Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
The Italian Government’s War On English
Since 2000, the use of English words has shot up by 773% according to data from Italy’s Treccani dictionary. There are now around 9,000 English words...
Is Climate Change Sci-Fi Counter-Productive?
I not only worry that "cli-fi" might not be an effective form of environmental expression – I have come to believe that the genre...
Not So Fast: Santa Fe Contemporary Art Museum Might Not Close After All
In the wake of the April 6 announcement, there has been an outpouring of support from Santa Fe community. Members of the community are...
“Princess” Evicted From Rome House Containing Caravaggio
The US-born Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi was escorted out of the 16th-century Villa Aurora by police on Thursday after receiving an eviction order amid a long-running...
Report: Piracy Costs Streaming Services $113 Billion
By 2027, there is a projected loss of $113 billion for streaming video providers serving U.S. customers due to content theft, according to a...
Has Twitter Lost Its Cultural Relevance?
Musk’s takeover of the platform has not only strained the dinner-party metaphor (a new host comes in and dominates the conversation, demanding money from...
Remembering The Cultural Relevance Of Buzzfeed
I don’t mean to sound self-aggrandizing, but it is legitimately hard to capture the cultural relevance of BuzzFeed to the media landscape of the mid-2010s, and the excitement...
Congress Considers “Tax Fairness” For Performing Artists
Experts estimate that arts workers spend between 20 and 30 percent of their income on necessary work-related expenses, including headshots and management fees. If...
How Does Art Resonate? And Why?
I am partial to having opinions myself, provided they are carefully justified, and I am not convinced that verdicts are always artifacts of incuriosity:...
Oh, Oh: AI-Created Song Featuring Artists We Know Just Became Popular.
This “ghostwriter” is essentially taking the likeness of two artists and creating a song they had nothing to do with. It’s particularly an issue...
New Museum Of Shakespeare To Open In London
It will focus on the culture of London in the 16th Century and the life and inspirations of the famous playwright. - BBC
Egyptians Protest Netflix’s Black Cleopatra
An Egyptian lawyer has reportedly filed a complaint demanding that legal measures are taken to block Netflix outright in Egypt, to prevent the show...
Public Libraries Have Become Battlegrounds
Public libraries—once as popular with libertarian autodidacts as leftists—have become targets of the Republican Party. Local-library systems, and local librarians, are being vilified nationwide...
An AI-Generated “Photograph” Just Won An International Photography Competition. Question: What’s A Photograph Now?
Beyond the rights and wrongs of the images themselves, we should be asking if it is fair that photographers might find themselves losing out...
George Will: Lessons From Declines In College Enrollments
There are powerful, immediate financial incentives to study, say, computer science rather than Victorian literature, but economic incentives only partially explain today’s flight from...
Roundabout Theatre Leader Todd Haimes, 66
As the artistic director and chief executive officer at Roundabout, Mr. Haimes had an extraordinarily long and effective tenure. He led the organization for...
Man Pleads Guilty to Stealing Thumb Of A Terra Cotta Warrior
His lawyer argued in court in 2019 that her client was merely “a drunk kid in a bright green ugly Christmas sweater” who was initially...
Bolshoi Ballet Drops “Nureyev” Ballet After Russian Anti-LGBT Law Kicks In
A law passed in November not only widened an existing prohibition on material considered to promote an LGBTQ+ lifestyle but also restricts the “demonstration” of...
The Struggle To Save Ballet
Ballet is a particularly stark example of a broader system that conditions women to be obedient, to suffer for perfection, and never complain about...
This Year’s International Booker Prize Shortlist
This year’s six chosen books include two translated from languages that have never featured before in the prize. - The Guardian
Music Industry Worries About Threats From AI
Universal Music sent letters to Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming platforms asking them to block AI platforms from sifting through their copyrighted material...
Soon We Won’t Be Able To Tell What Music Is AI-Generated
The fear is: could the AI end up doing a better job than the artists it is imitating? - The Guardian
Is It Still Possible To Be A Free Thinker?
Thinking for yourself has never been easy, but the question of whether it is still possible at all is of some moment. The key...
Have Podcasts Peaked?
There are currently around three to four million podcasts internationally, but just over half of those have more than three episodes, with only 720,000...
RISD Workers Two-Week Strike Settles With A 20 Percent Pay Hike
A video posted on Twitter by a union “member and contractor coordinator” showed Teamsters and RISD students who were invited to attend the ratification...
