Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Rethinking How Our Brains Process The World Using Categories
“The stimulus, cognition, response model of the brain is wrong. The brain prepares for a response and then perceives a stimulus. A brain is...
Did AI Solve A Longstanding El Greco Mystery?
Using artificial intelligence, researchers analyzed The Baptism of Christ at the microscopic level, looking for trends in the texture of the paint at the resolution of a single...
Today’s Debates About AI And Music Echo Concerns About Player Pianos A Century Ago
More than a century ago the rise of the player piano prompted strikingly similar debates about automation, artistry and fair compensation. Of all the...
The Helen DeWitt Story Offers An Examination Of What We Expect From Artists
The level of prioritization it takes to truly produce something great puts you directly in conflict with people in your life. - The Argument
How America’s Museums Are Celebrating The 250th
The exhibitions showcase both the traditional and the unexpected, from portraiture to multimedia installations, from founding documents to found objects. Across the country, the...
America’s 250th Birthday Is Here. Americans Are Worried
Increasingly, historians are asking if they need to do more to meet the public’s hunger for meaning and inspiration. - The New York Times
Uncertainty Can Be Toxic. But Understanding it Creates Possibility
Research suggests uncertainty can be more distressing than negative certainty. In one study, people were calmer when they knew they would receive an electric shock...
Executive Producer-Tacoma Musical Playhouse working with Management Consultants for the Arts
Tacoma Musical Playhouse seeks Executive Producer to lead the organization on an exciting journey to celebrate musical theater & build community in Tacoma, WA region.
Inside The Martha Graham 100th Anniversary Party
Actors, musicians and politicians in sequined ball gowns and floral off-the-shoulder dresses ascended the steps of the New York Public Library’s regal main branch...
A History Of Controversy Over LACMA’s New Building
Enter Michael Govan, who joined LACMA in 2006. He wooed Swiss architect Peter Zumthor to conceive of a better LACMA, convinced the county to...
The New LACMA: Audacious But Confusing
It is a free-form essay in concrete and glass, with no formal entrance, no front or back. Its undulating form has earned its share...
The New LACMA: Art V. Architecture
The Geffen’s architecture overwhelms its objects. Entombed in a concrete bunker—one of the stand-alone galleries—and battling hulking walls and cavernous space, one of LACMA’s...
Young Composers Worry About Their Future With AI
Carson Zuck, 22, was a freshman in college when ChatGPT was released. As Berklee began integrating AI into courses, Zuck said, he watched his...
Federal Court Puts Brakes On Mega-Merger Of Local TV Companies
Nexstar and Tegna, two of the largest television groups in the United States, agreed to merge last year in a $6.2 billion deal that put scores...
Report: UK Theatre Is Thriving. The Business Model Is Not
More people are going to the theatre than ever before. In 2025, over 37 million people attended theatres across the UK, while the West End alone...
How AI Will Accelerate Human Creativity
The most successful organizations of 2026 and beyond will not be those that simply use AI to do more things faster. Instead, they will...
Book Clubs Are Bringing GenZ Into Reading
Reading is experiencing a resurgence among Gen Z and millennials, many of whom are actively seeking alternatives to “doomscrolling” and the mental fatigue associated with constant social...
Faculty Are Exiting Texas Universities, Claiming Censorship
The University of Texas ordered faculty in February to refrain from teaching ill-defined “controversial” topics in class. Nearly all Texas public university systems have conducted...
A bend in the culture
This Week's Highlights:
The question running through this week's stories isn't whether cultural institutions are in trouble. It's who gets to decide what they're for....
AJ Chronicles: This Week — Perils of the Algorithmic Culture
The threat isn't that AI replaces artists. It's subtler and more coercive: that an algorithmically saturated environment erodes the capacity for the kind of thinking that we like to think art requires. Tolerance for ambiguity. Patience with difficulty. The willingness to be bored before a breakthrough.
English National Opera Gets A New Chief Exec
At Rambert, Helen Shute has led partnerships with The Royal Ballet and Manchester International Festival expanding Rambert’s international reach and developing new initiatives, including...
Has The Anecdotal Lede Outlived Its Journalistic Utility?
For many years, this tactic served us well, and it’s deeply embedded in the toolkits of generations of writers and editors. But I wonder...
Study: The Antidote To Mindless Phone Rot — A Surprising Finding
The results after doing so were eye-opening even to them: among a totally random population, levels of creativity for the people watching the experimental...
Yale Report: Universities Themselves Are To Blame For Lowered Trust Of Higher Ed
High costs, murky admissions practices, uneven academic standards and fears about free speech on campuses, the committee said, are among the reasons for widening...
Inside The Kennedy Center Dumpster Fire (OMG!)
Richard Grenell, told me to “get rid of everything” in the permanent collection because we needed all new art for the reopening. Although I...
