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Archives for January 24, 2026

AJ Chronicles: This Week in the Great Culture Shift

January 24, 2026 by Douglas McLennan Leave a Comment

It’s probably a hazard of the job, but I tend to look at culture systemically. It’s not just the algorithms that steer our attention, but the often-unseen infrastructure we constructed that determines a large part of our culture diet: the systems that shape orchestras, theatres, dance companies, museums, the practical nuts-and-bolts and often mundane practicalities that determine what’s possible … [Read more...]

Douglas McLennan

I’m the founder and editor of ArtsJournal, a pioneering online hub for news, ideas, and conversations shaping the arts, culture, and media. Since launching the site in 1999, I’ve curated and connected … [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

  • Avoca Code on Not Really a Manifesto, I guess, but Perhaps a Framework for Thinking about AI and Art…: “Thought-provoking and well said. I appreciate how you frame AI not just as a new tool, but as a structural…” Nov 23, 17:42
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  • 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

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An ArtsJournal Blog

Recent Posts

  • AJ Chronicles: This Week in the Great Culture Shift
  • Old Laws, New Ghosts: Why Artists are losing the Battle for AI
  • An AI “Digital Twin” for the Performing Arts
  • The Great Renegotiation: Five Ideas about where Culture is going in 2026
  • Five Year-end Observations about Arts and Culture in 2025

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