Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
The Essential Theatre AI Can’t Mimic
No technological breakthrough will ever nullify the wisdom of these playwrights. The shadow of death sentences us to live in endless search of elusive...
Experiential Art Is Having A Moment. Will It Last?
As big money has rolled into the sector, so too has a desire from companies to rely on solid gold intellectual property to bring...
The Israel Philharmonic Says It’s Just About Music And Apolitical. Is It?
That may be an ideal, but the reality is more complicated. The orchestra receives a subsidy from the government, typically reported to be around...
Visual Artists Demand Compensation For Work That AI Has Trained On
The group is calling for retrospective settlements for previous unauthorised use, for transparent disclosure of training datasets and for fair licensing agreements to ensure...
Clandestine Project In London Shares Museum Membership Cards With Poor Artists
Being the director of a major museum in London is no easy task, but I think we can separate the dire situation of the...
How Gamification Is Killing Hobbies
Birding is not the only hobby with an app problem. So many leisure pursuits now have their own gamified digital platforms: Untappd for beer enthusiasts. Strava for runners. Ravelry for...
Britain’s Cinemas Were Closing. Community Volunteers Stepped In
The cinema, which is a charity, has a bustling roster of volunteers to help keep it running. They have eight paid staff and 60-70...
What Ireland’s Basic Income Plan For Artists Accomplished
The basic income for the arts (BIA) initial pilot ran from 2022 to 2025 and helped 2,000 artists. The results of an independent study found that it...
A New AI-First School In San Francisco
Alpha School’s website suggests a futuristic learning model: AI tools make it so that students only need to spend two hours a day on...
Nineteen Percent Drop In International Students At US Universities This Fall
After India (down 45%), the arrivals figures from the US International Trade Administration (ITA), highlighted considerable declines from other major source countries, with China...
End Of An Era: MTV Is Shutting Its Music Channels. Is The Music Video...
The specific shuttering of the brand’s music platforms does call into question the position of the music video in today’s industry, and whether the...
Museums Are Banding Together To Survive Trump Attacks
The cultural community is now reeling and searching for answers. Many institutions have shown resilience, and sprouts of resistance are emerging. But the community...
Tech Groups Sue Texas Over Online Censorship Law
When app stores determine that a user is under 18, “the law prohibits them from downloading virtually all apps and software programs and from...
On The Eve Of America’s 250th Birthday, Museums Ponder How To Tell The Nation’s...
“I am hoping that people will take away from the whole range of exhibitions that we’re doing that democracy was achieved as a result...
Just How Will The Kennedy Center Make Dance Less “Woke?”
Avoiding “wokeness,” as the conservative right defines it, may prove difficult. Ballet has long been shaped by refugees, people of color, and the queer...
Suddenly A Plethora Of Risky Theatre In New York
After a somewhat quiet few years of foreign theatre programming in New York, we are suddenly enjoying a superbloom, largely thanks to several adventurous...
Daring Heist At The Louvre Sunday Closes Museum
Their faces concealed, they rode a monte-meubles, a truck-mounted electric ladder that is a common sight on the streets of Paris, where it is...
How The Atlantic Magazine Is Flourishing While Others Are In Decline
A publication that began in 1857 is defying the trends of a troubled media industry. The Atlantic is returning to publishing monthly two decades...
Why There Was A Surge Of Art Heists In The 1970s
According to art historian Tom Flynn, the surge in heists in the 1970s "coincides with the boom of the art market". - BBC
UK Drama Schools Are Under Severe Stress
“The cost of undertaking higher education courses is increasingly a barrier for people from less well-off backgrounds. This will lead to even less diversity...
New Tax Could Be “Devastating” To London’s Music Venues
Labour’s plans are designed to target Amazon-style warehouses, with the cash raised going to lower the business rates for smaller high street businesses. But...
UK’s Opposition Greens And Reform Parties Are Running On (Very Different) Culture Issues
Support for both parties is defined by cultural issues. In the case of Reform, by the culture war around immigration and national identity; in...
How Artists Are Mobilizing A Resistance
Among them is The People vs Project 2025, a new nationwide movement to mobilise artists and cultural workers through co-ordinated live and streaming performances. -...
Just How Do We Measure The Complexity Of AI?
How do we assess whether AI is “reasoning” like humans do? Is it “truly intelligent”—but what does that mean? Even if we don’t understand...
The Rise Of France’s Private Art Foundations
‘Luxury needs this link to the world of culture, because that is what gives it its nobility, its legitimacy, its roots,’ says Jean-Michel Tobelem,...
