The Quarry, the St. Olaf literary and fine arts magazine, will host a gallery opening and magazine release party on Friday, April 21 at 7 p.m. in the CAD Groot Gallery. The event will feature student art along with readings of poetry and prose.
“The goal of this year’s show is to provide both artists and writers a professional-style gallery to showcase and perform their original work,” the Quarry’s executive editor Josh Torkelson ’17 wrote.
The Quarry has been a staple of St. Olaf for almost a century.
“Founded in 1923, The Quarry Literary and Fine Arts Magazine is one of St. Olaf’s oldest student-run publications,” the publication’s website reads. “The magazine features student produced poetry, prose, and visual art. The online platform also showcases student performance, dance, music, and new media.”
Torkelson explained the submission process for The Quarry, as well as the tasks of the editor team. “Submissions were collected through the month of February and into March,” Torkelson wrote. “All of the work submitted is juried by the five-person editorial team over the course of several days. It’s an incredibly labor intensive process, and a lot of factors go into it.”
While only so many pieces can be accepted into the magazine, the gallery show and online platform allow for more work to be shown.
“Inevitably, there is only so much room in a publication and many more talented artists and writers to showcase than we have space for,” Torkelson wrote. “Both the gallery show and the online platform allow us to display a larger quantity of work. I’d estimate that this year we received over 150 submissions, of which we were only able to publish and print 30.”
Torkelson believes that this year’s issue of The Quarry will be a powerful one.
“I think the current events and tensions in the world are very present in this year’s contributions. Much of the work in this year’s issue is unapologetic: a lot of it’s dark, even accusatory. Yet, there are also some pretty humorous moments. The 2017 Quarry is all about looking closely, reexamining and reevaluating the world around us,” he wrote.
Torkelson is glad to have such a large event that showcases literary and visual art alike.
“This is the first large gallery show that the publication has had, as far as I’m aware. The decision to hold the magazine release party and readings in conjunction with a gallery opening was motivated in hopes of providing an equal footing for both the art and literature involved within the publication,” Torkelson wrote. “In previous years, we’ve held a magazine release party with readings from contributors, but the art seemed to take a secondary role in that context. Within a gallery, we can display both the art and literature on the walls on an equal footing, the way they are presented in the publication. It also gives contributors experience performing and as gallery-showcasing artists.”
The opening will begin at 7 p.m., with readings from poets and authors at 7:30 p.m. The pop-up show will also run from April 18-23. The Quarry editors will also be tabling in Buntrock Commons to distribute this year’s edition.
