Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Smithsonian Struggles For Independence As 250th Birthday Celebration Starts
The battle is approaching a tipping point after the Smithsonian acquiesced to an administration demand to hand over documents regarding the types of exhibits it will display for...
Classic Stage Company seeks General Manager
Classic Stage Company seeks General Manager. Salary is $90,000. Expected state date is mid-March.
100 Years Ago The BBC Built Itself Around The Arts. Now?
The vanishingly rare presentations of stage work, whether dance, opera or theatre, are invariably acquisitions from cultural organisations that provided most of the funding...
Why The World Seems Obsessed By Consciousness Lately
Intelligence and consciousness are different things. Intelligence is mainly about doing: solving a crossword puzzle, assembling some furniture, navigating a tricky family situation, walking to...
Study: AI Models Beat Humans On “Average” Creativity. Still Not On “Radical” Creativity
A massive new study comparing more than 100,000 people with today’s most advanced AI systems delivers a surprising result: generative AI can now beat...
A Marathon Moby Dick As A “Radical Act”
Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville, published in 1851. Let’s consider it. Is there another book at once so good and so bad, so thrilling and...
The Year In Classical Music Statistics — The Busiest Performers, Orchestras, Etc…
In 2025, Yannick Nézet-Séguin tops our list of busiest conductors, with an amazing 120 listed engagements – and looking back over the last decade...
At It Again: Trump Threatens Tariffs On Foreign Movies
“I’m going to be putting tariffs on movies from outside of the country,” the president told The California Post in an interview shared Monday. “If they’re...
Too Much Free Speech?
The First Amendment ignores the harms that speech inflicts. It is dangerous, in other words, not for the threat it poses to power, but...
How Cultural Outsiders Overcome Their Outsiderness
Cultural outsiders experience being an outsider as synonymous with being deficient. Eager to ‘fit in’, and to avoid feeling inferior, they seek validation from...
Study: AI “Creativity” Leads To Cultural Stagnation
The researchers called the outcomes “visual elevator music” – pleasant and polished, yet devoid of any real meaning. - The Conversation
It’s An Old Question, But Let’s Consider Art Versus Entertainment
Entertainment is about diversion and pleasure. Fun. It occupies our attention, distracts us from boredom, and amuses. But many things in life can do...
How The First Indigenous Work Commissioned By A Major Dance Company Came To Be
It’s part of an effort by the Royal Winnipeg, Canada’s oldest professional ballet company, to foster meaningful reconciliation with the country’s Indigenous people —...
How Anthropic Scanned And Destroyed Millions Of Books Into Its AI Model
Within about a year, according to the filings, the company had spent tens of millions of dollars to acquire and slice the spines off...
National Parks Pull Historical Signs And Displays To Comply With New Trump Directives
Trump officials have ordered national parks to remove dozens of signs and displays related to climate change, environmental protection and settlers’ mistreatment of Native...
How Do We Compete When “Excellence” Is No Longer The Quality That Stands Out?
The question is no longer just "How do we play Beethoven better?" but "How do we survive as a cultural institution in a digitized,...
Understanding The Trade In Culture Between The US And Canada
In 2023, the United States accounts for roughly two-thirds of all cultural exports ($18.1 billion, or 67%) and imports ($22.2 billion, or 62%). Canada...
Too Much TV? Let’s Think About What’s At Stake
I can’t imagine saying to my son that TV kills brain cells, but I do think it — or fear it. Our language might...
How El Sistema Has Survived During Venezuela’s Turmoil
Eduardo Méndez acknowledges that running El Sistema with the political and social backdrop of recent years has been challenging. - NPR
Report: Financial Pressure Have Museums Rethinking Strategies
Over 50% of the AAM survey’s respondents reported fewer visitors than in 2019 and 29% reported “declines tied to weakened travel and tourism and/or...
Culture Change: Santa Fe Ties Its Minimum Wage To Cost-Of-Living
Starting next year, Santa Fe will become the first U.S. city to explicitly link the high cost of housing to the minimum wage. -...
New York Theatre Ballet seeks Managing Director
Managing Director opportunity at NYTB, leading growth, operations, partnerships, governance, and teams, delivering expansion, innovation, and compliance across the dance community.
The Allure Of “Lost” Civilizations
Who doesn’t want to know how a lost civilization got lost, or where it might be hiding? The trouble is that what gets touted...
The UK Has Announced £1.5B Investment In The Arts. So…
A £1.5 billion investment is welcome news for a sector buffeted by years of austerity and inflation (not to mention the long tail of...
Lately We’ve Praised Boredom. But Maybe It’s Not Really The Path To Resetting
You might think that there’s so much at our fingertips now, surely boredom is gonna go away. But what we’re finding is that it’s...
