https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical Douglas McLennan's blog Sun, 10 May 2026 04:08:52 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 62641784 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/05/aj-chronicles-the-venice-biennale-blows-up-some-takeaways.html https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/05/aj-chronicles-the-venice-biennale-blows-up-some-takeaways.html#respond Sat, 09 May 2026 20:33:23 +0000 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/?p=3461 Culture awards of all kinds have been steadily losing their currency over the past decade. So what's going on?]]> https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/05/aj-chronicles-the-venice-biennale-blows-up-some-takeaways.html/feed 0 3461 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/05/so-just-how-big-is-the-culture-audience-comparisons-that-may-make-you-rethink.html https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/05/so-just-how-big-is-the-culture-audience-comparisons-that-may-make-you-rethink.html#respond Wed, 06 May 2026 16:33:54 +0000 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/?p=3448 By revenue, the nonprofit arts sector is small — about $73 billion in organizational spending compared to $1.17 trillion in total US arts and cultural production. Disney's annual revenue alone is larger than every US nonprofit cultural institution in the country combined. But the map of audience shows something entirely different.]]> https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/05/so-just-how-big-is-the-culture-audience-comparisons-that-may-make-you-rethink.html/feed 0 3448 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/05/aj-chronicles-are-our-attention-spans-killing-culture-or-reassembling-it.html https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/05/aj-chronicles-are-our-attention-spans-killing-culture-or-reassembling-it.html#respond Sat, 02 May 2026 14:41:03 +0000 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/?p=3441 Depth hasn't disappeared. Perhaps it's gone lateral. The vertical architecture that produced "official" cultural memory has cracked, but the appetite for tradition — for context, for lineage, for the why — has migrated to wherever audiences and individuals can build their own context and throughlines. Sometimes those lines are deep obsessive sturdy. Sometimes they are skimming across the surface of micro-videos and news of the day. ]]> https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/05/aj-chronicles-are-our-attention-spans-killing-culture-or-reassembling-it.html/feed 0 3441 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/04/just-how-big-is-the-culture-economy.html https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/04/just-how-big-is-the-culture-economy.html#respond Wed, 29 Apr 2026 23:54:29 +0000 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/?p=3414 Most arts policy debates happen at one scale. Most cultural activity happens at another. It turns out the gap between those two scales — between the world that the arts, funding fights, and nonprofit board meetings live in, and the world where most people actually encounter culture — is so large that it's worth pausing to measure.]]> https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/04/just-how-big-is-the-culture-economy.html/feed 0 3414 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/04/aj-chronicles-perils-of-philanthropy-the-metropolitan-opera.html https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/04/aj-chronicles-perils-of-philanthropy-the-metropolitan-opera.html#respond Sun, 26 Apr 2026 08:34:51 +0000 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/?p=3404 We collected 118 stories on ArtsJournal [subscribe] this week. Here’s what I learned. The detail that stuck out in the Metropolitan Opera’s announcement last fall that it had made a $200 million deal with the Saudi government to take the company to perform in the Kingdom for three weeks every winter was not the eye-popping […]]]> https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/04/aj-chronicles-perils-of-philanthropy-the-metropolitan-opera.html/feed 0 3404 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/04/lacmas-new-building-whats-the-purpose-of-art-in-a-museum.html https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/04/lacmas-new-building-whats-the-purpose-of-art-in-a-museum.html#respond Fri, 24 Apr 2026 19:13:51 +0000 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/?p=3390 LACMA proposes a new model for museums. For a long time now, context has been an essential deliverable when you go to a museum. It’s how meaning gets constructed. Just what was so remarkable about the way Constable painted light, and how did it have an effect on the painters who came after? The white cube gallery was modernism's insistence that art speak for itself. But it was invented for audiences who already spoke the vocabulary. It assumed the context was already in the viewer's head. The Geffen revives this for audiences who may not carry that context. Whether that is a brilliant adaptation, a beautiful concession, or just plain incoherence, is the open question of the building. ]]> https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/04/lacmas-new-building-whats-the-purpose-of-art-in-a-museum.html/feed 0 3390 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/04/aj-chronicles-this-week-perils-of-the-algorithmic-culture.html https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/04/aj-chronicles-this-week-perils-of-the-algorithmic-culture.html#respond Sat, 18 Apr 2026 19:29:02 +0000 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/?p=3383 The threat isn't that AI replaces artists. It's subtler and more coercive: that an algorithmically saturated environment erodes the capacity for the kind of thinking that we like to think art requires. Tolerance for ambiguity. Patience with difficulty. The willingness to be bored before a breakthrough. ]]> https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/04/aj-chronicles-this-week-perils-of-the-algorithmic-culture.html/feed 0 3383 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/04/aj-chronicles-how-to-fight-the-slop.html https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/04/aj-chronicles-how-to-fight-the-slop.html#respond Sun, 12 Apr 2026 01:21:40 +0000 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/?p=3371 Old systems of certification are failing from every direction: technological, legal, institutional and political. So what's left when you can't just say "trust us"? You have to show your work and construct a context, making the case not by institutional credential but by demonstration.]]