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  • AUDIENCE

This Week’s Top ArtsJournal Reads: An Artist Identity Crisis?

TOP STORIES Posted: December 4, 2016 1:01 pm

This Week: The next wave of arts journalism layoffs begins… Lots of debate about the role of artists in the Trump era… Prominent Canadian artists petition the government to “fix” support for creativity… It’s getting harder to define what “home” is… Is “mindfulness” overrated?

Read the story in diacritical | Douglas McLennan Published: 12.04.16

This Week In Audience: Are Our Common Cultural Experiences Suffering Because Of High Ticket Prices?

AUDIENCE, TOP STORIES Posted: December 4, 2016 12:59 pm

This Week: A relation between common experiences and ticket prices?… Some clues about why arts audiences in Canada have declined over 20 years… Netflix taxes reflect changing culture… Does culture have to have social or political relevance?

Read the story in ArtsJournal Audience Published: 12.04.16

This Week in Audience: The Trump Era Will Force The Arts To Define Its Audiences; The Stories We All Respond To…

AUDIENCE, TOP STORIES Posted: November 27, 2016 1:42 pm

This Week: The Trump victory forces theatres to figure out who its audience is… A classic example of starting small in Kenya and developing a demand for books… How did an 80-year-old self-help book get on this year’s bestseller list?… The six stories to which we all respond… Authenticity and an unlikely concert venue.

Read the story in ArtsJournal Audience Published: 11.27.16

This Week’s Top AJ Stories: Does Pittsburgh Symphony Strike Settlement Solve Anything? Should Arts Funding Be Dependent On Encouraging Bad Behavior?

TOP STORIES Posted: November 27, 2016 9:02 am

This Week: Did settling the Pittsburgh Symphony strike just kick the can down the road?… The idea of progress is a fragile (and recent) notion… Why should this arts funding depend on encouraging bad behavior?… The art establishment is caught in an increasingly high-stakes investment battle… We celebrate reading – but has the dissemination of ideas and knowledge moved on?

Read the story in diacritical | Douglas McLennan Published: 11.27.16

This Week’s AJ Highlights: “Hamilton” Teaches The Art Of Protest, At Last Some Real Data On Orchestras

TOP STORIES Posted: November 20, 2016 11:09 pm

This Week: That Mike Pence goes to “Hamilton” story? A textbook protest… Finally – some real data on the health of orchestras… Arts criticism is either being reborn or it’s in dire shape… Pop culture is getting to be only for the rich… The myth of the outsider is a standard pop culture meme…

 

Read the story in diacritical | Douglas McLennan Published: 11.20.16

This Week’s AJ Highlights: Divided Culture, Audience Issues, Hope From Lin Manuel Miranda

TOP STORIES Posted: November 13, 2016 12:11 pm

This Week: Hard to imagine there are arts headlines to compete with election news, but here goes: Science tries to explain why we’re ideologically segregated… It’s not just politics – arts and entertainment don’t really know what their audiences want… Even the most-respected arts coverage is being cut back… Infighting on the jury of the National Book Awards point to how deeply we’re divided… To end on an upbeat note, read Lin Manuel Miranda on the power of arts education.

Read the story in diacritical | Douglas McLennan Published: 11.13.16

This Week In Understanding Audiences: Interactive Theatre, Arts Video And Artificial Intelligence

AUDIENCE, TOP STORIES Posted: November 6, 2016 2:13 pm

This Week: Theatre used to be more interactive – can it be again?… There’s an awful lot of arts video out there – but what do audiences want?… Can you shame an arts organization into being more diverse?… More orchestras are getting out of their concert halls… Can artificial intelligence connect us more closely to art?

Read the story in ArtsJournal Audience Published: 11.06.16

This Week’s AJ Highlights: Ominous Orchestra Results? New Arts Journalism? Accountable Algorithms?

TOP STORIES Posted: November 6, 2016 1:41 pm

This Week: Record ticket sales at the Chicago Symphony but still a budget problem…Wall Street Journal cuts arts coverage and Boston Globe gets a subsidized critic…Why did Shakespeare’s Globe fire its director?…Two cities on opposite sides of a border, share common arts culture… Who will hold intelligent machines accountable?

Read the story in diacritical | Douglas McLennan Published: 11.06.16

What We Learned About Audiences This Week: An Uber For Classical Music? Threats To Our Attention Spans

AUDIENCE, TOP STORIES Posted: October 23, 2016 3:50 pm

This Week: Live classical music on demand, in your living room!… Is being always connected killing our ability to follow complex art?… The Smithsonian Wants your money to preserve Wizard of Oz ruby slippers… Researchers say it’s probably alright to let babies play with screens… Alvin Ailey company engages audiences in its second home in a charged way.

