Time again for our Website of the Week, when we showcase interesting and innovative online destinations. This week, a place to go for news and comment from the art world — not just painting and sculpture, but dance, theater, music and publishing from a variety of sources, all collected in one convenient place.
McLENNAN: "ArtsJournal.com is the largest aggregator of arts news on the Internet. We look at about 200 publications worldwide every day and pull out the stories that we think are the most interesting."
Doug McLennan is the editor of ArtsJournal.com, which has just celebrated its eighth birthday. McLennan, a former arts critic for a Seattle newspaper, got the idea when he was browsing another newspaper's website and stumbled on a two-week-old story that he had entirely missed.
McLENNAN: "And that kind of gave me the idea that there were probably a lot of stories in papers around the country, around the world, that people who were interested in the arts would want to see. In effect you could put together a pretty great arts section by pointing out what was the best of the best."
And he's put together not just arts news, but also a collection of blogs, offering comment and opinion on a wide range of topics from books to the business of art.
McLENNAN: "I think publications that don't try to give you a strong point of view are not as interesting as those which say, 'hey you know, there's a lot of stuff out there, but this is what I or we personally think is the most interesting.' And it's a way of giving context and form and understanding about what the world looks like."
There are also videos, and Doug McLennan says he plans to add more multimedia to the site. And if you can't visit, you can subscribe to free newsletters to get the latest arts news and comment by email.
Our Website of the Week is ArtsJournal.com, or get the link from our site, voanews.com.