MAGAZINE LAUNCH // Outpost Journal: Profiling Creative Scenes In Small Cities

In New York City—and at 3rd Ward in particular—we have virtually everything we need right at our fingertips. In many smaller cities, though, creative scenes are thriving without such plentiful resources. That's where the new biannual non-profit publication, Outpost Journal, comes in. Each issue of Outpost will profile a different urban locale, investigating its creative hotspots, movers and shakers and more.

"Without over-romanticizing a 'small is beautiful' concept, we do firmly believe that smaller cities (as well as smaller neighborhoods in larger cities) can be fertile ground for testing new ideas in art, activism and lifestyle," Outpost founder Manya K. Rubinstein tells us. "But living in an 'Outpost' has a cost to it as well...how can artists and activists living 'out there' capitalize on the organic networks that already exist in order to make productive connections with artists and activists elsewhere? In addition, how do they get the notice they deserve for their work (and the possible economic opportunities/access to larger markets that can come with notice) not just in their own region, but also back in the main centers of art and commerce?"

Outpost's mission, she says, is "to create an experimental solution that bridges some of these gaps."

The journal's inaugural issue, due out this coming fall, will delve into the riches of Pittsburgh. "It is an incredible city, especially in regards to its arts ecology," Rubinstein says. "It is home to major cultural institutions like the Warhol Museum and the Mattress Factory (among others), full of beautiful and relatively cheap housing stock, a thriving DIY, crafting, printmaking, literary, filmmaking, performance and artistic community, a great art school and an incredible array of arts-based non-profits."

Interested? Help launch Outpost Journal by contributing to its Kickstarter campaign.

Curious about what you'll be able to find in the journal? Click "more info" for Rubinstein's descriptions of some features from the first issue. 

• "Secretly Famous," a profile of the most famous artist in Pittsburgh you never heard of, as told by his collaborators and acquaintances.
• Artist profiles of some of Pittsburgh's finest.
• A peek into some of the city's entrepreneurially focused arts-based youth programming and a story on the Waffle Shop, an experimental reality TV show cum Waffle House.
• Stories about punk houses, an artist collective practicing "deconstruction" in Braddock, PA, and a piece on adaptive reuse projects in Churches all across the city.
• A piece on a cardigan sweater we commissioned a local crafter to make for an 11-ft statue of local hero Mr. Rogers on Pittsburgh's North Shore.
• Native son Girl Talk's picks for his favorite spots in town.

--John Ruscher