Read the story in ArtsJournal Audience Published: 10.23.16

This Week’s Top AJ Stories: A Huge Drop In Dance Audiences, MFA Programs

TOP STORIES Posted: October 23, 2016 3:17 pm

This Week: Why has dance attendance fallen off a cliff in New York?… Applications for MFA programs are down and things are looking bleak… Has our ad-supported business model for content killed quality?… There’s a big surge in art that addresses political issues… Bob Dylan, and what he means.

Read the story in diacritical | Douglas McLennan Published: 10.23.16

Four Trends In Understanding Audience: Measurement, Streaming and Politics

AUDIENCE, TOP STORIES Posted: October 16, 2016 5:30 pm

This Week: Is there a correlation between value and attention in the arts?… Data’s in: the plus/minuses of live-streaming… Some ideas from a researcher on measuring aesthetic experience… How might the arts weigh in on politics without being dismissed?

Read the story in ArtsJournal Audience Published: 10.16.16

The Bigger Picture: Making Sense Of Last Week’s Trending ArtsJournal Stories

TOP STORIES Posted: October 16, 2016 4:16 pm

This Week: Did Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize for literature expand the category to songwriting?… Artists protest against gentrification… We’re deeply conflicted about the value of creativity… Is Google rewiring our brains so they don’t work so well?… Are we all living in a giant computer simulation? (don’t laugh)

Read the story in diacritical | Douglas McLennan Published: 10.16.16

This Week In Understanding Audience: What Does The Audience “Own”? and Do We Tell Audiences Too Much?

AUDIENCE, TOP STORIES Posted: October 9, 2016 1:09 pm

This Week: Do you own the culture you just bought?… How did TV become the medium for complexity?… Should we keep audiences in the dark about what they’ll see?… Measuring the effectiveness of arts policy is really hard… Technology is changing the ways we experience the world.

Read the story in ArtsJournal Audience Published: 10.09.16

Five AJ Highlights From This Week: A Golden Age For Music? An Arts Olympics?

TOP STORIES Posted: October 9, 2016 11:56 am

This Week: The movie industry is undergoing a top-to-bottom revolution… Claim: teaching humanities fights racism… Outing the identity of Elena Ferrante sparks debate on privacy… Now be the best-ever time for music… Do we really need an Olympics for the arts?

Read the story in diacritical | Douglas McLennan Published: 10.09.16

This Week In Audience: Measuring Audience Value – Three Things We Learned About Audiences

AUDIENCE, TOP STORIES Posted: October 2, 2016 6:28 pm

This Week: How are we measuring the value that audiences get for their money?… Think you own the culture you just bought? In the digital age, maybe you don’t… Wow!  fan conventions are making stars really big bucks.

Read the story in ArtsJournal Audience Published: 10.02.16

AJ Week In Review: Two Big Orchestras Strike, Two Others Report Record Success

TOP STORIES Posted: October 2, 2016 9:29 am

This Week: Three orchestras now on strike as audience waits… Two other orchestras report record success… A museum raises $100 million in just three months… Bots are getting awfully good at making art… More links between being bored and being creative.

Read the story in diacritical | Douglas McLennan Published: 10.02.16

This Week in Understanding Audience: Baby Boomers Reinvent The Movie Experience

AUDIENCE, TOP STORIES Posted: September 25, 2016 4:03 pm

This week: Baby boomers are breathing new life into movie theatres… Dance clubs are languishing as millennials stay away… Netflix reveals at what point we get hooked on TV series… How the audience changes when admission is free… The Ticket bots strike again on Broadway.

Read the story in ArtsJournal Audience Published: 09.25.16

Five Stories/Trends From This Week’s ArtsJournal: How The Arts Speak To Real Life

TOP STORIES Posted: September 25, 2016 2:43 pm

This Week: Why is it so hard to tell if American theatre is thriving or not?… Have art and technology had a falling out?… Perhaps TV is the solution to our political polarization… The music industry seems to be finally getting it together… A cautionary tale about getting swallowed up by the online world.

Read the story in diacritical | Douglas McLennan Published: 09.25.16

Understanding The New Audience: Five Stories From This Week’s AJ – Attention Span Theatre

AUDIENCE, TOP STORIES Posted: September 18, 2016 11:48 am

This Week: How free museum admission changes audience and behavior… Legislation to battle the ticket bots… Is YouTube making it tougher for live performers?… Detroit Symphony starts an amateur orchestra to get closer to its audience… Theatre for short attention spans.

Read the story in ArtsJournal Audience Published: 09.18.16

Five ArtsTrending Stories From This Week’s AJ: Are The Arts Falling Into A Measurement Trap?

TOP STORIES Posted: September 18, 2016 10:53 am

This Week: The remarkable new National Mall museum that doesn’t look like the rest… An arts council’s risky change in standards… What scientists have learned about the accomplishments of gifted children… Will algorithms take over the book business?… Seven things scientists have learned about creativity.

