Intro: In Practice

For more than 30 years now, the Wexner Center for the Arts has regularly published a comprehensive calendar of events. Covering our programs across exhibitions, film/video, performing arts, and education, its format has remained remarkably consistent for that duration—with a signature square trim size and centerfold index of events. And whether printed monthly or bimonthly, it was a true labor of love for our marketing and design teams, earning a few awards along the way.

Times change of course, and sometimes quite dramatically. While the calendar was long the primary vehicle to communicate event information to patrons and members, those audiences now rely primarily on our website, email newsletters, or social media channels. When COVID-19 forced a shift to virtual events (and on the timetable of digital rather than print production), it signaled a shift of approach was due.

So you can now view below the first issue of In Practice, a magazine we intend to publish three times a year. The print edition of our new publication, like the calendar before it, will be available in our lobby. Where the calendar focused on promoting the end result of our efforts—our many events—In Practice will explore how contemporary art comes together behind the scenes through a variety of personal perspectives and in practical terms. Like the Wexner Center itself—a laboratory designed to facilitate the creation of new work, and a place where artists’ practices often change and pivot—the magazine will itself be a work in progress, one that uses all the tools of print to explore how artists, staff, and members of our community create in our present cultural climate. And in this first issue, we’ll explore how the arts connect us in that challenging climate, sometimes in the most unexpected ways.