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How Do You Test For The Arts?

August 11, 2016 by Douglas McLennan 9 Comments

How Do You Test For The Arts?

It's a more difficult question than you might think. There's a maxim in the education world that only subjects that are tested are funded. Thus an imperative for arts education champions to get the arts included in required standardized tests. In a STEM world, the arts don't exist. But how do you make standardized tests for the arts? Multiple choice questions might measure knowledge but do … [Read more...]

Are We Building Artistic Leadership?

August 3, 2016 by Douglas McLennan 5 Comments

Are We Building Artistic Leadership?

Are the arts about selling tickets to shows or about art? Of course performances and exhibitions don't happen if they don't have money to be produced, but - as evidenced at an arts marketing conference where I recently spoke - the business of selling tickets seems often to determine the measure of success rather than the art. "Art" is a positioning for selling tickets. I'm currently working on … [Read more...]

The Virtual Arts – Have It Your Way?

January 26, 2016 by Douglas McLennan 1 Comment

The Virtual Arts – Have It Your Way?

C-NET came away from this month's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas pronouncing that virtual reality is going to displace traditional porn. No surprise that the porn industry leads in technology. Because of all the money in the early days of the internet, porn invested heavily in technology and pioneered pop-ups, redirects, payment collection and more. Much of your everyday internet … [Read more...]

Playing For The Screens – Is Our Obsession With Video Changing The Live Arts Experience?

January 20, 2016 by Douglas McLennan 4 Comments

Playing For The Screens – Is Our Obsession With Video Changing The Live Arts Experience?

One weekend last November, the biggest box-office at movie theatres throughout the UK wasn't for the latest Hollywood blockbuster (the latest "Hunger Games" movie opened that Friday). It was for a live broadcast of  Kenneth Branagh’s production of  "The Winter’s Tale" which was streamed live to 520 theatres in the UK and 100 more internationally on November 26. Starring Branagh and Judi Dench, it … [Read more...]

When Libraries Realize That The Most Valuable Thing They Own Isn’t Their Collections

January 11, 2016 by Douglas McLennan 5 Comments

When Libraries Realize That The Most Valuable Thing They Own Isn’t Their Collections

Remember when the internet came along and everyone wondered whether there would still be a use for libraries? Oddly, just as the question was being called, in the early 2000s there was a building boom of new libraries around North America. And public libraries didn't die, they flourished, many reinventing themselves as community centers for the 21st Century. The idea of a public library is … [Read more...]

The Mass Market Ain’t What It Used To Be (And What That Means For The Arts)

November 30, 2015 by Douglas McLennan 1 Comment

The Mass Market Ain’t What It Used To Be (And What That Means For The Arts)

What does it mean to "engage with an audience"? It's a fundamental question for anyone who makes anything. Whether it's a political party trying to win votes, Coke trying to sell drinks, an entrepreneur trying to sell an idea, or a theatre trying to sell tickets. Whole industries thrive on trying to define, quantify and strategize engagement and building audience. It breaks down into three … [Read more...]

Too Many Artists Or Not Enough Value?

February 5, 2015 by Douglas McLennan 12 Comments

Too Many Artists Or Not Enough Value?

Scott Timberg's book Culture Crash makes a case that the transformation of our culture right now is killing artists' ability to make a living making art. He cites a number of reasons, but in the end it boils down to the fact that with so much free culture/art available, people are increasingly unwilling to pay for the art they use, thus making it economically unviable for artists to make their … [Read more...]

Morbid Curiosity – Culture Is Dead (Move Along…)

January 26, 2014 by Douglas McLennan Leave a Comment

Morbid Curiosity – Culture Is Dead (Move Along…)

What a week. First there was the Slate piece that declared classical music dead. Then spiked decided that pop music was over. Why is it that people keep wanting to kill off great swaths of our culture? These are only the latest in a long series of articles declaring the end of orchestras, of Netflix, TV, the demise of book stores, movie theatres, publishing, video games, the English language, … [Read more...]

