We try to strike a careful balance between experimenting with TikTok and posting on Instagram, as Instagram remains our most reliably steadfast channel. It’s...
The Sports Industry Hasn’t Figured Out How Fans Should Watch
It’s never been more complicated (or expensive) for sports fans to watch their favorite teams. - Bloomberg
How Arizona Theatre Company Thrives In Two Homes
“What people don’t realize is that in a $6 million budget, the expenses in Phoenix are only $1 million more. We netted close to...
How Diversity Has Made Elite Universities Better
Efforts to grow and embrace diversity at America’s great research universities have made them better than ever. If you want excellence, you need to...
Belgrade Philharmonic Musicians Warn Its Future Is In Danger
During a concert on Friday, Feb. 9, 2024, the musicians of the Belgrade Philharmonic read a letter to the audience that pointed out their difficult position,...
Americans Have Stopped Hanging Out
This young century, Americans have collectively submitted to a national experiment to deprive ourselves of camaraderie in the world of flesh and steel, choosing...
Professional Arts Journalism Is Going Away
As the quantity and quality of professional arts coverage and criticism in major media outlets erodes, so too does much of the public’s awareness...
Russian “Artist” Threatens To Dissolve Picassos, Rembrandts, In Acid
Andrei Molodkin claims to be sealing original works of art by Picasso, Rembrandt, Warhol, Sarah Lucas, Andres Serrano and more in a safe designed...