Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Familiar Playbook: A War On Freedom Of Ideas
Despots over the ages devised a lopsided way of funding science that punished blue-sky thinkers and promoted gadget makers. Mr. Trump’s science policies, experts say,...
Kentucky Church Urges Parishioners To Check “Offensive” Books Out Of Libraries And Never Return...
“Yes — we have urged Christians, both locally and across the country, to search their libraries for books that promote sodomy, gender confusion and...
Why I’m Not Reviewing A Fascinating New Collection Of Virginia Woolf Letters (And What...
"It is hard to think that the world once fondly referred to as one “of letters” does not half-deserve its dwindling readerships and...
Egypt Recovers Treasures From 2000-Year-Old Submerged City Off The Coast Of Alexandria
“There’s a lot underwater, but what we’re able to bring up is limited, it’s only specific material according to strict criteria. The rest will...
Anna Netrebko Returns To The London Stage. Critics Still Haven’t Forgotten Her Putin Ties
At the peak of her career, aged 50, she was effectively banned from the stages of Europe, following Russia’s full-scale illegal invasion of Ukraine....
How The End Of The Full-Time Critic Changes Culture
There is a seismic shift happening in the media landscape, fueled by the rise of digital platforms, declining print readership and mass layoffs in...
Smithsonian Secretary Meets With Trump Over President’s Escalating Pressure On Museums
A White House official described the exchange as productive and cordial and confirmed that White House senior associate Lindsey Halligan — who was tasked with...
Data Trends: Arts Organizations Cut Expenses In 2024
As organizations respond to declining revenue and higher prices, expense budgets tightened by an average of 23%. This decrease includes significant dips in both personnel and non-personnel expenses for...
A Year Ago, UK Literary Festivals Cut Ties With Funder With Fossil Fuel Ties....
Nine literary festivals parted ways with investment company Baillie Gifford last summer amid controversy over its involvement with fossil fuels and companies that operate in Israel,...
What We Lose When Philanthropy Becomes Bureaucratic And Safe
Over the past several decades, philanthropy has become much more bureaucratic: if you want a grant from one of these well-endowed foundations, you have...
The Idea Of Freedom Has A Long And Fraught History
"Freedom is neither a fixed idea nor a story of progress toward a predetermined goal. The history of American freedom is a tale of...
What Social Science Says About The Value Of Diversity
Whatever the fate of modern DEI programs in corporate America, diversity of experience, thought, and ideology is a meritorious goal for a company to pursue....
The Most Enduring Tune In History?
Why did this humble tune, first conjured by medieval farmers, capture so many people’s imaginations and even feature in The Addams Family? - BBC
Hope For AI: Consciousness Across Generations
Might the relationship between humanity and artificial intelligence follow a similar logic—a hope of consciousness helping consciousness across generations? Perhaps the best thing that...
Steep Drop In International Students At US Colleges This Fall
Arizona State University reported a fall semester decline for the first time since 2020. Declines have been announced at universities in Texas, Missouri and Illinois. The state of Massachusetts is expecting about 10,000...
Museums Are Under Fire. Remaining Silent Is Not An Option
Museums serving audiences of color are becoming targets of immigration agents. Amid these changes, the voices of some directors and curators seem to have...
Trump Brings The Culture Wars To Museums And Parks
Those supporting Trump’s actions say they will restore national pride, but critics in the arts and parks, as well as a number of Democrats,...
He Bought Sotheby’s. Trouble Followed
For those caught up in the experiment, it has been torrid in the extreme. Since 2019, hundreds of employees have left Sotheby’s—up to a...
The Poet With An Inadvertently Brilliant Legacy Strategy
Unlike his contemporary and admirer T.S. Eliot, he didn’t see history as ending “with a whimper” but rather with a long, subsiding, pleasurable sigh...
Guess What? You Don’t Really Own That Movie You Just Bought
The problem is that you aren’t downloading the movie, to own and watch forever; you’re just getting access to it on Amazon’s servers –...
Netflix’s Algorithms Have Changed What We’re Watching
Algorithm movies usually exhibit easy-to-follow story beats that leave no viewer behind; under this regime, exposition is no longer a screenwriting faux pas. -...
What If The Moral Arc Of The Universe Bends Toward… Chaos And Confusion?
Reality, as we now understand, does not tend towards existential flourishing and eternal becoming. Instead, systems collapse, things break down, and time tends irreversibly...
What Does It Really Mean The “Reasonable” People Can Disagree?
To say that “reasonable people can disagree” can encourage suspension of judgment in response to important matters of personal and social concern. - 3...
The Last Days Of Arts Criticism?
Arts criticism has been vanishingly difficult to break into for ages, no one’s idea of a growth industry. But publications have managed to make...
Rethinking Where Broadcasting Is Now
Broadcasting no longer conveys a geographic monopoly on the distribution of content. It’s becoming clear that a business model based largely on the broadcast...