The Excellence Problem

December 18, 2011 by Douglas McLennan 10 Comments

The Excellence Problem

If I built the best-ever VCR, would you rush out to buy it? Of course not. Even though my VCR might be the most excellent VCR, no one cares about VCRs anymore. Being excellent at something no one cares about doesn't get you very far. What was excellent yesterday doesn't necessarily matter today. If I'm all about apples and you bring me oranges, I don't care how good the oranges are. So when … [Read more...]

Douglas McLennan

I’m the founder and editor of ArtsJournal, which was founded in September 1999 and aggregates arts and culture news from all over the internet. The site is also home to some 60 arts bloggers. I’m a … [Read More...]

About diacritical

Our culture is undergoing profound changes. Our expectations for what culture can (or should) do for us are changing. Relationships between those who make and distribute culture and those who consume it are changing. And our definitions of what artists are, how they work, and how we access them and their work are changing. So... [Read more]

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Recent Comments

  • Jaym on Too Many Artists Or Not Enough Value?: “That won't work. The vast majority of contemporary art is bought as a tool by people who want to mark…” Dec 28, 18:35
  • Jaym on Too Many Artists Or Not Enough Value?: “Haha the arts education lobby. Must be the most impotent lobby on the face of the earth. I don't think…” Dec 28, 18:18
  • Peter Nelson on Too Many Artists Or Not Enough Value?: “For purposes of this discussion how are we defining "artist"? Are the various creatives involved in the advertising industry, the…” Mar 17, 13:02
  • David Beauchesne on Some Of Our Orchestras Seem To Be Thriving – Is This A New Trend?: “The Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra (& Music School) has experienced just under a decade of balanced budgets, and recent spectacular…” Mar 10, 06:09
  • william osborne on Is The Institutionalization Of Our Arts A Dead End?: “And finally, even the term "attention span" contains an implicit judgment that only clouds the issue. It's not so…” Feb 22, 00:05
  • william osborne on Is The Institutionalization Of Our Arts A Dead End?: “And about binge watching. The shows are based on constantly keeping the watcher in a fast-paced thrall. 24…” Feb 21, 23:59
  • william osborne on Is The Institutionalization Of Our Arts A Dead End?: “Sure, we now have minimalist genres, and various long forms in the performing arts, but they are mostly highly marginalized…” Feb 21, 23:53
  • Douglas McLennan on Is The Institutionalization Of Our Arts A Dead End?: “At this point, I think it's debatable that our attention spans have shrunk. As Thomas points out, binge-watching and marathons…” Feb 20, 12:56
  • Thomas Lloyd on Is The Institutionalization Of Our Arts A Dead End?: “Who is placing an absolute value on attention spans? Even if that is the only option allowed by contemporary…” Feb 19, 15:37
  • william osborne on Is The Institutionalization Of Our Arts A Dead End?: “One could take this a step farther. One of the greatest dangers facing the arts today is that too…” Feb 17, 08:14

Top Posts

  • We Asked: What's the Biggest Challenge Facing the Arts?
  • Is Opera The Real 21st Century Art Form?
  • Are Orchestras A Ticket Or An Art? Maybe We're Thinking About The (Made Up) Model Wrong
  • Some Of Our Orchestras Seem To Be Thriving - Is This A New Trend?

Recent Posts

  • Five Story Highlights From The Past Week 02.19.17: Trapped By PACs, New WTC As Cautionary Tale, Exploiting Humanities Workers February 20, 2017
  • Join Us Today For A Livestream: Artistic Leadership In A Border City February 17, 2017
  • Is The Institutionalization Of Our Arts A Dead End? February 16, 2017
  • Are Orchestras A Ticket Or An Art? Maybe We’re Thinking About The (Made Up) Model Wrong January 26, 2017
  • Five Highlights From This Week’s AJ: The Big Ideas You Need To Know, Says MIT January 22, 2017
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An ArtsJournal Blog

Recent Posts

  • Five Story Highlights From The Past Week 02.19.17: Trapped By PACs, New WTC As Cautionary Tale, Exploiting Humanities Workers
  • Join Us Today For A Livestream: Artistic Leadership In A Border City
  • Is The Institutionalization Of Our Arts A Dead End?
  • Are Orchestras A Ticket Or An Art? Maybe We’re Thinking About The (Made Up) Model Wrong
  • Five Highlights From This Week’s AJ: The Big Ideas You Need To Know, Says MIT

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