ESOPUS 14: PROJECTS

Organization Name:
Esopus Foundation Ltd
City & State:
Describe your creative piece – what is it and what has it been used for, and why is it innovative?
ESOPUS 14: PROJECTS is a special edition of ESOPUS, an award-winning multidisciplinary arts publication published by the nonprofit Esopus Foundation Ltd. The magazine never includes advertising and is offered at a deeply subsidized cover price to attract a more general audience. Typically, each issue of ESOPUS features 3 artists' projects, fiction, poetry, features on film, theater, and other creative disciplines, and an audio CD of new music. For ESOPUS 14: PROJECTS, which was released in May 2010, we devoted the entire issue to artists' projects by 12 artists, ranging from well-known figures such as John Baldessari to up-and-coming artists like Marcia Kure. These projects range from removable inserts to pull-out posters to a six-foot-long double-foldout. The goal with this issue was to create a dynamic, eye-catching contemporary art "exhibition" in a magazine format.
What issue or problem were you working to address with this piece?
There were several issues we were addressing in the creation of ESOPUS 14: PROJECTS: First of all, we were very concerned about representing a wide range of artistic practice and cultural backgrounds from among the 12 artists selected for the issue. Second, we wanted to make sure to present each artists' work with a minimum of critical introduction in order to allow readers to approach the work on their—and its—own terms, but we didn't want to cause confusion on the part of our readers. A third potential problem was technical—the issue, which includes 10 different paper stocks, 11 inks, 4 varnishes, 40 inserts, and 6 foldouts—was easily the most challenging we have ever produced. Finally, as always, we were presented with financial limitations which required that we be as creative and resourceful as possible in order to make the design, editing, and printing of the magazine affordable.
How has your submission successfully impacted your organization’s ability to solve this issue/problem?
The 12 artists whose work is featured in the issue represent a wide range of practices and diverse backgrounds. We avoided critical introductions to the projects but directed our readers to a downloadable PDF available on our website (http://www.esopusmag.com/files/14projects.pdf) that featured commentary by each artist describing their project. Every technical challenge presented by the complexity of the issue was met successfully. Most importantly, we were able to produce the issue at a cost that met our budgetary constraints. This was due to in-kind donations from paper companies, financial support from organizations such as the NEA and the Warhol Foundation, and, most importantly, because all of work on the issue—from the initial scans of material in Photoshop to the final PDFs generated by InDesign for plating on press—was accomplished in-house on the Adobe CS4 software we received from Techsoup and Adobe earlier this year. Thank you!
Creative Submission - Files