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Archives for 2016

What Makes A Great Blog(ger)? Five Observations

January 21, 2016 by Douglas McLennan 3 Comments

As inconsistent and distracted a blogger as I am, I am hardly a great blogger. But as someone who runs a network of arts blogs, I do have some observations. Great bloggers don't just get you interested in a post, they draw you into a topic. They stake out that topic, pick away at it, play with it, make you care about it. No one post explains who they are; you only get it over time, as they … [Read more...]

Playing For The Screens – Is Our Obsession With Video Changing The Live Arts Experience?

January 20, 2016 by Douglas McLennan 4 Comments

One weekend last November, the biggest box-office at movie theatres throughout the UK wasn't for the latest Hollywood blockbuster (the latest "Hunger Games" movie opened that Friday). It was for a live broadcast of  Kenneth Branagh’s production of  "The Winter’s Tale" which was streamed live to 520 theatres in the UK and 100 more internationally on November 26. Starring Branagh and Judi Dench, it … [Read more...]

If Dance Can’t Pay Its Dancers What Does It Mean To Be A Professional Dancer?

January 19, 2016 by Douglas McLennan Leave a Comment

A survey of dancers in the UK  last summer reported that "more than half of professional dancers earn less than £5,000 a year from their performance work." That's professional dancers. "The statistics also show that around 50% of dancers’ jobs pay less than the minimum wage, and that 70% of dancers have performed in 'unsuitable work environments' in the past 12 months." Add to this how short … [Read more...]

Last Week’s Top Stories on ArtsJournal

January 18, 2016 by Douglas McLennan Leave a Comment

We're aggregating upwards of 150 stories a week on ArtsJournal these days. Despite the decimation of the daily newspaper arts journalism profession, there are more good stories about the arts now than there have ever been. But that also means it's more difficult to sort through. We look through more than 1000 stories a day and pick 20-30. But maybe there's a finer sort that would be useful. In two … [Read more...]

When Libraries Realize That The Most Valuable Thing They Own Isn’t Their Collections

January 11, 2016 by Douglas McLennan 5 Comments

Remember when the internet came along and everyone wondered whether there would still be a use for libraries? Oddly, just as the question was being called, in the early 2000s there was a building boom of new libraries around North America. And public libraries didn't die, they flourished, many reinventing themselves as community centers for the 21st Century. The idea of a public library is … [Read more...]

Is Earning Making Money The New Audience-Building Strategy?

January 4, 2016 by Douglas McLennan 1 Comment

Maybe it's obvious, but in the for-profit world, making money is the point; profit defines success. In the non-profit world, the relationship between profit and success is more complicated. "Profit" (or balancing the books) is regarded as a hill to be climbed over rather than the objective. In the hyper-connected world of social media, profit is no longer simply about selling more product. More … [Read more...]

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Douglas McLennan

I’m the founder and editor of ArtsJournal, which was founded in September 1999 and aggregates arts and culture news from all over the internet. The site is also home to some 60 arts bloggers. I’m a … [Read More...]

About diacritical

Our culture is undergoing profound changes. Our expectations for what culture can (or should) do for us are changing. Relationships between those who make and distribute culture and those who consume it are changing. And our definitions of what artists are, how they work, and how we access them and their work are changing. So... [Read more]

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Recent Comments

  • David E. Myers on How Should we Measure Art?: “A sophisticated approach to “measuring” incorporates all of the above, with clear delineation of how each plays a part if…” Nov 3, 16:20
  • Tom Corddry on How Should we Measure Art?: “Reading this brought to mind John Cage’s delineation of different ways to experience a Beethoven symphony–live in concert, on a…” Nov 3, 01:58
  • Abdul Rehman on A Framework for Thinking about Disruption of the Arts by AI: “This article brilliantly explores how AI is set to revolutionize everything, much like the digital revolution did. AI tools can…” Jun 8, 03:49
  • Richard Voorhaar on Classical Music has Lost a Generation. Blame the Metadata (in part): “I think we’ve lost several generations. My parents generation was the last that really supported, and knre something about classical…” May 15, 12:08
  • Franklin on How Subsidy for Big Tech Wrecked the Arts (and Journalism): “Language, yes; really characterization. Investments and margins don’t become subsidies and taxes whether or not markets “are working” – I’m…” Mar 8, 07:13
  • Douglas McLennan on How Subsidy for Big Tech Wrecked the Arts (and Journalism): “So what you’re arguing is language? – that investments aren’t subsidies and margins aren’t taxes? Sure, when markets are working.…” Mar 7, 21:42
  • Franklin on How Subsidy for Big Tech Wrecked the Arts (and Journalism): “Doug: You can, if you like, buy a jailbroken Android, install GrapheneOS, and sideload apps from the open-source ecosystem at…” Mar 7, 16:17
  • Douglas McLennan on How Subsidy for Big Tech Wrecked the Arts (and Journalism): “Franklin: Thanks for the response, But a few points: My Chinese solar panel example was to make the point that…” Mar 7, 12:46
  • Steven Lavine on How Subsidy for Big Tech Wrecked the Arts (and Journalism): “Terrific essay, with no prospect to a different future” Mar 7, 09:53
  • Franklin on How Subsidy for Big Tech Wrecked the Arts (and Journalism): “The economics of this essay are incoherent. The CCP was creating yuan ex nihilo and flooding it into domestically produced…” Mar 7, 08:49

Top Posts

  • We Asked: What's the Biggest Challenge Facing the Arts?
  • If Dance Can't Pay Its Dancers What Does It Mean To Be A Professional Dancer?
  • Are Orchestras A Ticket Or An Art? Maybe We're Thinking About The (Made Up) Model Wrong
  • Is The Institutionalization Of Our Arts A Dead End?
  • Creativity Versus Skills

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Recent Posts

  • Creativity Versus Skills
  • How Digital AI Twins could Transform how We Make Art
  • How Should we Measure Art?
  • Classical Music has Lost a Generation. Blame the Metadata (in part)
  • When “Vacuum Cleaner for Babies” Beat Taylor Swift: Fixing the Music Streaming Problem

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