Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Good Morning.
Here are today's AJ highlights.
In Venice, musicians from Teatro La Fenice marched through the city to protest the political overreach of their music director—a...
Bart Sher: Theatre As Catalyst For Change
“I think theatre is a catalyst for change,” Sher said. “I don’t think you make theatre pieces to tell people how to change. We...
We Have A Growing AI Slop Problem
Of course, with mass production comes surplus and, then, refuse. We containerize actual trash because otherwise debris gets on everything else and makes everything less...
The Brilliant Critic Who Took On Raising American Literature
Cowley’s power and influence lay in opening, not shutting, the door to a new generation. He came of age at an especially fertile literary...
Controversy Over Appointment Of Palm Springs Art Museum’s New Director
Christine Vendredi may well have proven to be the best candidate, but that the bungled process of simply elevating the chief curator to the...
AI Chatbots Can Make You Smarter. Or They Can Make You Dumber. Here’s How...
Whether we like it or not, chatbots are here to stay. It’s not necessarily a problem, but it risks becoming one if people use...
How Our Brains Are Wired For Motivation
People with higher levels of dopamine are more likely to choose a harder task with a higher reward than an easier, low-reward task. Low...
Rural Libraries are Struggling For Oh So Many Reasons
Communities are already feeling the impact: Some rural libraries in Florida and Mississippi, for example, have frozen interlibrary loan programs, sharply reducing the range...
What NYT Staff Learned When They Asked People To Spend Ten Minutes Look At...
For the team that works on the series, the project has been an enlightening experience. Mr. Buchanan said he had begun noticing subtle things...
Sarah Jessica Parker’s Year Of Reading 153 Books As A Booker Prize Judge
My husband and children knew what this meant. No one tried to compete with the Booker. Anytime after dinner, when there was a discussion...
Claim: End Of Public Funding Will Make Public Media More Polarizing
Losing the rest of the public funding is likely to make the problem worse. In the face of cuts, many stations are issuing renewed appeals to...
Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra seeks President & Chief Executive Officer
The next President & CEO will lead the KSO into its next century of artistic excellence, inspired community-engaged education, and strategic growth.
How Journalism Media Lost The American Public
"I actually think that the decline of trust has to do with newspapers’ becoming more responsible, more accurate. Nobody I know would trade today’s...
Instant Translation Is Like Magic. But Might We Be Losing Something?
As people embrace these transformative tools, they risk eroding capacities and experiences that embody values other than seamlessness and efficiency. - The Atlantic
The Crushing Debt Of Arts Schools
Art schools are marketed as gateways to success. However, the fine print tells a different story: crushing debt, unreliable outcomes, and a mismatch between...
Expert Critics Look At This Year’s Booker Finalists
Academic critics read closely this year's Booker Prize finalists: Each novel has emotional temperature and structural ambition: domestic quietudes stretched into myth, migration...
Enough With Those Claims Culture Has Become Less Creative. Look Around!
The Internet didn’t destroy monoculture. It exposed the fact that monoculture was always a bottleneck, popped the cork, and let the contents fizz out. ...
Fired Philadelphia Art Museum Director Sues Over Her Dismissal
In her lawsuit, which was filed in Pennsylvania state court, the former director, Sasha Suda, contends that she was fired “without a valid basis”...
How To Build An Imagination: The Books Of Childhood
We learn from stories. Our ancestors were raised on myths about their ancestors, tales about their saviours, emperors and lawgivers, and, eventually, novels about...
Fighting The Algorithms: Tips For Discovering New Music
"For the past year and a half, I’ve been trying to figure out the easiest way to uncover new music. Not new releases, not...
Why Music Education Should Resist Conformity
We live in an age of unprecedented connectivity, and yet this very connectedness has led to something paradoxical: uniformity. In our quest to standardise,...
@100: Remembering Charles Mackerras’ Impact On English Musical Life
Mackerras had a major impact on British musical life, whether as Music Director of English National Opera and Welsh National Opera, working with major...
Washington National Opera Considers Leaving The Kennedy Center
Leaving the Kennedy Center is a possible scenario after a collapse in box office revenue and “shattered” donor confidence in the wake of Trump’s...
Seattle’s New $800M Park Transforms Its Waterfront
Waterfront Park is thus making its debut in a city eager for a win. When it began opening in stages over the last year,...
Woeful Security At The Louvre (Including Its Passwords)
Since the heist, information has resurfaced showing that gaps in security appear to have been known for years – including a 2014 warning that...
