Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Why America Needs The NEA More (Not Less)
We are in a cultural moment where critical thinking has become synonymous with cynicism. Our government and larger media have spent decades telling us...
College Students Are Using AI To Do Their Assignments. Is It Cheating?
When he started at Columbia as a sophomore this past September, he didn’t worry much about academics or his GPA. “Most assignments in college...
How Is It Legal That AI Can Appropriate Artists’ Styles?
The technology has given ChatGPT users control over the visual languages that artists have honed over the course of their careers, potentially devaluing those...
Has American Popular Culture Stagnated?
For what it’s worth, most Americans share this sense of declinism when it comes to movies, music, and TV, telling pollsters that these things peaked somewhere...
Dancers Sue Shen Yun Over Working Conditions
The complaint itself alleges that children as young as 13 years old worked grueling 15-hour training schedules at least six days a week, in exchange...
Canada’s Founding Document May Be Sold At Auction
Experts, historians, and Indigenous groups argue the item isn’t just surplus inventory but part of the country’s origin story. They are calling for its...
Artist Suppliers Struggle With Tariffs And Uncertainty
Some arts suppliers have been preparing to pass the costs of tariffs on to their consumers. Canal Plastics Center, a plastics fabrication company in SoHo,...
Trump’s Movie Tariffs Are More About Cultural Protectionism Than Money
Amid an ongoing tariff war, Trump’s proposal — which may ultimately remain an empty threat — goes beyond economic protectionism. It is cultural protectionism. It also...
Why Culture Has Always Been At The Center Of North American Trade
Free-trade agreements radically reshaped the economies and public understandings of the western hemisphere in the late 20th century. Political scientist Guy Poitras argues that North...
As The 300+-Year-Old Hudson Bay Company Dissolves, What Should Be Done With Its Art...
Some HBC records have provided a window into Canada’s climate history and ecology, offering valuable long-term data to environmental researchers. Others show evidence of Indigenous...
It Is, After All, The Library Of <i>Congress</i>: Lawmakers Push Back Against Trump Takeover
On Capitol Hill, Democrats said Tuesday they did not believe that Blanche was the acting librarian — and Republicans, who have repeatedly deferred to...
Trump Escalates Punishment Of Harvard
Harvard quickly responded Tuesday evening, filing an amended complaint in its lawsuit against the Trump administration, objecting to numerous actions federal officials have taken...
This Is What The Power Shift At The Kennedy Center Really Looks Like
Probably the most searing impact of the takeover has been the exclusion of small, local groups for whom the Kennedy Center gig was the...
Big Fight Over UK AI Copyright Transparency Bill
An amendment to the data bill requiring AI companies to reveal which copyrighted material is used in their models was backed by peers, despite...
Public Radio As An Empathy Machine
Public radio had been explicitly understood as an empathy machine since the dawn of This American Life in 1996. If we allow synonyms for empathy, radio...
What We Learn From Close Reading
We all pretended that we knew what close reading meant. We not only talked about it but we did it. We knew it when...
Why We Should Learn To Be More Skeptical… Of Our Own Ideas
Even our educational institutions often teach critical thinking as a weapon to dismantle others’ arguments rather than a tool for examining our own. The...
These Are The Nine Artists Elle Magazine Says Are Shaping Culture This Year
These nine visionaries have released Grammy-winning albums; performed in nearly every major concert hall and to packed audiences from the stage; won record-setting Tony...
Corporation For Public Broadcasting Denies Access To DOGE
CPB leaders denied that request, citing federal law that establishes the independent nonprofit outside of the control of the federal government. The request comes...
Library Of Congress Staffers Refuse Entry To Trump Officials
Trump appointed Todd Blanche, his former defense lawyer, as librarian of Congress after abruptly firing Carla Hayden. Library staff resisted, insisting Congress must be...
Clooney Play Says It Has Recouped Its $9.5M Investment In Only Seven Weeks
The acclaimed new play broke history many times over and recently announced that it holds the all-time record for the highest grossing play in...
How Trump’s Attacks On Funding Culture Are Changing The Landscape
For decades, there has been a nationwide artistic and cultural infrastructure receiving bipartisan support, including through the first administration of Donald Trump. Now that is...
How The Ancient Greeks Filled The Parthenon With Light
It was long thought the giant reflective pool in front of the statue of Athena acted as a mirror, sending light shimmering across its...
The Existential Battle Behind The Copyright Office Firing
The timing was extraordinary: the office had released a report just two days earlier (on Friday, May 9), concluding that many current AI training practices likely...
Universities Are Debating AI. But There’s Not Much Consensus
There are many in the humanities, and even more outside the humanities, who would argue that what is important to assess are thoughts, ideas,...
