Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
How Hallmark Movies Impact British Columbia’s Economy
Love it or hate it, Hallmark movies are big business in B.C., where the company films the about 40 per cent of its content — Christmas...
Why Canadian Fiction Needs To Stop Talking To Itself
In Canada, the literary world tends to be inward-looking. It’s obvious why. For three-quarters of a century, the official position has been that if...
Broadway’s Greatest Season: 1957-58
The last hurrah of these bygone performers was the Broadway season of 1957–58, arguably the greatest season on Broadway of the last 75 years....
The Market Fantasy That Has Undermined The Art World From Within
The current erosion of the art market is not a cyclical contraction; it is the result of oversaturation and a speculative economy in which...
Is The Music Of The Future One Unencumbered By Structures Of The Past?
Busoni proposed the notion of “Ur-Musik.” It is an elemental realm of absolute music in which composers have approached the “true nature of music”...
The Film Buffs Preserving Classic Movies
The artifacts of 20th-century cinema are being preserved in museums, archives and other august institutions. But they are surviving, too, in the care of...
Your Spotify Wrapped Doesn’t Really Know You. But Your Reading Does
Listening to music can be a passive experience — one enjoyed in tandem with folding laundry, or driving a car. To really learn about...
The Books, Recordings, Culture Entering Public Domain January 1
Under U.S. law, the copyright on thousands of creations from 1930 — including films, books, musical compositions and more — will expire at the...
Can AI Help Put Back Together A Cimabue Ceiling Fresco Shattered In An Earthquake?
A joint project headed by the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria in Perugia, which has officially worked with the Basilica’s guardians for the past decade, and...
In Praise Of The Intelligence Of Aphorisms
Aphorisms are different. They are the antithesis of the half-baked hot take and nothing like the machine-made flattery that’s now permeating so many informational...
Why Did So Many Art Galleries Close This Year?
Overall, when it came to galleries, the dominant vibe was one of endings more than beginnings—and it continued a building drumbeat. Those who closed...
Are Our Grandparents Being Captured By Their Phones?
“I am constantly begging my mom to put her phone down, every time I see her she is just mindlessly scrolling. I swear her...
Disney Has Had Its Best Box Office Year Since Before The Pandemic
Disney is the first and only studio to cross $6B this year, the next best major is Warner Bros with $4.3B. 2025 repped Disney’s...
AI Voice Clones Are Amazing. But Also Troublesome In Defining Identity
Technology may blur boundaries, but it also reveals who holds the power. When male creators use AI to simulate female voices and personas, are...
2025 Was A Very Tough Year For Libraries. These Are The Top Stories
Federal funding, the freedom to read, perpetual or temporary access to print and digital collections, and AI innovations saw new and unpredictable developments on a...
We Know So Little About How Our Senses Interact. Why Does Music Make Food...
When we sit down for a meal, all of our senses come to the table, and some of them have unexpected effects. Heavier cutlery,...
Authors Sue AI Companies Over Copyright (Again)
The group of authors, which includes two-time Pulitzer Prize winner John Carreyrou, are among those who opted out of the proposed $1.5 billion settlement of...
Movie Extras Are An Endangered Species
Central Casting — now so eponymous that its name has become a cultural phrase — celebrated its 100th anniversary earlier this month. Remember the...
Philadelphia Art Museum Doubles Down On Fired Director
“Arbitration clauses are interpreted literally, but not foolishly,” the new filing argues. It asks the court to enter an order compelling Suda to submit...
British Museum’s Longterm Loans Program Doesn’t Remediate Colonial Looting
Long-term loans are not restitution. They do not acknowledge historical wrongdoing, nor do they restore agency to source communities. Instead, they reinforce a museum’s...
Pewabic Pottery seeks next Executive Director
Pewabic Pottery, one of the oldest continuously operating potteries in the country & now a nonprofit in Detroit, MI seeks its next Executive Director.
Our Collapsing Attention And The Difficulty Of Story-Telling
When all time is flattened into the present, narrative form begins to erode. Instant communication collapses tenses into an interminable “now,” and live streams...
A Stolen Art Expert Talks About The Louvre
The main takeaway, for me, is that museums have a vulnerability—a technical, physical vulnerability—that is mirrored by the vulnerability of the public’s reaction, the...
Inside The Emptying Out Of The Pompidou Centre
It felt like visiting your childhood home stripped of its furniture — intimately familiar yet deeply disorienting. How would Paris get through five years...
How Audiobooks Infiltrated My Reading Habits
Like many audiobook devotees, I’m sheepish about my conversion, which seems blasphemous for a writer at the Book Review. I wonder whether listening “counts” as...
