Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Win the case, lose the institution
Good Morning,
A federal judge ruled Thursday that DOGE's cancellation of more than $100M in NEH grants was unconstitutional (AP) — a win, and a...
Claim: Figuring Out Consciousness Isn’t Difficult
Amid the current cultural backlash against progressive ideas, today’s debate on consciousness reflects our human fears of belonging to the same family as inanimate...
How Gawker Reshaped Our Media Landscape
Gawker, which shut down 10 years ago this August, was guilty of lapses in judgment — former staffers interviewed for this story admit as...
Warner Bros. Posts $2.9B Loss In First Quarter
The New York-based media company released its first-quarter earnings report Wednesday, which included a $2.9-billion loss. That amount includes $1.3 billion in restructuring expenses,...
Portland, OR Has An Arts Tax. Now It’s Time To Reform It
“Without this much needed arts tax reform, including indexing it to inflation, we risk losing the very institutions that make Portland vibrant, and we...
How Trump Took Over The NEH
A little over a year later, after the Department of Government Efficiency eliminated more than half of the NEH staff and tried to terminate 97 percent of...
How Our Machines Are Getting In The Way Of Art
From the original, nineteenth-century form popularized by Balzac, Zola, and Stendhal to the “lyrical” variant of today, the verisimilitude that realism pursues—not just lifelikeness,...
Time For Ballet To Go Big Again?
His way of turning chaos into clockwork, of shifting the act of watching ballet to an out-of-body experience, might do a number on a...
Is Substack The New Book Tour?
Some experts say Substack’s rise fits into a longer arc in publishing, one shaped by the early wave of self-publishing tools like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing...
Report: Twice As Many Books Banned This Year From Libraries And Classrooms
PEN America’s report released Thursday called “Facts & Fiction: Stories Stripped Away by Book Bans” found that 3,743 unique titles were removed from school libraries and...
Chief Marketing Officer – Seattle Rep via TOC Arts Partners
Seattle Rep, one of the nation’s leading regional theaters, is seeking a Chief Marketing Officer.
Study: Using AI Could Make You Lazy And Dumber
Some participants were given access to an AI assistant capable of solving the problem autonomously. When the AI helper was suddenly taken away, these...
What Iran’s Absence From The Venice Biennale Means
Iran’s withdrawal is less a sudden decision than the result of converging geopolitical and economic pressures that are reshaping both the global art world and...
Transcending Boundaries: What Is The Ministry Of Awe?
What is the Ministry of Awe? “Is it an art gallery?” she asked rhetorically. “Is it a theater? Is a museum? Is it a dream?...
Brandywine Conservancy Announced $100M Expansion
The Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art on Wednesday announced a $100 million expansion plan to open a second museum building, create a 325-acre...
Living In A Gaudi Masterpiece
Imagine that you live in an enormous, beautiful apartment designed by one of the world’s most admired architects in the most expensive street in Spain and...
Remembering The Pioneering Ted Turner
His bold, audacious bet to launch CNN completely transformed the news business, busting the tightly curated delivery platforms that came before it and opening the floodgates...
Advertising Is Intruding More And More Into Public Broadcasting
With ads like these, it begs the question, is programmatic advertising legal for public radio? “FCC regulations only apply to broadcast,” Henry says. “The...
Why Are So Many Pop Stars Canceling Tours This Summer?
In recent weeks big-name artists including Meghan Trainor, Zayn Malik, Post Malone and the Pussycat Dolls have cancelled performances or entire tours. - The...
This Year’s US Entry In The Venice Biennale: Empty
The second Trump administration’s call for proposals for the Venice Biennale said the American presentation should “reflect and promote American values” and foster “peaceful relations between the United...
Executive Director— Springboard for the Arts
Springboard for the Arts, an artist-centered community and economic development organization, seeks an experienced leader to serve as its next Executive Director.
The Many Controversies Dogging This Year’s Venice Biennale
The 2026 Venice Biennale has experienced waves of uncertainty that have only grown in strength as the public opening of the world’s most prestigious...
Media Mogul Ted Turner, 87
The media business is full of big-talking executives. But Turner’s outsized public persona — some called him the “Mouth from the South” for his...
Can The UK Theatre Touring Model Be Saved?
“It doesn’t feel as though we have recovered any meaningful ground since the pandemic, and the fact that venues and their teams remain under...
