Kevin C Pinegar and Professor Adrian Pulfer, Visual Arts

When I enrolled in Brigham Young University, I had decided that “for the sake of education” I would give up art and culture for a few years and live in Provo. I was naive back then: I thought that BYU would be a place that discouraged creative outlets and art all together. I was ready to study business at the Mariott School and save art for the weekends of the rest of my life.

When I actually moved to Provo (all the way from Salt Lake) I realized quickly that I misunderstood Provo all together. There were many students like me— students that liked expressing themselves through different artistic mediums and design. The art community was strong and exciting, and evidence of the communityʼs vibrancy could be seen all over the city. In addition to the fantastic galleries in the Harris Fine Arts Center and elsewhere on campus, there were forward-minded boutiques like Mode and Coal Umbrella, hip music venues like Penny Royale, Velour, and Muse Music, galleries like Gallery 110, and locallyowned restaurants like Pizzeria 712 and Dew, that dedicated their blank walls to house art from the community, provided a stage for local and visiting musicians, donated after-hours to small groups for discussion and debate, and were owned by monetary supporters of the scene. There was even a small organization called “Sego” whose sole purpose was to further the arts in Provo, mainly by organizing and sponsoring different events like the annual Sego Arts Festival. The first Friday of every month you could meet artists and see spectacular work at all of these places and more. Provo had a tight-knit community after all, and the actual art flourished because of it.

As the plummeting economy began to stretch the country thin, many of these venues were forced to close, leaving only BYUʼs galleries and a few others standing. The places students could try and view or show art disappeared, and the art community took a serious blow. I want to see if a new venue, one that is printed and that required of less overhead than a boutique or restaurant could revitalize local artists and perhaps become a permanent, reliable, focused, staple to the art scene.

The magazine was born, but not without challenges. Through my research I decided what kind of printing and dimensions would work best (different dimensions affected how many issues I could get within my budget), and how to go about filling a small magazine with artwork that I hadnʼt seen yet. Figuring out how to manage and organize content from many different artists and writers while making the magazine feel together and cohesive was one of the biggest struggles. Strong adherence to controllable design elements like layout and the size and weight of typography was crucial.

Content was also a struggle. Trying to get a lot of work from a lot of good artists is hard. I think with how busy school and life is here, many artists didnʼt have a lot of time to devote to making art for the first issue of a currently unknown magazine. I think as the magazine gains more cred, more artists will take it seriously. I met this challenge by creating more content myself, much of which was done with the community in mind, e.g. information graphics based on random surveys of BYU students or other works driven by community response. I wanted the work to reflect the community in more than one way, by showcasing art done by the community, and by displaying ideas and opinions of the non-art community. I decided that I wouldnʼt give the magazine a permanent name (yet) because I wanted it to be topic based. Yes, it is about the art community in Provo, but I think art is more than art, it evokes emotion and provokes ideas and reflects opinion. It is the thermometer of a region, and can often tell you more about a community than the Daily Heraldʼs headlines. Naming each issue after its topic gave it a more approachable feel, helped give direction to the magazine and the artists found it helpful to get a prompt/topic (albeit broad) when creating art.

I hope that I can find ways to keep this magazine afloat after the ORCA funds are all gone. I trust that it will become a good venue for artists, poets, and writers to publish and exhibit their work. My goals include finding local vendors to sponsor issues, so that ads donʼt need to be used.

This project has done a lot for me and will become a great tool in bringing all of the different facets of the community together. It has and will continue to foster collaboration and encouragement between peers. I am excited to see where the community takes it.