Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
British Library Returns Oscar Wilde’s Library Card — 125 Years After His Death
On June 15, 1895, the Irish poet and playwright was excluded from the British Museum’s Reading Room, the precursor to the British Library. The...
Why Is CBS Making So Many Scripted Shows When Other Networks Are Retreating?
Given that the Tiffany Network has been home to the most-watched new series for the past nine TV seasons in a row, they've earned...
How Social Media has Turned Everything Into Television
Social media has evolved from text to photo to video to streams of text, photo, and video, and finally, it seems to have reached...
How OpenAI Has Played Hollywood
Among the discrepancies: the treatment of likenesses versus intellectual property. Tellingly, some execs were told an opt-in would be required for both. Others were...
Our Long History Of Artificial Intelligizing
If philosophy formalized reasoning, literature explored its consequences. Stories about artificial beings reveal the hopes and terrors of living with intelligent doubles. Western traditions...
Abundance Of Choice Is Our Modern Religion. It Has Some Serious Downsides
Philosophers and political theorists say it promotes selfish individualism and discourages collective action around issues that affect us all. And sociologists add that societies...
Royal Ballet Teams Up With Blind Artist To Experience Movement Differently
The Royal Ballet has long offered headphones with audio descriptions so that visually impaired members of the audience can follow the action on stage. Now the...
Europe’s New Soccer Stadiums Are The Cathedrals Of Our Time
The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner once said: “A bicycle shed is a building; Lincoln Cathedral is a piece of architecture.” For much of their history, football...
The Archaeology Of Unearthing The World’s Oldest Stories
Nowadays, we can unearth bones, extract DNA, even map ancient migrations, but only in myths can we glimpse the inner lives of our forebears—their...
Daniel Day-Lewis: Theatre Is An Elite Art Form For Privileged People
Theatre in itself is an elite cultural form. There are of course exceptions, many wonderful theatre companies that manage to put on affordable performances...
“Democracy” Is Melting On The National Mall
“Showing in real life that democracy is melting away before our very eyes, I think it’s a powerful symbol that helps express the feelings...
Study: Libraries Draw People To Downtown
A recent study published by the Urban Libraries Council explores the idea that libraries can draw people to city centers that have been suffering from the...
Toledo Museum’s Adam Levine On The Future Of Museums
"I have yet to meet someone who really believes that there will be less digital or AI in the world 10 years from now...
“Hamilton” Grosses Its Biggest-Ever Broadway Box Office
Notably, the tally of $4.042 million comes outside of the holiday season, when shows typically see their highest grosses and slightly bests Hamilton’s previous high...
Oregon Launches A Rethink On Support For Non-Profit Arts
“The goal is to create a unified strategy and list of priorities to present with the Legislature to support the arts, culture, and humanities...
Observation: Young Actors Trained During Pandemic Have Trouble Projecting Their Voices
Young actors who trained at drama school during the pandemic are struggling to project their voices and lack range because they were denied the...
Indigenous Artists Use Augmented Reality To Overlay Images At Metropolitan Museum
Using augmented reality (AR), the artists intervened in the gallery’s 19th-century paintings—generic and imagined landscapes, portraits of affluent settlers and grandiose historical scenes—digitally superimposing...
Artists Plan Nationwide Protests
The protests, known collectively as Fall of Freedom, will take place on the weekend of Nov. 21. Organizers, including the visual artist Dread Scott and the playwright...
Universal Music Goes All In On AI
I believe that Agentic AI, which dynamically employs complex reasoning and adaptation, has the potential to revolutionize how fans interact with and discover music....
Culture As An Act Of Resistance
As the current administration repeals the right to culture, we, everyday people, must work to keep it. Exercise it to the fullest extent. Dine...
Hundreds Of Culture Workers Sign On To Jane Fonda’s Revival Of The Committee for...
Fonda announced on October 1 that she would revive the Committee for the First Amendment, an anti-censorship group originally formed in 1947 whose members...
Cultural Boycotts Are Ripping UK Arts Organizations Apart
This fraught debate has pitted artists who are broadly in agreement against each other. “There’s so much energy being spent ripping ourselves to shreds...
Taylor Swift Sets Another All-Time Record
Swift broke the record set by Adele's 25, which sold 3.378 million copies in its first week in 2015. The Life of a Showgirl was released...
To Be An Artist In Canada Is To Be Prisoner Of Subsidy
Even if an artist can afford to turn up their nose at it, the entire structure that allows them to show, see, and otherwise...
James Wood On László Krasznahorkai
For many ordinary readers, the idea of entering a fictional world constantly teetering on the edge of a revelation that is always imminent but...
