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The Esopus Foundation Ltd.
532 LaGuardia Place, #486
New York, New York 10012
phone: (212) 473-0919
fax: (212) 473-7212
info@esopusfoundation.org
532 LaGuardia Place, #486
New York, New York 10012
phone: (212) 473-0919
fax: (212) 473-7212
info@esopusfoundation.org
"An Evening with Esopus" at The Kitchen
Brooklyn duo High Places perform during Esopus's November 14, 2007, event at NYC performance space The Kitchen. Photo by Sun Kyoung Park |
The Esopus Foundation Ltd. is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization incorporated in New York State in 2003. It was formed to provide an unmediated forum through which artists, writers, musicians, and other creative people can make a direct connection with the general public.
The Foundation is largely devoted to the publishing of Esopus magazine, but has also programmed events at arts venues in New York City (such as P.S.1/MoMA, White Columns, The Kitchen). The Foundation also has plans to produce other publications, organize a free series of arts events serving communities with limited or no access to cultural activity, and develop Internet-based programming.
Esopus Magazine
Named by Library Journal as "one of the 10 best new magazines of 2003," Esopus presents content from all creative disciplines in an unmediated format. "Unmediated" means that Esopus never features advertisements or commercially driven editorial material, and avoids asking nonpractitioners to speak critically for artists. This includes the purposefully neutral editorial voice of Esopus itself, which strives to make the magazine a distributor, rather than an interpreter, of its content.
Each issue of Esopus is anchored by three contemporary artists' projects. One of the three is commissioned from an established figure, and the other two are reserved for the work of emerging artists. These projects can take the form of removable posters, hand-assembled pop-ups, inserts, and foldouts, and are often created with unusual printing processes utilizing unique paper stocks and specially formulated inks. The projects give readers an opportunity to own works by artists who might otherwise be beyond their reach (either financially or geographically) and offer artists a unique chance to extend their creative range in a noncommercial print arena geared toward a general readership.
Esopus also features critical essays that explore the complicated relationship between art, media, and commerce—often from the perspectives of practitioners who are writing for publication for the first time—as well as short plays, visual essays, poetry, and fiction by never-before-published authors. Each issue closes with an invitational CD, for which both recognized and lesser-known musicians are asked to contribute a song based on a particular theme relevant to the mission and subject interests of Esopus.
Content for Esopus is selected using 1) an open submissions policy; 2) recommendations and suggestions from the magazine's board of advisors—which includes respected creative professionals from a wide range of disciplines—as well as from other contributors and colleagues; and 3) the editor's 15 years' experience of working in the art, film, and publishing fields of New York City. We take care to invite individuals representing a wide range of cultural, geographic, and aesthetic backgrounds to provide a more complete picture of contemporary creative practice.
Esopus currently reaches approximately 10,000 readers from 48 states and 31 countries. Our 2,000 subscribers include professionals from the fields of art, film, music, design and publishing; a substantial number of public libraries, educational and arts institutions; and, most significantly, an ever-expanding base of general readers who have learned about the publication through features in The New York Times, Print, Harper's Monthly, The Village Voice, Baltimore magazine, Toronto's National Post, China Business News, Flavorpill.net, Munich's Süddeutsche Zeitung and many other mainstream venues. Esopus is also distributed extensively throughout the U.S, Canada, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific.
The magazine is offered at a heavily subsidized cover price (substantially less than its cost of production) to make it available to people who would otherwise not be able to afford it, as well as attractive to a readership unfamiliar with higher-priced specialty arts publications. In addition, we offer free copies of each issue to public, school and alternative libraries in rural and inner-city areas through the Distribution to Underserved Communities (DUC) Library Program of New York City's Art Resources Transfer Ltd.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
Esopus Events
In 2008, The Esopus Foundation hopes to initiate Esopus Events: a series of free readings, screenings, concerts, and artists' residencies in geographic areas with limited access to cultural activity. Esopus Events will provide the public with opportunities to interact with accomplished and emerging figures in the arts and gain insight into the common links between artists' concerns and their own. If you are interested in requesting an event in your area, please let us know.
Esopus Press
As funding is secured, The Esopus Foundation will begin to publish and distribute the works of artists, designers, filmmakers, and other creative professionals whose art cannot be properly reproduced in Esopus because of technical or logistical limitations. These publications will be offered in limited and numbered editions, and, like Esopus magazine, they will be sold at a significantly subsidized price. The selection criteria, method of production, and distribution of these additional works will be virtually identical to those used in the publication of Esopus.
