Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Why Conservatives Should Be Rooting For NPR
Some Republicans would no doubt be happy if PBS and NPR went away entirely, as they are upset by the networks’ left-wing bias. They should be...
Matthew Barney On The Point Of Art
"I’m not interested in participating in consensus culture. The way I understand art to function and the function that it carries out in culture...
Artists Protest Homeland Security Use Of Traditional Art Images
The images, bookended by posts cheering the administration’s deportation campaign, have been widely shared by conservatives and sparked alarm among the artists, their families...
Why Tom Lehrer’s Satire Endures
One simple reason his songs endure is that, for all that they are written for their words, it’s hard to stop humming their tunes....
Schenkerian Theory Journal Editor Wins $725,000 Award Against University
The trouble started when Jackson, who was the founding editor of the journal, invited music theorists with expertise in Schenkerian theory to write rebuttals...
That Challenge Of Political Theatre
A play is political if its subject is taboo and its story mirrors, exposes, and critiques the suppression and repression that interferes with the...
When Libraries Were Quieter
Books are removed, and replaced with coffee bars and spaces for socializing. In case people don’t get the message, librarians now put up signs discouraging quiet...
Book Sales Slump
Sales of adult books dropped 9.6% in the month, with fiction sales off 8.3% and nonfiction falling 11.3%. For the first five months of...
The Unnerving Takeover Of Video Games By AI
Most experts acknowledge that a takeover by artificial intelligence is coming for the video game industry within the next five years, and executives have...
Site Santa Fe, The Indispensable Art Outpost
Site Santa Fe opened in 1995 in a former warehouse turned nonprofit gallery in the city’s art-filled Railyard District, but it stretches to museums...
How Classical Music Can Boost Sports Performance
A growing body of research suggests classical music can offer measurable benefits to athletes: helping regulate nerves, boost balance, reduce perceived effort, and even...
Thinking Is Becoming A Premium Subscription
The idea that technology is altering our capacity not just to concentrate but also to read and to reason is catching on. The conversation no...
Canada’s Arts Sector Produced $40 Billion In Revenue In 2024
Total revenues in the arts, using my imperfect and partial measurement, were $37.9 billion in 2024, representing 29% of all cultural products. - Hill...
Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera Shrinkage Poses Warning/Challenge To City Arts Organizations
“We have to decide where does the art in our town that's made in our town sit versus touring productions, and what does it...
Is Harvard Caving To Trump Attack?
Neither Harvard nor the government has publicly detailed potential terms for a settlement and what allegations the money would be intended to resolve. -...
The Books That Made This Year’s Booker Prize Longlist
This year's list of nominees for the prestigious Booker Prize is a varied lot in terms of style, scope, length and subject matter. - NPR
Redefining What A Pro Sports Dance Team Can Be
The dance team of the New York Liberty is a shot of adrenaline, a burst of vitality. All insist on the power of movement...
LA Philanthropist Wallis Annenberg, 86
Wallis Annenberg, a deep-pocketed philanthropist who helped transform the city through massive donations to arts, education and animal welfare causes, died Monday morning at...
The Unknown Stokowski
No Leopold Stokowski could exist today, in the face of prying social media. Notwithstanding his glamorous marriage to Gloria Vanderbilt and an affair with...
John Williams’ New Piano Concerto
Williams’s classical output includes a symphony, chamber music and concertos for a dozen instruments (including flute, violin, cello and bassoon). And yet, Williams said,...
The Last Recordings Of Woody Guthrie
“It’s like this huge puzzle, a thousand-piece puzzle, and every time a release comes out, we’re adding another puzzle piece. That is giving us...
The Rise Of X-Rated Novels
While younger generations, at least, have said in recent years that they want to see more platonic friendship and less sex on screen, reading appetites...
Hispanic Festivals Cancelled Over ICE Safety Fears
THING NW Festival 2025 cancelled its Aug. 16 Latinx musical performance lineup. All other Saturday musical events are still scheduled to go on as planned...
Satirist Tom Lehrer, 97
Mr. Lehrer — an Ivy League mathematics teacher who spent his early academic career on the periphery of show business — created a repertoire...
Will AI Kill Social Mobility?
Social mobility will become progressively locked as AI progresses. What is at risk is not simply job loss, but the very idea of income distribution. The concept...
