2021->2022

’Tis the season for taking stock of the things we’ve accomplished in the past year. Considering the many challenges that we, our contributors, and our readers have faced, this exercise feels less like the usual housekeeping and more like an expression of resilience and perseverance for everyone who has contributed to our work this year.

In 2021, we committed to honing and foregrounding our editorial vision. In addition to representing the American South on a global stage, we offered under-represented perspectives on the global art world, ones that do not center the market or the usual suspects, but rather contribute to building community for artists located outside of traditional cultural centers. We are committed to creating space for and amplifying diverse voices, especially those that have historically been marginalized, and we are empowering such contributors and artists to share perspectives that do not center Whiteness, heteronormativity, and ableist narratives.

• We published 4 print issues of ART PAPERS with a total of 41 texts in print.
• We published 30 online exclusives, including essays, interviews, and reviews.
• We featured a broad range of artists and cultural producers such as Firelei Báez, Bambitchell, Krista Belle Stewart, Mohamed Bourouissa, Jes Fan, Derek Jarman, Hew Locke, Berenice Olmedo, Doireann O’Malley, Tiffany Sia, Kenneth Tam, and Derrick Woods-Morrow, among many others.
• We produced 5 Artist Projects with Krista Clark, María Korol (a print and digital commission), Jason Lipeles, Vanessa Thill, and Stacy Lynn Waddell.
• We welcomed new colleague Raven Schley as Marketing and Administrative Coordinator.
• We welcomed 5 new members to the Art Papers Board of Directors.
• In June, we unveiled a new roster of Contributing Editors that includes writers, curators, educators, artists, and thinkers who are actively impacting the industry, shaping the discourses of contemporary art, and informing the work of ART PAPERS . You can read more about them here.
• We continued our hybrid remote/in-person internship program and welcomed interns from Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of South Carolina, Brown University, Yale University, and the University of Virginia.
• We expanded our commitment to artists who write: ~ 60% of our contributors are working artists.
• We published reviews of books, films, television programs, and exhibitions in Athens, GA; Atlanta; Austin; Berlin; Chicago; Denver; Houston; Jacksonville; Miami; Minneapolis; New York; Paris; San Antonio; Richmond, VA; Savannah; Scottsdale, CA; Seattle; St. Louis; Wichita, KA; and Zurich—and as always, we showed the most love to our hometown, with more reviews of Atlanta-based artists and exhibitions than any other location.
• With the success of our newest program, Contributor Conversations—launched in 2020 in response to the pandemic—we have continued to expand our geographic reach. In 2021, our 6 conversations on Instagram Live have been viewed almost 2,200 times, representing a 450% increase in the number of people served by our live programming.
• Our hybrid in-person/online auction was a great success. With a combination of video testimonials, musical performances, and a live feed, we had over 300 people join us from all over the country and exceeded our fundraising goal by over $25,000.

Looking ahead:

• We will debut a new format for ART PAPERS LIVE, one that features artists commissioned for Artist Projects, fostering a closer connection between our public talks and our publishing initiatives.
• We are excited to dive into our 2022 themes: Gaming the System (with co-editor Stephanie Bailey), The New Commons, Wellbeing & Embodied Knowledge, and Other Species.
• Thanks to grants from AEC Trust and The Homestead Foundation, we will launch a pilot of the Mildred Thompson Fellowship Program in 2022 to expand our editorial capacity and welcome diverse new voices.
• We will publish our DEIA plan, outlining our goals and strategies for centering the work of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility for the present and future of Art Papers.
• We’re updating our strategic plan and looking ahead to our 50th anniversary in 2026!

And coming up next: The ART PAPERS Auction will be in-person (fingers crossed) at the Atlanta Contemporary on January 22, 2022. We’re keeping an eye on Omicron and are ready to pivot if needed. Host Committee tickets are on sale now and General Admission tickets are coming soon. Stay tuned…

Saskia Benjamin
Executive Director
director@artpapers.org

Sarah Higgins
Editor + Artistic Director
editor@artpapers.org

ART PAPERS is the longest-running non-profit art magazine in the US, but the work we do is not possible without the continued support of our community. Please keep reading, sharing, tuning in, and subscribing, and please consider donating to ensure we can continue to provide thoughtful, artist-centered writing and art to our audience.