Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Oakland Eliminates Its Top Arts Manager Position
The Oakland City Council passed a budget on June 11 that eliminated its Cultural Affairs Manager position, citing budgetary concerns. But critics say money-saving...
How Ancient Water Clocks Changed Our Notions Of Time
As ancient civilisations began to need more reliable timekeeping mechanisms, the technology took an extraordinary leap forward with the advent of dependable water clocks,...
Museums Are Rethinking The Environmental Costs Of Collection Climate Controls
These decades-old guidelines determine the temperature and relative humidity at which museums maintain their collections, but implementing them comes with high energy costs and...
How Slow-Motion Became The Movies’ Go-To Effect
The “slow-mo effect,” is retrospective, a trick of memory. Still, it indicates a remarkable theatricality, a cinematic flair, on the part of our brains....
Gen Zers Are Flocking To NYC Art Schools
The surge comes as many young adults grapple with fears about the impacts of artificial intelligence, a sense of internet overload and a desire...
How Trump’s BBBill Will Impact Non-Profits
Provisions in the new law raise unsettling questions about how the nonprofit world will be affected — and the answers may not be known...
Creative Tree Of The Year?
Ten nominees have been chosen to meet this year’s theme of “rooted in culture”, which seeks to highlight how trees inspire creative minds and...
How Leisure Became Digital
For many Canadians, play has migrated from board games or the rec leagues to smartphone screens. It’s no longer confined to the weekend or...
How The Grateful Dead Made Live Music Sound Great At Concerts
Phil Spector had famously created a figurative wall of sound by layering instruments and orchestral sweeps. But the Dead’s wall was essentially a behemoth...
HBO Returns, Conceding Its Brand Change Was A Colossal Blunder
The gambit to chase Netflix with a service called Max didn’t work. Warner Bros. Discovery’s leaders eventually recognized the tremendous value in the HBO...
YouTube Is Being Overwhelmed By AI Slop. So Some New Creator Rules…
Alphabet has to acknowledge not only the downsides of AI, but its potential to overwhelm platforms that rely on user-generated content—in other words, rein...
Roadshow: America’s Midwest Art Museums
Arriving at art museums after four or five hours on these roads, day after day, is reliably uplifting. Everything is reversed. You’re in a...
Actors Unions Approve New Video Game Contract, Ending Strike
As with the dual strikes in 2023, artificial intelligence was a big sticking point in negotiations. As such, the new contract establishes performer safety guardrails and...
Training A New Generation Of Dancers For A Different Kind Of Career
"Today’s young adults have also been through the Covid shutdown, and they’re starting their careers at a time of huge financial uncertainty." - ArtsATL
The Bayeux Tapestry To Return To UK – First Time In 1000 Years
Art historian Linda Neagley has argued that pre-Renaissance people interacted with art visually, kinaesthetically (sensory perception through bodily movement) and physically. The Bayeux tapestry would have...
Bay Area Theatres Are Folding. The Theatre Landscape Is Collapsing
"We, in the nonprofit theater world, rely on a model that is really not working for anybody. It wasn’t working before the pandemic. The...
Trump-Announced TikTok Sale Raises Questions
M2 appears to be an end-run around this issue, allowing ByteDance to pour in those ingredients but then step away to let Americans run...
Trump Administration Threatens Harvard Accreditation
The notification doesn’t remove Harvard’s accreditation—which would leave the school virtually unable to operate. Education Secretary Linda McMahon urged Harvard’s accreditor to work with the school...
Withdrawals Of Showings At Film Festivals Raise Questions
Festivals are also answerable to funders and to different stakeholders’ interests. Cancellations of planned films raise questions about festivals’ roles and accountability to community groups who...
The Next Marketing: Influencing Without The Influencers
The brand’s voice is embedded in the content, as are its products, but there’s no overt pitch, no awkward energy of a sponsored partnership....
Music Industry Projections For The Next Seven Years
After something of a boom year in 2023, revenue growth slowed to 4.3% in 2024. In fact, 2024 continued an oscillating growth pattern we...
How Journalism Is Using AI
I’ll upload sections of my book, along with interview transcripts, and ask whether everything I’ve written squares with what my sources have said. I’ll...
Peter Sellars And A Life Wrapped In Art
Among his collaborators, Sellars is cherished for this openness with his feelings. He wraps anyone and everyone in a bear hug. He releases sudden...
Trends In Painting In A Hyper-Imaged Culture
Recent contemporary painting trends suggest a widespread desire to slow down, distort, or even rupture the act of seeing. - Artnet
Universal Music VP On Copyright, Creativity, And AI
The UMG executive emphasized that “tech collaboration with the creative community, respecting the value of artists’ work and harnessing their innovation has produced enormous...
