Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Singer Holds Palestinian Flag During Opera Curtain Call: A Political Violation of Art?
Claiming political impartiality in relation to a Verdi opera is like calling Guernica a painting of a horse. - London Review of Books
Music Of The New Avant Garde: …Bagpipes?
“When I was sixteen or seventeen, and getting into the adult category, I started trying to play different repertoire,” she said. “I’d get instantly...
Netflix Is Using Generative AI To Make Movies. It’s A Fundamental Shift
Netflix’s generative AI approach marks a fundamental shift. Instead of building digital scenes piece by piece, artists simply describe what they want and algorithms...
How Technology (Dating Apps Anyone?) Lessens The Power Of Relationships
When technology mediates contact, this can strengthen familiar forms of scepticism about love – for example, about whether or not the other person is...
Was Munch’s “The Scream” The First Modern Painting?
The Mona Lisa represents an impossible ideal—palpable, yet clearly beyond reach. The Scream, on the other hand, arguably speaks to a much more ancient, existential state, connecting...
Emojis — Scourge Of Communication Or Historically Meaningful?
Your own emoji habit might not extend beyond the occasional text message. But anyone who’s ever caught a whiff of the teen spirit surrounding,...
Maureen Dowd: Why Should Men Read Books? It’s Sexy!
The fiction gap makes me sad. A man staring into a phone is not sexy. But a man with a book has become so...
The Fight To Save Hawaiian Culture Lost In The Maui Fires
Nearly two years later, to drive around Lahaina town is to encounter ghost gas stations, mailboxes without houses and rogue bougainvillea enlivening piles of...
Corporation For Public Broadcasting Will Shut Down After Republicans Zero Out Funding
CPB informed employees that the majority of staff positions will be eliminated with the close of the fiscal year on September 30, 2025. It...
Smithsonian Removes Trump Impeachment From History Museum Exhibit
“In reviewing our legacy content recently, it became clear that the ‘Limits of Presidential Power’ section in The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden exhibition needed to...
Why Some Musicians Are Leaving Spotify
“It didn’t take us long to decide as a band that if Daniel Ek is going harder on AI warfare, we should get off...
The Fight To Preserve Monet’s Beloved Giverny Gardens
A week with this invisible group of virtuoso gardeners in their run-up to a new season reveals how, sitting at the intersection of art...
How Some Of Syria’s Cultural Heritage Was Secretly Saved
7,400 artefacts were smuggled into Rmelan from dozens of dig sites. The items have now come to light—literally—as the heritage NGOs responsible for Rmelan...
France Proposes New Law To Return Colonial Art
If approved, the law would make it easier for the country to return cultural goods in France's national collection "originating from states that, due...
Hawaiian Petroglyphs Re-emerge From Ocean
For the first time since that 2016 discovery, the full panel of petroglyphs has been exposed again after seasonal ocean swells swept away covering...
Celebrating 100 Years Of Art Deco
This summer marks the 100th anniversary of the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts),...
Defunding Public Media Is A Blow To Documentary-Making
Over the last five years, ITVS has directly invested $44 million of CPB funds in documentaries. In the same period, ITVS brought 126 films...
How A Museum’s Attempt To Solicit Americans For America’s 250th Birthday Got Complicated
I’ve led communications at nonprofits for decades and — with rare exceptions — subscribe to the “as long as they’re spelling our name right”...
How Closely Do We Need To Measure Progress?
If you want to make an accurate judgment of how progress is going, it seems intuitive that frequent monitoring would help. On the other...
Maverick Director Robert Wilson, 83
“To see someone try to act natural onstage seems so artificial,” he told The Times in 2021. “If you accept it as being something...
The (Very) Muddled State Of Criticism Today
Now, as often as criticism has been declared to be in a golden age, and perhaps as a corollary, it has been held to...
US Government Auctioning Off Picasso, Basquiat
Art advisors and experts told ARTnews the works are high caliber and have “crazy” starting bids relative to their actual value based on previous auction records...
New Startup Wants To Shake Up How E-Books Are Sold
Briet invites publishers to sell their e-books to libraries outright, providing universal, perpetual access. Several independent publishers including PM Press, Punctum, Sideshow, and Silver...
Chief Justice Roberts Is Chancellor Of The Smithsonian. Right Now That’s Awkward
For Chief Justice Roberts, though, the role recently has placed him in an unenviable position — helping to lead an institution in the crosshairs...
Alan Valentine To Retire After 28 Years At Nashville Symphony
Under Valentine’s direction, the Symphony has earned 14 Grammys and 27 nominations, produced more than 40 recordings, commissioned and premiered dozens of innovative works....
