Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Anthropic Settles Class Action Suit With Writers And Publishers With $1.5B Copyright Deal
The settlement allows Anthropic to avoid going to trial over claims that it violated copyrights by downloading millions of books without permission and storing...
Update On Top US Funding Agencies
Work at cultural funding agencies in the United States—the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library...
What Latin American Literature Tells Us About How Authoritarian Takeover Happens
"To me, the greatest danger that Latin American literature foretells for higher education is the insidious way capitulation to authoritarians changes both individuals and...
Scientific Objectivity Is A Myth. Here’s Why
Scientist Ludwik Fleck is credited with first describing science as a cultural practice in the 1930s. Since then, understanding has continued to build that scientific knowledge...
16-Hour Waits To See Shakespeare? Ah, It All Makes Sense…
Blame it on the excitement over the $85 million renovation of the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, or the yearlong hiatus that it prompted....
Downsizing? Powell’s Books Lays Off 18 Staff
The Portland company laid off 18 employees in July, August and September, according to a Powell’s spokesperson. - The Oregonian
An Arizona School Board Tried To Prohibit Arts Educators From Renewing Professional Memberships. Kids...
Arts educators and advocates successfully killed a proposed move in Arizona's Peoria Unified school district to bar arts educators from renewing memberships in their...
Smithsonian Museum Director Attacked By Trump Gets a New Job Running Milwaukee Museum Of...
“When I left the Smithsonian, a number of organizations reached out, and they were all different types,” Sajet told The Washington Post, adding that...
Kennedy Center Dance Ticket Sales Crater. Only Four Percent Of The House Sold??
Ticket sales are so poor, the Stuttgart Ballet will be performing for an Opera House between 4 and 19 percent full when the German...
How AI Is Ripping Apart My School Experience
"AI has softened the consequences of procrastination and led many students to avoid doing any work at all. As a result, these programs have...
Why AI Won’t Be Able To Tell Human Stories
The corporate urge to replace art-making humans with machines is profoundly anti-human. It’s an old story: we have always tried to mechanize creativity and...
Data: National Arts Trends In 2025
Contributed revenue fell by 30%, with every source declining from 2023 to 2024. Foundation revenue dropped 25% after modest growth in 2023, and earned revenue declined 18%. The decrease in contributed revenue reflects the...
How a Small Experiment Turned Into A Dance Competition Juggernaut
From the get-go, Common People Dance Eisteddfod has predominantly attracted middle-aged women. (One year, a team did an interpretive dance on the theme of...
When Minimalism Took On The Mainstream Classical Music Orthodoxy
There is a yawning gap between Columbia’s marketing—“Let magician Terry Riley float you on his tangerine carousel into a sunshine universe you might have...
How The New Yorker’s Fact Checking Process Works
I’ve never encountered a complete description of what the magazine wants its checkers to check. A managing editor took a stab in 1936: “Points...
Smithsonian Secretary Says Institution Will Do Its Own Review
In the staff memo, Lonnie Bunch shared details of his formal response to the White House, indicating that the Smithsonian intends to undertake its...
In Summer, The Center Of The Classical Music World…
It is a mammoth undertaking that involves about 3,500 artists; 1,000 staff members; 16 stages; and a budget of 75 million euros (about $88...
Why We Struggle To Define Excellence
Excellence is not a neutral concept. Its not a fixed standard hovering above culture, waiting to be discovered. It's a construct. When we pretend...
The Ethics Of Building Better Humans
Our rage for hormone therapies, supplements, beauty procedures, and longevity interventions suggest we’re all competing in the Enhanced Games now. - Daniel Kunitz
Salonen’s New Creative Role At The LA Philharmonic
The creative director post is the first major initiative by Kim Noltemy, who became L.A. Phil president and chief executive last summer, and with it...
Mapping European History By Turning AI Loose On 600 Years Of Paintings
By training artificial intelligence to detect emotional signals in more than 600,000 European paintings spanning 600 years, the researchers found that collective shifts in...
We Need A Better Way To Develop AI
The current strategy of merely making A.I. bigger is deeply flawed — scientifically, economically and politically. Many things from regulation to research strategy must...
“Wizard Of Oz” At The Vegas Sphere: Is This The Future Of Movies?
I’ve rarely run across something that refuses to let me see it just one way, but one such resistor is “The Wizard of Oz” at...
What Esa-Pekka Salonen’s New Jobs Say About Orchestras (And The San Francisco Symphony)
It turns out there are arts administrators — some of them right here in California — who understand the importance of innovative creative leadership. They understand that the...
Met Opera Makes Deal To Perform Seasons In Saudi Arabia
The company has reached a lucrative agreement with the kingdom that calls for it to perform there for three weeks each winter. - The New...