Read the story in diacritical | Douglas McLennan Published: 09.18.16

This Week In Understanding Audience Stories: America’s Creative Divide Isn’t Where You Think

AUDIENCE, TOP STORIES Posted: September 11, 2016 2:37 pm

This Week: There’s a creative divide in America but it’s not where you think… Rethinking the modern concert hall in favor of the audience… Is glamour an ineffective sell for pop music?… A link between audience attendance and donations (not what you think)… Why has reading of literature declined?

Read the story in ArtsJournal Audience Published: 09.11.16

This Week’s AJ Arts Highlights: Has Entertainment Made Art Irrelevant?

TOP STORIES Posted: September 11, 2016 9:58 am

This Week: Major shakeup in London’s museum world… Nobel laureate says entertainment has killed art… Latest study of Hollywood reaffirms cultural inequality… Why did Wells Fargo disparage artists?… Did the Glenn Gould Foundation get ahead of itself in announcing arts Nobel prizes?

Read the story in diacritical | Douglas McLennan Published: 09.11.16

This Week’s Notable AJ Stories: An Artist Erased, A Cautionary Tale

TOP STORIES Posted: September 4, 2016 12:32 pm

This Week: What exactly does cultural equity actually mean?… In our social media world everything is about images… A cautionary tale as an artist is erased from the internet… There’s a difference between culture and art… Why Italy fought to keep Venice off the endangered list.

Read the story in diacritical | Douglas McLennan Published: 09.04.16

This Week In Audience: Are Middle Class Values Stifling The Arts?

AUDIENCE, TOP STORIES Posted: August 28, 2016 1:58 pm

This Week: Have orchestra pops concerts lost the pops thread?… A decade of experimenting with pay-as-you-will theatre in Charleston… NBC confirms a shift in how audiences want to watch the Olympics… Are middle class norms stifling the arts?… What do regular museum goers think about the art?

Read the story in ArtsJournal Audience Published: 08.28.16

This Week’s AJ Highlights: That Time Nureyev And Fonteyn Got Arrested In A “Hippie Raid”

TOP STORIES Posted: August 28, 2016 11:52 am

This Week: Earthquake Devastates Historic Italian Towns… Has the audience deserted blockbuster movies?… The best new beautiful library of 2016… Is it a good idea to pay young people to try culture?… When superstar dancers were arrested in a 1960s police raid.

Read the story in diacritical | Douglas McLennan Published: 08.28.16

This Week In Culture – Some ArtsJournal Highlights

TOP STORIES Posted: August 21, 2016 12:32 pm

This Week: An artist collective skewers Trump… How Florence’s Uffizi is dramatically addressing its problems… Our fetishizing of “authenticity” doesn’t ring true… So what if Google is changing the way you think… An inspiring comeback after medical calamity by one of America’s best musicians.

Read the story in diacritical | Douglas McLennan Published: 08.21.16

Culture Trends: Five Stories From The Week’s ArtsJournal That You Shouldn’t Miss

TOP STORIES Posted: August 14, 2016 11:01 am

This Week: Is the music industry’s piracy war really about higher royalty payments?… There are signs the Golden Age of TV might be ending… Theatre’s emotional toll on actors… LA as the next great center of contemporary music… Europe’s tourist glut is damaging its great cities.

Read the story in diacritical | Douglas McLennan Published: 08.14.16

Five Essential Stories From Last Week’s ArtsJournal Haul, Context Edition

TOP STORIES Posted: August 7, 2016 8:41 pm

This Week: The ways in which we experience art are about to change in big ways… Auction houses are becoming shadow banks for the super-wealthy with money to stash… The Met Museum’s super-successful year (at least at the admissions booth)… Predictably, Harry Potter slays sales records… Do we have a problem with the ways we develop artists’ careers?

Read the story in diacritical | Douglas McLennan Published: 08.07.16

Editor’s Picks: Five Highlights From Last Week’s AJ – How To Define Art Edition

TOP STORIES Posted: July 31, 2016 11:11 am

This Week: In an age of artists what is the definition of being an artist?… Canadian study says arts workers are most at risk… What is R&D in the arts?… Edinburgh Festival’s success shows the broadening impact of festivals… In the information age our opinions seem to be more arrogant.

Read the story in diacritical | Douglas McLennan Published: 07.31.16

Editor’s Picks: Five Stories You Shouldn’t Miss, Factually Challenged Edition

TOP STORIES Posted: July 24, 2016 10:53 am

This week: How did our culture get to the point we don’t trust facts?… Are artists actually detrimental to neighborhoods?… Our notions of “greatness” need an overhaul… Europe’s new cultural paradigm desperately needs artists… Are donors to museum building projects do their museums a disservice?

Read the story in diacritical | Douglas McLennan Published: 07.24.16

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