Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Group Calls On Seattle Art Museum To Treat Homeless People Better
A collective of anonymous workers called Decolonize SAM is calling for a boycott and demanding the museum stop removing unhoused people from museum property, provide de-escalation...
Omicron Is Soaring. Is It Ethical To Go To Concerts?
Is it a good or an ethical idea to go to a concert in the vortex of this unprecedented surge, what with local hospitals...
NBC Universal Picks New Audience-Measuring Service
The company announced today it will use data from iSpot.tv, a Bellevue, Wash.-based company that measures audiences across linear TV and streaming platforms to provide...
The Pope Is Caught Shopping For CDs. Here’s What’s In His Collection
While it is mostly made up of classical music, it also includes: an old album of Édith Piaf’s greatest hits; Argentine tango tunes, especially...
AJBlogger And Wall Street Journal Theatre Critic Terry Teachout, 65
Very very sad to announce the death of one of ArtsJournal's original and most prolific bloggers. - The Wall Street Journal
Claim: UK Government Funding Of Theatre Makes No Sense
Even before Covid, the government’s (and Arts Council England’s) approach to the complex private/public ecology of the sector felt confused and outdated. Now, it...
NFTs? A Really Dumb Idea
It’s possible to see a purpose for cryptocurrencies, but NFTs are (for now) almost comically bereft of anything most of us would associate with...
Insisting That Art Focus On Social Justice Is A Narrow View Of How Art...
Consider those charitable foundations that have decided to stop funding the arts, or to only fund arts activities that explicitly promote diversity, equality, and...
Norman Mailer Wasn’t “Canceled.” (Dumb)
Instead, the publishing conglomerate’s decision to back away from Mailer points to a different set of financial imperatives, as well as a growing impulse...
Should Art Be “Relevant?” Jed Perl Thinks Not
Perl’s thesis, most succinctly framed in his concluding chapter, is that the arts, rather than being obliged to convey utilitarian messaging, must instead remain...
Workers At The Art Institute Of Chicago Unionize
The Art Institute union will be the first group of its kind at a major museum in Chicago. It comes amid a larger push...
United States Artists Chooses Its Next President
Judilee Reed is currently the program director of creative communities for the William Penn Foundation, where she leads the organization’s arts and culture and...
How Jazz Grew And Flourished In Japan
American troops brought jazz records with them; Japanese musicians picked up work entertaining the troops. There was a proliferation of jazz kissa (cafes), a distinctly Japanese...
UK Book Sales Set Records In 2021
Driven by booming appetites for crime novels, sci-fi, fantasy, romance and personal development titles, sales last year showed an increase of 5% on 2020....
Image Of Maya Angelou To Be Featured On US Quarter
The quarter features an image of Angelou with her arms uplifted, a bird in flight and a rising sun behind her, with a portrait...
Eighty Factcheck Groups Worldwide Protest YouTube Policies
The letter lists worldwide examples which have the potential to cause real-life harm, which went under the radar of YouTube's content policies. It says...
Gideon Arthurs Chosen As New Director Of Soulpepper Theatre
Arthurs joins Soulpepper after eight years as the chief executive officer of the National Theatre School of Canada. - Toronto Star
Inside The Healing Art Of Bibliotherapy
Bibliotherapy is premised on the idea that books can be healing tools. The main distinction is between clinical bibliotherapy, where texts, including fiction and...
Do Our Digital Lives Need An Intervention?
It’s clear that the internet needs design innovations—and brake mechanisms—to reduce its noxious impact. Our suffering arises, in part, from the speed and volume of...
NPR Responds To Loss Of Hosts
NPR's senior vice president for news, Nancy Barnes, wrote in a letter to staff on Tuesday that, taken together, the resignations have "created a...
LA’s Bold New Event Space Is… Well, I Need A New Word For It
The history and location are why I wanted to love — love — the new Audrey Irmas Pavilion (which bears the name of the patron who...
The Screen Actors Guild Nominations Are Out. Here’s What They Portend For Oscars
OK, let’s just says awards season actually starts now. The SAG Awards nominations, voted on by two panels of 2,500 randomly selected SAG-AFTRA members...
For The First Time In Three Years, The Oscars Will Again Have A Host
Names like Dwayne Johnson believed to be among those on their wish list. Popular former hosts such as Chris Rock also have been approached...
Global Disarray Is Growing. Do We Have The Creativity To Stop It?
The gap between global challenges and responses is large and growing. And the resources needed to turn things around – especially collective will and skillful...
Art As Transporting Experience? Sure — But Where To?
The idea of artworks as portals to other worlds dates back several centuries, and it has become a commonplace way of talking about our...
