Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
The Importance Of Skepticism For Democracy
The sceptical way of life, on Sextus’ presentation, follows a certain rhythm. You feel puzzlement about something. You search for knowledge about it. You...
EU Passes Sweeping New Rules For Big Tech
With these actions, Europe is cementing its leadership as the most assertive regulator of tech companies such as Apple, Google, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft....
What Spotify Paid Musicians Last Year
The streaming giant said 52,600 artists earned more than $10,000 (£7,500) from Spotify in 2021. Of those, 130 were paid more than $5m (£3.8m)...
Quote Mill: Do These References Actually Mean Anything?
Think of all the speeches peppered with statements attributed to revered predecessors. Listeners are supposed to infer that the speaker has drawn upon a...
Today’s Slang Versus Yesterday’s Cool Words
Whenever I see people in old movies say “Swell!” or the like, I always wonder what other kinds of things they said when we...
Is Our Ability To Distinguish Geometry What Distinguishes Humans?
What was the simplest task in the geometric domain — independent of natural language, culture, education — that might reveal a signature difference between...
When Bad News Strikes Your Small Arts Organization (Can You Recover?)
Growth under these conditions is incredibly difficult, and of course the pandemic has thrown a giant monkey wrench in operations for nonprofits around the...
Using VR To Study Pompeii’s Design Choices
The paper argues that eye-catching elements in a Pompeiian home would have been important status symbols, with buildings designed to highlight some features while...
The Internet’s Powerful Currency: Shame
What’s curious about the brutality that fuels Internet shaming frenzies is that in real life—that is, IRL, in the usual online parlance—most of us...
Former NY City Ballet Dancer Starts New Career As Surgeon
Likolani Brown Arthurs, 36, spent 15 years dancing with the New York City Ballet. Now, she’s moving to a new stage: NYU Langone’s operating theater,...
Pianist Boris Berezovsky Dropped By Management After Pro-Putin War Comments
At one point he said: ‘There are important political analysts in the West who claim that it is their part of the world that...
Louisville Orchestra Creates A Creators Corps
The Louisville Orchestra Creators Corps will employ and house multiple full-time composers, called "creators," to represent all musical genres. In return, the creators will regularly present new...
Forlorn MLA Conference Demonstrates The Decline Of The Humanities In America
In theory, the conference was still happening, but it wasn’t clear whether anyone would be in attendance, or what they’d be doing while there....
McKenzie Bezos’ Philosophy Of Philanthropy
The leadership of people directly experiencing inequities is essential, both because it is informed by insights no one else can contribute, and because it...
Are The Oscars Done As A Cultural Phenomenon?
There’s no shortage of theories: The shrinking of movie actors as cultural icons (as TikTok and Instagram stars become the ascendant media gods); the...
Pianist Lara Downes Brings A New Vision To Classical Music Radio
"I think a radio show, like an album, needs to create a sound world. Each show is an emotional journey with dips and swells....
An Innovative And Important New Model For Touring Theatre?
It binds far-flung companies looking for new models for joint offerings. And it brings to theatergoers across the country a play with an inclusive...
What We Can Learn About Fighting Misinformation From Arnold’s Video For The Russian People
Contrary to what you might think, it’s not about simply giving them more info. It’s about reaching them on an emotional level. - Politifact
NEA: Arts Economy Shrank At Twice The Rate Of Overall Economy
New data released last week by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) quantifies the extent of the damage: Between 2019 and 2020, the arts economy...
Teheran Museum Director Fired After Performance Art Mishap
The dismissal came in the wake of a performance art mishap at the museum that saw Yaser Khaseb accidentally fall into a large, artist-designed pool of...
Top Editors Quit Buzzfeed News, Big Cuts On The Way
The high-profile departures come on the same day that BuzzFeed released its fourth-quarter earnings report, which showed a 12% drop in earnings before interest,...
Global Music Sales Jump To Record Level In 2021
Revenues surged by 18.5% to $25.9bn (£19.5bn) in 2021, the highest level since records began in the 1990s. The growth was driven by streaming,...
Russians Bomb Ukraine Art School
The G12 school is the second cultural institution in the besieged city of Mariupol to be attacked in a matter of days. On March...
Has Education Entered A Dark Age?
"What I soon discovered was that none of them had much idea how to make an argument in any context. Nor were they particularly...
Is “Moral Clarity” — Even About Ukraine — Anti-Democratic?
My Russian training prompted a question: How could a situation where everyone was morally bound to agree help overcome a collectivist mindset? Freedom and...
