Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Major French Festival Puts Theatre Voices From Elsewhere On Stage
As the first week of the festival unfolded, the spotlight shone repeatedly on amateurs and artists from countries rarely represented on the biggest European...
Ira Glass On Radio, Podcasting, And Keeping “This American Life” Fresh
I think a lot of my aesthetics were shaped by the Broadway shows that my mom took us to in Baltimore. Those old-school shows...
After A Long Career In Academia, I Leave Discouraged
I leave elite academe with doubts and foreboding that I would not have anticipated when I completed my formal education in 1982. Watching the travails of...
How To Tell If AI Wrote Something? It Uses Certain Words, Expressions
By taking a similar look at "excess word usage" after LLM writing tools became widely available in late 2022, the researchers found that "the appearance...
How Your Brain Decides What To Remember
The brain tags experiences worth remembering by repeatedly sending out sudden and powerful high-frequency brain waves. Known as “sharp wave ripples,” these waves, kicked...
Australia’s Biggest Online Bookseller Files For Protection
Australia’s largest online bookseller announced the move on Wednesday, two weeks after it went into a voluntary suspension of share trading. - The Guardian
Improbably, A Brilliant Park Rises In Brooklyn
Finally, a long stretch of nothing happening, of innumerable plans, tradeoffs, controversies, objections, and delays — that whole impasto of New York–style dithering —...
First Ever: Dancers Competing In The Olympics This Summer
Thirty-two dancers total—16 b-boys and 16 b-girls—will compete battle-style in Paris’ Place de la Concorde to sold-out crowds on August 9 and 10. Qualifying competitions have...
Bay Area Arts Institutions Finding Their Ways Back
Although attendance at the city’s arts institutions remains down from prepandemic levels — with tourism, hotel occupancy and office attendance yet to fully recover...
That Was Quick: Starmer Appoints New UK Culture Minister
Prior to yesterday’s UK general election, she was shadow cabinet minister for international development and has previously held shadow cabinet roles in housing, foreign...
Are Protests Against Corporations Funding The Arts Killing Corporate Arts Funding?
Increasing protests around elements of corporate sponsorship of the arts – most notably last month, when support from investment firm Baillie Gifford for the Hay, Edinburgh...
How Words Shape The Future
We make something more likely, more widely believed, by saying and repeating it. Our rhetoric encourages or discourages. Which is why sports teams chant...
The World’s Oldest Story Painting Is 51,000 Years Old
The previous record holder was a lifesize picture of a wild pig believed to be created at least 45,500 years ago in a cave at Leang...
LLMs And AI Challenge Our Notions Of Consciousness
LLMs challenge traditional notions of intelligence and consciousness, blurring lines between AI and biology. - Psychology Today
Are There Too Many Non-Profits?
While each example in the litany of headlines of late is unique, taken together, the drumbeat of bad news raises serious questions about nonprofit...
Big Media Stocks Have Had a Rough Time While Tech Soars
Media heavyweights are likely due to endure more pain as the year goes on. The political and regulatory environment for mergers and acquisitions is...
The Politics Behind Canceling New Jersey’s Pompidou Center
The mayor of Jersey City and a major supporter of the museum, blamed the cuts instead on his deteriorating relationship with the state’s governor,...
Amid Controversy, Scotland’s National Gallery Says It Will Continue To Take Money From Financial...
First Minister John Swinney has criticised the “misplaced” targeting of the firm, while Scottish culture secretary Angus Robertson has warned that disinvestment campaigns were...
Literary Studies Are Dying. How Should The Field Cope?
Especially cruel realities face a struggling field like literary studies, with its disappearing majors, budgetary pressures, abysmal job market, fears about academic freedom, and...
Brooke Shields Is Actors Equity’s New President. Here’s What She Wants To Do.
Shields’s music director suggested she consider the opening, and soon enough, she had tossed her hat in the ring, and in May she won the vote...
This Year’s Classical Music Programming Diversity Report
The Donne report found that 78.4 percent of works in 2023–2024 were by historical (deceased) white men, with 30.6 percent coming from the top...
Is Australian Arts Funding At An All-Time Low?
Right now, after the chaos of the COVID years and amid a cost of living crisis, many in the sector are feeling like arts...
Oooh. Now We Have “Malevolent” Creativity
When you think of creativity, you probably imagine a genius behind an easel or at the heart of a brilliantly directed movie. However, people can...
“Carnegie Hall Of The West” Is For Sale
Harvest Rock Church is asking $45 million for the 1,200-seat auditorium near the Old Pasadena district that has also hosted jazz greats including Ella...
LA’s Jazz Clubs Are Under Stress. Can They Survive?
The city is brimming with jazz musicians releasing stellar albums and taking risks live. But is L.A. so expensive and disconnected that it’s risking...
