Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Why Seattle Art Museum Guards Are Going On Strike
We plan to go on strike beginning this Friday, November 29, unless SAM’s Board of Trustees changes course and offers a contract that allows...
Will Box Office Success Of “Wicked” Rejuvenate Broadway Musical Movie Adaptations?
Bringing Broadway adaptations to the big screen can be a dicey proposition. For every "Wicked," there is a box-office flop, such as Universal's "Cats."...
Proposed Cuts To Berlin’s Arts Funding Will Have Profound Effect On The City’s Culture
About 450 institutes are reliant at least in part on state subsidies, from theatres and opera houses to nightclubs and galleries. They're attempting to...
A Breakthrough In How Robots Learn
“This is the year that people really realized that you can build general-purpose robots,” she said. What is striking about these achievements is that...
Why The “Wizard Of Oz” Story Endures
Artists across genres and mediums have, for decades, found great storytelling potential in Baum’s characters and mythology. But the mode that Oz has continued...
Diva Angelina Jolie’s Take On Maria Callas’ Diva
The movie is energized by the emotional implications of the gap between her unflagging devotion to music and, essentially, music’s abandonment of her—the loss...
Nostalgia Used To Be A Bad Thing. Now It Seduces Us
Nostalgia is a universal malady for which there is no effective remedy, and throughout its long history it has served politically diverse ends. -...
Today’s AJ Highlights
How An Iranian Director Made His Award-Winning Film In Secret — And Was Then Smuggled Out Of The Country "Mohammad Rasoulof had been imprisoned...
Millions Learn New Languages With DuoLingo. But Do They?
“It’s really good for learning receptive skills: listening, reading, learning about grammar and vocabulary, so it can be a great place to start. But...
Inside The Haruki Murakami Phenomenon
Murakami’s approach to consciousness is less representational than literal, with many of his characters literally being transported to a realm created by (or wholly...
The Real Crisis In Children’s Reading
In 1984, the first year for which data is available, 35 percent of 13-year-olds reported reading for fun “almost every day,” according to NAEP. By...
Opera In Its Traditional Role: Innovator, Leader In Technology
“Every technology affects the way that we think, behave and interact. AI is not going away. It will become a part of our humanity,...
NPR Tries Tweaking Its News Magazine Shows To Stanch Audience Decline
Eric Nuzum said he’s relieved NPR is trying to “correct audience erosion issues that should have been addressed years ago.” But he also concluded...
Taylor Swift’s Book And The End Of The Middleman Publisher?
Lately, various writers with meaningful personal resources—money, followers, notoriety—have struck out on their own or made nontraditional arrangements. - The Atlantic
The New AI Slop: Nature As Supernatural Images
My guess is that there are thousands of A.I. accounts, commenting on one another to drum up attention. When the gambit works, it draws...
Today’s AJ Highlights
Good morning: One of the most likely impacts of AI will be a massive explosion of new art -- books, music, images, video. This...
Comcast Unloading Its Cable Channels Signals A Major Shift In The TV Business
“This is a very clear, direct statement by Comcast” that “they are exiting the cable network business. This is them saying ‘We don’t want...
Spotify Says Music Created With AI Is Welcome
“We’re a tool for creators, and if creators want to use AI to enhance their music, as long as we follow the legislation and...
How The Internet Archive’s Fair Use Argument Lost At The Court
Copyright law is a jagged rock on which many seemingly promising ideas have been wrecked. In this particular case, the perilous legal provision turned...
Tracing The Lives Of The 20th Century American Novel
Taking Alex Ross’ 2007 book “The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century” as a model, Frank’s book makes the case for what,...
The Circus That Bought An Old West Town In The Desert
Spiegelworld, an entertainment and circus company based in Las Vegas, bought the entire town in 2022 for $2.5m. This isolated plot of land, roughly an hour’s...
Study: UK Artists Earn Average Of £12,500 Per Year
Visual artists in the UK take home a median annual salary of only £12,500 a year, a 40% decrease since 2010, a new survey commissioned by...
Outside Some High-Profile Sales (Banana Anyone?) Art Auction Market Is Down 40 Percent This...
The auction market "continues to sag behind its 2022 sales records, when a pent-up supply of masterpieces during the pandemic pushed the fall sales...
New Book Publisher Says It Will Publish 8000 Books Next Year Using AI
Spines, founded in 2021 but which published its first titles this year, is a startup technology business which—for a fee—is offering the use of...
Valencia’s Artists And Cultural Institutions Dig Out After Floods
In Spain, regional governments are responsible for disaster management, including heritage protection. The co-operation between the central government and Valencia’s to respond to the...
