Jan 19, 2010
People to Pitch: Kathryn Born, Chicago Art Magazine
Kathryn Born produces Chicago Art Magazine
A couple weeks or so ago the Museum of Contemporary Art bought “Kiss,” performance art by Tino Seghal, with no paper, video or other documentation changing hands. Kathryn Born’s ChicagoArtMagazine covered the acquisition.
She also has a great article on artwork being done in Chicago’s Korean-American community and is looking for more like it. If you have a story to tell related to art in Chicago, Born does not just want you to pitch her, she may ask you to produce it yourself! She might even pay you, as she writes at her site:
We need feature writers, journalists, researchers and gallery reviewers. The thing we need to know is, ‘What are you already an expert in?’ Do you have experience interviewing people? Did you study art in school? Or journalism? We need writing samples and some idea about experience. The pay is awful – $25 for features [CMW note: in this case awful=industry standard, no?] , however, we publicize all features and try to achieve a large audience for each of our writers.
Born runs three related sites. In addition to ChicagoArtMagazine.com, which covers articles, reviews, and satire, she maintains ChicagoArtMap, a Google map with 171 galleries and other places that show art in the region alongside a Google calendar, and ChicagoArtCollector.com with similar and in some cases overlapping content.
Born also has a hand in at the Tribune’s ChicagoNow collection of Chicago-related blogs where she and guest contributors maintain Art Talk Chicago (home to my favorite feature “Where the F*#K are you going?”). ” Born writes on her blog:
Chicago Art Map is a two-fold site. It is of course a visual art magazine, but it is also a case study, or proof-of-concept, about online publishing in the arts.
She also tells us that currently more than 10 people write for the site but Born is the only person who works on it full time. Reach her at Kathryn at chicagoartmagazine dot com.
Hi. I’m a long-time newspaperman who was laid off by The Chicago Tribune in February 2009. I’ve been slaving for the past year looking for work, and not necessarily in the media. I want to teach. Have always wanted to teach, but I’ve discovered that the best chances are for those with a teacher certificate, or a Masters in Education. Since I have no money to go back to school, I’m forced to look at any job opening now. But I am writing about pitching a story about free art, or art vendors in Chicago, and someone who is an activist fighting City Hall. Literally. You may know about his group, but I’d love to find out. I could always go to my remaining friends at The Tribune, but I haven’t had time yet to sort that out. What say?