After six years of supporting the arts community on the West Coast and beyond, I’ve made the bittersweet decision to close Variable West and archive the site.
The magazine was a manifestation of my dream to work for an outlet that prioritized diverse perspectives, nurtured emerging talent, and showed that art criticism can be as generous as it is rigorous, not just academic and full of jargon.
As someone who struggles with imposter syndrome, I always felt like VW wasn’t good enough, but the feedback I regularly got from the community was that it grew into an incredibly valuable resource and a place where you could find real art writing and criticism.
Despite that value, the media landscape is challenging for all newspapers, magazines, and more, and especially challenging for small, independent operations. It was never enough to make VW my full-time job, which means I often ran it along with another 40 hours per week commitment, and I just don’t have the mental, physical, or emotional capacity to continue that workload.
I’m sad to be another name in the growing list of independent magazines that have shut down in the past 10 years, like X-TRA, 4Columns, Daily Serving (where I got my start), Art Practical, which I worked for briefly in my 20s and was my inspiration for a West Coast mag, and many others.
But I’m also looking forward to having a smaller load to bear. For the past few years, VW has been run by a tiny, part-time team of me and our wonderful Associate Editor, Ella Ray. Both of us manage different, comorbid disabilities that make life difficult in many ways. For me, one particular challenge in this context has been the social and in-person requirements that seem to be necessary for networking and fundraising. It never felt easy for me and was often extremely draining, which led to feelings of frustration and inadequacy. I suspect this is difficult for others as well.
Through it all, I’m enormously proud of what we’ve accomplished. Here are some of the top hits:
- I’ve paid writers from day one with rates comparable to much larger legacy publications (though I still wish I could have paid more)
- I trained four emerging editors of color, Justin Duyao, Jaelynn Walls, Amelia Ketzel, and Ella Ray, giving them career experience that’s so hard to come by
- I co-launched an art writing residency with Stelo Arts in Portland, which gave time, space, and funding to writers (and was how I met Ella!)
- We debuted a writer in residence program in partnership with Wa Na Wari, which published critical essays by Seattle-based writer Phillip Russell
- We’ve published 432 pieces of writing by 160 brilliant writers from all around the country, including a weekly newsletter by a rotating cohort of writers and a series about photography on the West Coast
- We produced a zine and held a reading about art and ecology
- We created a video series about Oregon artists
Thank you to our writers, who made this publication possible with their brilliant ideas and beautiful words.
I want to express my deepest, most sincere thanks to rashid and the team at Critical Minded.
This project is supported by Critical Minded, a grantmaking and learning initiative whose work is focused on resourcing and raising the visibility of critics and writers through direct support to publications and individuals, research, and convening
They’ve given us $170,000 over the past six years, including 23,000 this year to help us sunset and archive. None of this would have been possible without their support and trust.
I’d also like to thank RACC, Oregon Community Foundation, PICA, The Ford Family Foundation, the Center for Art Research at University of Washington, and Pier 24 Photography for helping us expand our programming.
And to our subscribers, who believed that art writing is worth supporting and helped us build our capacity. Your accounts will be cancelled, and there’s nothing left for you to do.
To learn more about our annual budget, check out our budget page on the website.
I want to thank Justin, Jaelynn, Amelia, and especially Ella, who’s been with me the longest. It’s been wonderful to watch you grow, and I’m always blown away by your minds and commitment to the community.
Thank you to Jasmine Mahmoud, our first-year board member and an amazing writer in her own right. She gave unwavering support and guidance as we figured out how to be a nonprofit.
In solidarity,
Amelia Rina, Founder and Editor in Chief