Arista

Abstract

Arista’s a digital magazine whose objective is to spread the artistic work made by women in the province of Castellón. In museums and art centers around the world the art made by men is still more popular than that made by women. Castellón, is not an exception. It is common to see women represented in paintings, sculptures, or as the objects of famous songs or poems throughout history. But it is less common to see us as creators. Museum collections around the world are currently being rethought, and in the same way mass media is including an inclusive vision. Our magazine arises whit the spirit of rendering female creators’ work visible. Also, to bring the public closer to this labor. We want to show the existence of these artists. Meanwhile we show the high-quality cultural offer existing in our city, and our province, a place that is sometimes looked down in terms of culture. The fact of being visible or to live in a small city whit “no cultural offer” needs to be change. For that reason, Arista, is set as a necessary and useful media outlet. An “arista” is an architectural element, but also something sharp. An edge. Something that excels. Our intentions are clear and loud. Even if it is annoying, the low museum rates make our objectives and our name more than needed. As a matter of fact, many art spaces, or even public or private spaces, do not comply with the Spanish equality law (Ley Orgánica 3/2007). Arista is a contribution towards creating a more representative and inclusive culture. Starting from the local information because the most effective way to change a situation is to start with what is closest to you. However, another goal is to entertain the public. In the same way that’s art does not always have to be serious, information can be funny, easy and enjoyable. We want to adjust to our content, just as art is able to fit every moment, time or need. Our premises when first developing this project was to inform, disseminate and encourage criticism around art, from a feminist perspective. The difficulty of people from a given age or gender to reach many spaces is still obvious and tangible. During the realization of this work, we were able to verify that our demands are also the same as the female creators. An important goal is to give them a voice and check what their ideas are. Whatever they are. In terms of usability, we wanted to create a simple, useful and intuitive website using Wordpress as platform for our information. For this task we use the “Bam” theme. But in order to make this project more valuable and professional we have bought an internet domain. Besides this, we host the magazine on a server. We choose a font with serif to stand out against the white background and with the font without serif used on the websites. It is easy to use in many ways (future merchandising, more backgounds…) and reflects seriousness, stability and clarity. With a clean corporative image: red, black and white are our colors. Because the important issue is the information and we do not want to confuse the public. We know that our public will be interested in art from a feminist perspective. Our way of broadcasting information and our way of advertising ourselves is though social media, where image is very important. We know that an important part of the audience will be women, as well. Many with artistic concerns, others with an interest in culture. But all close to gender issues. Because our magazine is openly feminist. And we defend the need of creating media outlets that brings people closer to equality. Fixing the problem of lack of representation in mass media, museums, workplace or anywhere. At this point, we would like to introduce the magazine’s structure. Simplicity and intuition make the project consistent whit the aspects explained above that are manifested in the different sections in the navigation menu. We organize the news items, interviews, opinions articles and other pieces in such a way that they are well differentiated. The sections are not called by common names like “news”, “interview”, or “opinion”. Instead, we have given them names like “No te lo pierdas”, “Hablamos con”, “La arista”, or “Quién es esa”. The first one, “No te lo pierdas” refers to the news section which gives us supports for the news or exhibitions we would like to show, and we have also included here our reports. For example, we have made a video about Irene Gras’s research in her website “Dones Creadores de Castelló”. This is a way of putting the themes we have found in the agenda. Also, we have composed a podcast about art exhibition venues in our city. Both works serve to create a network between artists and the public, making use of the topicality, while creating it. Conversations with creators are also a powerful tool for understanding art. These two sections are the ones that’s bring us closer to our goals: to elaborate content that represents women as art creators, and to evidence their existence. The information collected, which you can see in our magazine, defends our initial idea that artistic work is precarious and even more if you are a woman. As well as the fact that it is necessary to build a new media discourse adjusted to the needs of inclusion by gender, age, or ability’s inclusion. The interviews that have been published have had a great evolution: at the beginning they were simpler and by email, and finally they have developed into an in-depth interview with a museum’s director, Rosalía Torrent. We are currently working on the second piece of the section “La arista”, were the opinion articles will fit. We thought that opinion pieces can support our thesis being a information’s counterpoint. There, it is the magazine itself that is expressing its point of view. An example would be the article published for the International Women’s Day, where we explain the importance of celebrating this event. With “¿Quién es esa?” we finish our work up It is a contribution to show female referents, who are missing in Art History. We have included at the moment Nikki S. Lee, Tamara de Lempicka and Nadia Lee Cohen. Also, it contributes towards make a softer discourse, more enjoyable closer to the entertainment. The whole project supports our ideas, building our message and getting closer to our goals. We raise a coherent and consistent speech with our initial idea. An idea that we make explicit in “Quiénes somos”. We consider our magazine to be useful element for society because we are filling an information gap that is apparent beyond our city. We want a long-lasting project with continuity. We have already evolved so far since the start, and it is the way we will keep taking one step after another. Now, we have not had any income yet. But we believe that it is possible periodically publishing high-quality information. Some mechanisms could be to offer services such as advertising, sponsorships or hosting a store inside the website where we can sell our merchandising. At last but not least, this magazine has become a personal challenge because we did notimagine at the begging that we could build a such a useful project. Also, we are surprised by the positive feedback not only on social media (specially on Instagram) but also while speaking with creators. Personally, Arista has been a big challenge and, despite technical difficulties, lack of time for work or doubts, the result is satisfactory, and we know it will continue being this way. From the first steps organizating and elaborating of information, we have convinced ourselves that’s Arista must continue. Although we have not been able to cover all the events we wanted, we had the intention of searching for good creators, and we are lucky we have net some of them. Altogether, we have created a network, many of them met each other, and other have been able to meet afterwards. In the same way, the public has met new creators, and we are proud of this work. Or course, our weaknesses has been the lack of time, and technical problems we have solved one step of a time, but if we were to start again, we would choose the same project: a project made by women that shows other woman’s projects.