> https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/04/aj-chronicles-how-to-fight-the-slop.html/feed 0 3371 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/04/from-messages-to-conversations-ai-agents-are-changing-how-we-find-culture.html https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/04/from-messages-to-conversations-ai-agents-are-changing-how-we-find-culture.html#respond Wed, 08 Apr 2026 04:19:14 +0000 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/?p=3361 The first audience for your art is becoming a machine. The question isn't just how to optimize for that machine, it's what you give it to say, and whether what it says is worth a conversation.]]> https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/04/from-messages-to-conversations-ai-agents-are-changing-how-we-find-culture.html/feed 0 3361 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/04/aj-chronicles-the-excellence-problem-and-why-it-matters.html https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/04/aj-chronicles-the-excellence-problem-and-why-it-matters.html#respond Sat, 04 Apr 2026 18:00:38 +0000 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/?p=3347 I don't mean to be pedantic, but I think defining what we mean by excellence really matters if we're going to figure out the place of AI in creativity. Four stories this week suggest layers to this debate:]]> https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/04/aj-chronicles-the-excellence-problem-and-why-it-matters.html/feed 0 3347 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/03/aj-chronicles-why-tech-infrastructure-is-the-most-important-arts-story-of-the-year.html https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/03/aj-chronicles-why-tech-infrastructure-is-the-most-important-arts-story-of-the-year.html#respond Sat, 28 Mar 2026 19:30:43 +0000 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/?p=3338 The infrastructure carrying culture to audiences — legal, technical, financial, corporate — was not built for the creative sector. It was built by and for technology companies, telecommunications firms, and entertainment conglomerates. ]]> https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/03/aj-chronicles-why-tech-infrastructure-is-the-most-important-arts-story-of-the-year.html/feed 0 3338 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/03/aj-chronicles-what-habermas-feared-for-our-public-sphere.html https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/03/aj-chronicles-what-habermas-feared-for-our-public-sphere.html#respond Sun, 22 Mar 2026 14:56:30 +0000 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/?p=3317 This week we collected 118 stories. It's worth noting, I think, that attempts to address the current collapse of the non-profit culture sector are focused on changing market forces. But this is a larger, more systemic set of issues that has corroded all of civic life -- from culture to education to journalism to our politics -- and the institutions and structures that nurture it. Indeed, these forces are so much bigger than any one sector, it's difficult to know where to start in addressing them.]]> https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/03/aj-chronicles-what-habermas-feared-for-our-public-sphere.html/feed 0 3317 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/03/what-irelands-basic-artist-income-experiment-tells-us-about-a-new-arts-economy.html https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/03/what-irelands-basic-artist-income-experiment-tells-us-about-a-new-arts-economy.html#respond Thu, 19 Mar 2026 19:23:32 +0000 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/?p=3311 Ireland demonstrated something: economic insecurity doesn't just force workers out, it diminishes the overall creative economy. That matters enormously right now, because we are entering a period when a lot of people across a lot of industries are about to lose their job security.]]> https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/03/what-irelands-basic-artist-income-experiment-tells-us-about-a-new-arts-economy.html/feed 0 3311 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/03/aj-chronicles-the-biggest-fights-about-culture.html https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/03/aj-chronicles-the-biggest-fights-about-culture.html#respond Sun, 15 Mar 2026 05:34:55 +0000 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/?p=3305 These weekly essays are meant to connect stories from the week to larger trends and ideas across the arts world. This week we collected 118 stories. Here's what I learned:]]> https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/03/aj-chronicles-the-biggest-fights-about-culture.html/feed 0 3305 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/03/paramount-and-live-nation-ticketmaster-won-big-last-week-heres-why-orchestras-and-theatres-and-museums-and-consumers-lost.html https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/03/paramount-and-live-nation-ticketmaster-won-big-last-week-heres-why-orchestras-and-theatres-and-museums-and-consumers-lost.html#respond Thu, 12 Mar 2026 21:39:04 +0000 https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/?p=3292 Two huge culture industry deals in the past week, both in entertainment, and maybe they don't seem connected. Certainly not connected to non-profit arts. But these are exactly the kind of culture infrastructure deals that should worry anyone in the commercial or non-profit culture business because they impact us all. Here's why.]]> https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2026/03/paramount-and-live-nation-ticketmaster-won-big-last-week-heres-why-orchestras-and-theatres-and-museums-and-consumers-lost.html/feed 0 3292