Letter from the Editors

Dear DIRT Readers,

Happy New Year! Although last year was rough, we are happy we made it through. So goodbye 2016, hello 2017!

We are excited to introduce ourselves! We are an independent platform and resource for accessible critical arts discourse within the DC, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) area. With a focus on highlighting art, culture and history, we will advocate for our community’s network of artists, exhibitions, events and happenings in both traditional and unconventional spaces.

Through essays, exhibition reviews, interviews, public interventions and other non-traditional formats, we seek to publish, disrupt, and survey the cultural landscape. We believe in the power of archiving and recording our collective history and are motivated to be a platform to support the amazing artists and cultural workers here in the DMV.

Grounded in the notion that documentation and dialogue are critical to the growth and development of an arts community, we are inspired by our peers who have demonstrated the power of the writer and the importance and need for editorially independent arts publications.

Because we believe in the importance of collaborative action we want you to be involved. We are  looking for contributors and want to hear from you. Got an idea? Pitch it to us here. Though we are currently entirely self-funded and unable to monetarily incentivize our contributors, we can offer you a space to write freely, working one-on-one with you to edit, not censor, your content. With your early and continuous support and contributions, we hope to expand our publication’s reach and develop a more rigorous dialogue within our community! 

Finally, we would like to thank all the organizations and organizers that inspired us including: Victoria Reis ,Founder and Executive Director of Transformer, for including us in Transformer’s E13: Discourse program; Holly Bass, Freelance Writer/Poet (Washington, DC); Philip Kennicott, Chief Art Critic of The Washington Post (Washington, DC); Cara Ober, Founding Editor of BmoreArt (Baltimore, MD); Hunter Braithwaite, Founding Editor of Miami Rail (Miami, FL) and contributor to the Brooklyn Rail (New York, NY); Amanda Keeley, Founder of Exile Books (Miami, FL); Charlie Tatum, Editorial and Communications Director, Pelican Bomb (New Orleans, LA); Rainey Knudson, Founding Editor of GlassTire (Houston, TX); Jessica Lynne and Taylor Renee Aldridge, Co-Founders of Arts.Black (Brooklyn, NY & Detroit, MI); Stephanie Sherman and all our peers from the Common Field network.

Love,

DIRT