Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
The Dangers Of Storytelling As A Learning Device
Historians have an increasingly strong incentive to tell dramatic stories which gain attention and make ‘impact’. But anyone in the business of reporting on...
George Benjamin On The Art Of Writing Opera
Every note, every rhythm, every dynamic, every timbre, every expression, every slur: you must imagine it all to perfection in your inner ear. That...
John Baldessari Estate Embroiled In Lawsuits
In one, the estate accused its former gallery and an insurance company of having damaged artworks, some beyond repair. In the other, the estate...
Badge Of Honor: Eight Writers Talk About What It Feels Like To Have Their...
"I find talking about the ridiculousness of the bans sometimes brings laughter, in the ways our people have learned to laugh to keep from...
How Pacific Northwest Ballet Became One Of The Most Diverse Ballet Companies In America
While Boal emphasizes that changes at PNB go beyond numbers, the numbers do reflect the company’s cultural shift. PNB’s current roster of 45 dancers...
The Cable TV Bundle Is Falling Apart. Long Live The New Bundle!
Already, many cord-cutters are piecing together their own bundle, subscribing to a mix of services including Netflix, Max and Hulu. The deal between Disney...
Arts Leadership Shakeups In Portland, Oregon
The opera, symphony and several other organizations have new leadership. It's a changing of the guard familiar now in many American communities. - Oregon...
Spotify Denies “30-Second-Loop” Can Game Royalties Payout
Concerns have been raised that artificial streaming - where devices run chosen tracks on loop - is hindering the music industry, with JP Morgan...
Your 2034th Admonition: You Really Should Care About The Data Companies Are Collecting On...
Retail companies do collect massive volumes of terrifically sensitive data. They do this not only to predict your future behavior, but to influence it....
The Complicated Rise Of Curators Of Color
This tension—between changing the institution from the inside and protesting it from the outside—is not only a psychological conflict for young curators, often of...
The Living Heritage Of Marrakech Lost In The Earthquake
The UNESCO designation was a historical acknowledgment of the traditions of poor and rural communities that can often get left out of larger conversations...
An Initiative: 18 Communities And Theatre Around An Idea
Given the atomization of American culture, the communities will not present a single show — in fact, many of them are not staging shows...
So You Want To Make A Play. It’s Tough…
We quit on our work much more readily than our work quits on us. We walk away, we claim defeat, we belittle our inadequate...
Own Culture? You Better Have A Physical Copy Of It
Every time news breaks of one of these deletions, a refrain echoes online: Buy physical media! The internet is too impermanent, the argument goes: The real...
Disney/Charter Deal Demonstrates The Weakness Of The Cable And Streaming Businesses
The traditional TV business is losing customers until it hits a bottom that it may take a while to find. Streaming is losing money...
Who Benefits From Dance Company Apprenticeships?
As trainees and apprentices, dancers may perform on professional stages for years without being compensated. Not everyone can afford to work for free—much less...
The Risks And Creative Rewards Of Loneliness
The lonely are at substantially elevated risk for heart disease, stroke, obesity, addiction, and dementia; being lonely increases your overall risk of premature death...
The College Essays ChatGPT Wrote For Me To Submit To The Ivies
"I used several free tools to generate short essays for some Ivy League applications. The A.I. chatbots’ answers have been edited for brevity and...
Seattle Arts Organizations Face Diminished Demand
According to the survey, overall ticket sales are still well below pre-pandemic levels: down 23% across various art forms and venues. People also tend...
The New Doom Counter-Culture
Where psychedelic experience was at the heart of the old counter culture, Bayesian reasoning seems to be at the heart of this counter culture....
How Alexei Ratmansky Became One Of The Most In-Demand Choreographers
Because he makes ballets so quickly and in little bits, only at the very end of the process does it all come together. Sometimes...
In A City Of Monuments, How To Decolonize The Landscape
How will cities grapple with the more difficult question of what to do with fraught landmarks that are more immovable than those statues—museums, train...
AI Readers Of Audio Books Are Here. There Are Some Issues…
If the listener is wholly unaware that the narrator is digital, this raises some of the many ethical questions (such as that of consent)...
Battling AI’s Fight Over Whether Painting Is A Raphael
Both studies used state-of-the art AI technology. Months after one study proclaimed that the so-called de Brécy Tondo, currently on display at Bradford council’s Cartwright Hall...
Will AI Unlock Human Creativity For Millions?
"I think we’re at a moment with the development of AI where we have ways to provide support, encouragement, affirmation, coaching and advice. We’ve...