The Esopus Foundation also continues to add interactive capabilities to its website, in line with its mission to promote and encourage communication between artists and the public.
If you have any other questions about the Foundation or its activities, please contact us.
The Foundation is largely devoted to the publishing of Esopus magazine, but has also programmed events at arts venues in New York City (such as P.S.1/MoMA, White Columns, The Kitchen). The Foundation also has plans to produce other publications, organize a free series of arts events serving communities with limited or no access to cultural activity, and develop Internet-based programming.
Esopus Magazine
Named by Library Journal as "one of the 10 best new magazines of 2003," Esopus presents content from all creative disciplines in an unmediated format. "Unmediated" means that Esopus never features advertisements or commercially driven editorial material, and avoids asking nonpractitioners to speak critically for artists. This includes the purposefully neutral editorial voice of Esopus itself, which strives to make the magazine a distributor, rather than an interpreter, of its content.
Each issue of Esopus is anchored by three contemporary artists' projects. One of the three is commissioned from an established figure, and the other two are reserved for the work of emerging artists. These projects can take the form of removable posters, hand-assembled pop-ups, inserts, and foldouts, and are often created with unusual printing processes utilizing unique paper stocks and specially formulated inks. The projects give readers an opportunity to own works by artists who might otherwise be beyond their reach (either financially or geographically) and offer artists a unique chance to extend their creative range in a noncommercial print arena geared toward a general readership.
Esopus also features critical essays that explore the complicated relationship between art, media, and commerce—often from the perspectives of practitioners who are writing for publication for the first time—as well as short plays, visual essays, poetry, and fiction by never-before-published authors. Each issue closes with an invitational CD, for which both recognized and lesser-known musicians are asked to contribute a song based on a particular theme relevant to the mission and subject interests of Esopus.
Content for Esopus is selected using 1) an open submissions policy; 2) recommendations and suggestions from the magazine's board of advisors—which includes respected creative professionals from a wide range of disciplines—as well as from other contributors and colleagues; and 3) the editor's 15 years' experience of working in the art, film, and publishing fields of New York City. We take care to invite individuals representing a wide range of cultural, geographic, and aesthetic backgrounds to provide a more complete picture of contemporary creative practice.
Esopus currently reaches approximately 10,000 readers from 48 states and 31 countries. Our 2,000 subscribers include professionals from the fields of art, film, music, design and publishing; a substantial number of public libraries, educational and arts institutions; and, most significantly, an ever-expanding base of general readers who have learned about the publication through features in The New York Times, Print, Harper's Monthly, The Village Voice, Baltimore magazine, Toronto's National Post, China Business News, Flavorpill.net, Munich's Süddeutsche Zeitung and many other mainstream venues. Esopus is also distributed extensively throughout the U.S, Canada, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific.
The magazine is offered at a heavily subsidized cover price (substantially less than its cost of production) to make it available to people who would otherwise not be able to afford it, as well as attractive to a readership unfamiliar with higher-priced specialty arts publications. In addition, we offer free copies of each issue to public, school and alternative libraries in rural and inner-city areas through the Distribution to Underserved Communities (DUC) Library Program of New York City's Art Resources Transfer Ltd.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
Esopus Events
In 2008, The Esopus Foundation hopes to initiate Esopus Events: a series of free readings, screenings, concerts, and artists' residencies in geographic areas with limited access to cultural activity. Esopus Events will provide the public with opportunities to interact with accomplished and emerging figures in the arts and gain insight into the common links between artists' concerns and their own. If you are interested in requesting an event in your area, please let us know.
Esopus Press
As funding is secured, The Esopus Foundation will begin to publish and distribute the works of artists, designers, filmmakers, and other creative professionals whose art cannot be properly reproduced in Esopus because of technical or logistical limitations. These publications will be offered in limited and numbered editions, and, like Esopus magazine, they will be sold at a significantly subsidized price. The selection criteria, method of production, and distribution of these additional works will be virtually identical to those used in the publication of Esopus.
The Esopus Foundation also continues to add interactive capabilities to its website, in line with its mission to promote and encourage communication between artists and the public.
If you have any other questions about the Foundation or its activities, please contact us.