| Lucy Gellman Photo. |
There’s this saying in newsrooms. I don’t know where it came from, and I don’t know when it started. But every day, you’ve got to feed the beast.
It means that you’ve got to produce content for your readers. It means: The news cycle is always shifting, and today’s economic development story will be old news by tomorrow. It means: That 11 p.m. play you just covered? Finish the article by 2 a.m. please. It means: If you don’t get to a story first, someone else will.
The thing is, the beast is always hungry. There is always a local story to cover, and then another, and then another after that. That some of them will slip through the cracks, no matter how hard you try to catch them. And all of them are worthwhile, because all of them happen in the place you call home. We call home.
Maybe feeding the beast began in response to hard news—police, city government, education, crime. But as editor at The Arts Paper, I absolutely believe that the beast is alive and well in the arts. At least, if we’re doing our jobs the right way. And I’m asking you to help me feed it.
Like last year, 2018 was a year of firsts for The Arts Paper. As we built up our daily digital coverage and transitioned from artspaper.org to a new digital hub at newhavenarts.org, we also rolled out new programming, including the paper’s first Youth Arts Journalism Initiative (YAJI), a journalism training program with seven fearless and fierce students at Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School. Some of their stories are captured in the final (for now!) print issue of The Arts Paper, online here.
But YAJI, which will return in April 2019, just marked one of our new experiments. We tried new collaborations between The Arts Paper, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and Music Haven students, experimenting with on-site podcasting as the symphony auditioned three finalists for its new music director. We expanded our partnerships with the New Haven Independent, WNHH Community Radio, The Table Underground and The Inner-City News, adding the New Haven Pride Center’s Centerline Magazine to the mix.
We made time for discussions on #MeToo in the arts and nonprofit world, and worked on holding institutions responsible with our reporting. We ran around the city covering New Haven’s first Make Music Day, listening to new compositions and some beloved old ones around the city. We were there when arts nonprofits made decisions that recognized a diverse New Haven, and we mourned with the community when we lost hometown heroes far too soon.
We learned how to cover the arts in politics (and the art of politics) during a gubernatorial election year. And then, in November, we made a promise to expand coverage to Hartford. We’ve already started taking that leap, so check out those stories as we close shop and take a little break this week.
I love feeding the beast. It makes me tick in a way that nothing else ever has, and nothing else ever will. The beast is wicked, but it is also a magical being. Like a unicorn, but better. It carries you on gold-flecked wings to every neighborhood of the city and some in the region, exposing the good that is happening in blackbox theaters and police substations, writing workshops and arts incubators, dance studios and community centers.
So help me feed the beast. I can’t do it alone, and I don’t. Funds that The Arts Council raises for The Arts Paper go directly to paying freelance reporters like Leah Andelsmith, whose stellar weekly coverage has allowed us to broaden our scope, experiment a little bit, and put new feelers into the community. Or Karen Marks, who started as a paid summer intern from the Yale Journalism Initiative, and enjoyed learning about New Haven so much she stayed on to bring us the occasional story that we would have otherwise missed out on. Or Ariel Shearer, whose sense for sniffing out a new restaurant has been right on time more than once this year.
There are a few ways to support The Arts Paper, and not all of them are monetary. But the first is to donate to The Arts Council of Greater New Haven, and specify that the funds should go directly to the reporting we do. We have a tiny freelance budget, and stretch it as far as it can go, but we’re always thinking about how to make our compensation more equitable.
The second is to support us with your readership and your commentary. When we launched a digital daily and declared editorial independence, it was (and continues to be) important to me that our coverage was free and open to all, with a comments section where the community can weigh in and get involved.
If you don’t already, consider making The Arts Paper a weekly destination. There are new stories every single day, except this week and the last week of August. We take a broad lens on arts reporting, including both the fine and performing arts and art as activism, food policy, and faith reporting.
If you like what you see, consider becoming a free member of The Arts Council and subscribing to our weekly newsletter. It costs zero dollars and zero cents, and I intend for it to stay that way.
If you don’t, let me know what the paper needs to be doing better. Some of the most valuable conversations I’ve had this year have come from community members who aren’t happy with coverage, or feel like their voices are missing. I treasure reader feedback, because it’s one of the ways the publication can grow.
The third is to send me a “citizen contribution.” If you have an community-focused, arts or cultural event that we can’t make (and we are probably trying to make it, I promise!), send me a couple paragraphs, some photos, or an event link and I’ll put together a file. Here’s an example that moved me profoundly and made me laugh out loud at the same time, from former New Haven Museum employee Amy Durbin.
From December 25 through January 2, we’re taking a much-needed break. Then we’re coming back with exciting new collaborations and articles I can’t wait to share with you. Until then, I encourage you to check out our archive. It’s all there, waiting for new eyes.
To the artists, activists, community members, writers and readers I’ve worked with this year, thank you. In a world that can feel incredibly dark, you have been an immense and constant light in my life. You’ve inspired me to be a better editor, a better writer, and a more conscientious New Havener. I could not ask for more from a community. Let’s kick some ass next year.
With wishes for all good things,
Lucy Gellman, Editor
lucy@newhavenarts.org