Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
2025: Average American Read Fewer Than Four Books
According to a YouGov poll released at year’s end, American reading habits stay in the toilet. Four in ten Americans didn’t read a single book during...
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Files Restraining Order Against Violinist
The orchestra alleges that Hwang, who was sexually assaulted by a senior player in the orchestra in 2017 and 2018, breached an NDA she...
Utah Becomes The State With The Most Banned Books (They Banned “Wicked”?)
To begin the new year at public schools across the state, Utah officials banned three more books. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked...
The Enshittification Of Academic Publishing
The same forces that hollow out digital platforms are shaping how a lot of research is produced, reviewed and published. - The Conversation
Want To Head Off Dementia? Try Dancing
One study found that people who danced frequently (more than once a week) had a 76 percent lower risk of dementia than those who...
Our Most Important Institutional Foundations Are Being Eroded: Truth And Trust
Truth and trust are often treated as virtues, but they function as conditions: the prerequisites for coherent societies, functional institutions, and stable international systems....
The Birth Of The Literary Fraud (We Do Love A Good Story!)
It was not long before people began poking holes in Joan Lowell’s story. But the book didn’t sink—it was a great success, in part...
The Most-Anticipated Museum Openings Of 2026
A trio of prominent museum openings is expected in Los Angeles in 2026. Perhaps the most anticipated is the expansion of the Los Angeles County...
North American Movie Box Office Finished 2025 Slightly Up
Movie theaters in the United States and Canada sold an estimated $8.9 billion in tickets in 2025, a 2 percent increase compared with a...
If Americans Are More Skeptical About Going To College, Why Is Enrollment Still Growing?
Despite the reported skepticism of higher education, enrollment in four-year colleges and universities is growing. These institutions awarded 2 million bachelor’s degrees in 2023,...
Schools Stopped Teaching Cursive. These Kids Learn It For Fun
If boomers and Gen X are puzzled by the fact that many youngsters are not required to endure the same painstaking labor of mastering...
Hollywood Jobs Are Just… Disappearing
It's not like the frog boiling in the water. It's a dramatic drop-off. It happened very suddenly. Broadly speaking, in LA, if you're involved...
The Gene Kelly School Of Life
Somehow, these sensations felt deeper, like something dormant awakened: Why the hell was Gene Kelly making me feel so much? - The Atlantic
Life Has Become Very Difficult For Artists In Hungary
Since Fidesz came to power, governmental actors have gained control of universities, galleries and popular media outlets. The national cultural fund, chaired by the...
The Great Renegotiation: Five Ideas about where Culture is going in 2026
If 2025 is the year that 20th Century culture models stopped working, 2026 is the year we turn to building something new.
Sorry, But This Sounds Creepy: How AI Might Put You In The Movie You’re...
Producer Charlie Brooker proposes scanning the faces of cinemagoers as they enter the theater and then using AI to cast them “randomly” in the...
Silicon Valley Is Pivoting To Audio And Away From Screens
The move reflects where the entire tech industry is headed — toward a future where screens become background noise and audio takes center stage....
25 Dance Artists To Watch In 2026
These dancers, choreographers, directors, and companies are already doing exceptional work, but we’re betting on them to break through in a major way in...
Rijksmuseum Director On The Humanness Of Museums
“In a good museum, it’s a lot about imagination. You don’t want to spell things out. We are complex. History is complex, and history...
AMC Declares Its Live Event With Netflix A Huge Success
In addition to the countless millions of people who will enjoy Stranger Things on the Netflix streaming platform, in just two days, more than 753,000 Stranger Things fans...
Prince’s Withering Putdown Of Digital Musicians
“The kid with the PC in the bedroom can’t play his instrument. He can make some sounds, and then you can get a vast...
The Playwright Contemplating The Post-Human World
“Everyone was afraid of the telephone, everyone was afraid of television,” Harrison said. “It’s just going to march on. And we’ll acclimate.” - The...
Doug Varone Talks About Cancelling His Date At The Kennedy Center
"I do believe they should be separate. And the success of the Kennedy Center, you know, working in a bipartisan way, has been an...
Ten Questions For Theatre In 2026
Each year, theater producers and publicists work to make opening night more and more meaningless. Given that this is the night that reviews come out,...
Trump Plans To Reconstitute The “Commission Of Fine Arts” To Approve His Projects
The White House is expected to invite past Trump appointees to rejoin the Commission of Fine Arts, according to three people who spoke on...
