Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Claim: Now Is A Golden Age For Criticism?
Quantitatively and qualitatively, critical production is flourishing, despite – and in some cases because of – the dire economic state in and around the...
Brussels Royal Museum Director Resigns After Allegations Of Abuse
In December, 31 of the museum’s 176 employees sent an open letter to Thomas Dermine, who, as Belgium’s Secretary of State, oversees federal museums. The letter detailed...
The Restorative Powers Of Reading
We all recognise how important self-care is and that books help you feel part of a bigger world. Which is why we choose to...
Touring A Show In A Time Of Climate Change: Theatre That Recreates Rather Than...
"It's a delicate experiment in what happens when we really try and tune in to local audiences rather than just deliver the same product...
How Children’s Museums Are Evolving
Once venues for younger children that provided rainy-day entertainment through exhibits and a scattering of hands-on activities, they’re expanding their scope by offering a...
What Blair Tindall Got Right About The Classical Music World
In the pre-#MeToo era, when we had yet to shift from feminism’s third wave into its fourth, it was easy—even forgivable—to miss what Tindall...
The Rising Alarm Over Library Book Bans
It appears that public libraries are another battleground for the United State's ever-present culture wars. - NPR
Pappano: The Challenges Of Conducting Music For The Royal Coronation
"You can imagine the challenges of getting the choir, the organ, the fanfare and the orchestra together. So yes, it's going to be...
Edinburgh Festival Fireworks To End After 40 Years
The 45-minute show from Edinburgh Castle, which began in 1982, usually attracts more than 250,000 spectators. Organisers said the world famous event would not...
Disney Sues Ron DeSantis
“The governor got very angry over the position Disney took and he’s decided to retaliate against us, including the naming of a new board...
How The Internet Has Changed Art
There’s this huge sense of people claiming spaces and positions without truly investigating them. I’m trying to speak to this idea that art isn’t...
So How Are Those Art Investment Funds Doing?
A wealth adviser based in Florida whose firm has researched and invested in fintech companies told ARTnews that “cheap money” fueled a surge of interest in...
Shakespeare’s First Folio Was Published 400 Years Ago. Here’s What Would Have Been Lost...
Without the weight – cultural as well as literal – of the collected edition, it’s possible few would care about these surviving plays. Something...
Meaning And Machines And Making Sense Of How Art Works
There’s something irrevocably empirical about the fact that poems and novels and paintings and music and films stir cognitive-affective goings-on that have the bearings...
The Usefulness Of Feeling Irritated
Something about this ordinary, negligible feeling seems to make it inaccessible to critical reflection. Perhaps because, when irritable, we tend to be at our...
The Art Of Classical Music Fashion
While not every musical artist takes risks — in their repertory or their apparel choices, be they prét-à-porter or the hautest of haute —...
The Emerging Science Of Hope
We might typically think of hope as a touchy-feely emotion that, almost by definition, is divorced from real-life experience. In fact, as more research...
Five Ways To Protect Your Career From AI
What can we do personally to stave off the displacement that may happen as a result of AI and future-proof ourselves in the age...
Shakespeare’s Environmentalism
It would, of course, be an anachronism to dub Shakespeare an environmentalist. But he was acutely aware of what we would term the environmental...
The Culture Around Cancel Culture
Cancelling is a colloquial term applied to anything from discussion about an author with a critical tone to internet pile-ons or campaigns to deplatform individuals after...
Afghanistan Archaeological Treasures In Peril
“Given the focus of most current donors on humanitarian needs, cultural heritage is inevitably regarded as marginal, despite the fact that conservation generates significant...
The Science Of Punctuation In Languages
Punctuation can be a nuisance; it is often simply neglected. Wrong! The most recent statistical analyses paint a different picture: punctuation seems to "grow...
Museums Are Reinventing How They Work
Museums are shifting gears — seeking artists of different backgrounds, arranging works in new thematic groupings, reinterpreting pieces they already own. - The New...
Theatre MFA Degrees Are Becoming Endangered
The economic viability of graduate programs is becoming an increasingly complicated question. The majority of MFA theatre programs offer tuition remission, housing, and stipends, but...
Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Existential Threat
“There’s been a drag on finances for some time,” Muse said, noting the problems had not been addressed over a multi-year period. “There were...
