The biannual student literary and arts journal Quilt has been completely revamped and renamed to Neon. Junior Katelyn Edwards, the new Editor-in-Chief, stands behind the changes in an effort to modernize the journal.
The office itself is also in the midst of a chaotic transition. The old decorations have been torn off the walls and stacked into piles of unopened boxes of undistributed journals. Art and design materials are in varying stages of unpacking. Older editions of the art journal are freshly sorted in the back shelves. Edwards has hung a few posters and photos of her family above the lone Apple desktop to personalize the space.
Neon is one of the few undergraduate arts journals still being published in the United States. The journal has won multiple national awards and, along with The Minaret, is one of the University of Tampa’s selling points to creative students.
Edwards pointed out that the journal’s constitution actually named the publication Quill but because of a few decades of miscommunication, it became known as Quilt. If the publication has been unconstitutional since the 1980s, what’s wrong with a few more overhauls?
Edwards, an English major from Winter Springs, Fla., was elected to be Editor-in-Chief in the spring of 2013 by a panel of writing and English professors at UT. To be elected is a great honor for an undergraduate student. When Edwards took the job, she found a very talented group of students who seemed somewhat distant from the rest of the campus community.
“I asked students about Quilt, and only a few knew what it was,” Edwards said.
The journal is funded by Student Government, but it needs to broaden its artistic community in order to continue to be funded by them. And this is exactly what Edwards plans on doing. She wants to turn Neon’s creative community into something more open-minded and interesting to create buzz on campus.
The new journal is now “Neon: UT’s Creative Community.” Edwards envisions a place where all art forms can be submitted and shared. This includes the literary journal itself, an active Facebook page for videos and more campus events for performing artists.
“I want them to express themselves and share that,” Edward said.
The changes can already be seen on the group’s Facebook page. It is headlined with bright colors and bold letters as well as modern graphics created by Neon’s Creative Director, junior Keir Magoulas. Neon has already announced a photo contest. The winner will receive a $50 cash prize for posting their amazing summer photos to Neon’s blog.
Edwards will have a long semester of work ahead of her. As she describes it, the program that she is trying to create is similar to an athletics department. It is a large umbrella program devoted to the continued development of the different teams, giving them a place to grow by showing their hard work for the community at large.
If you would like to submit your photos, poems, short stories, photos of artwork or would like to perform for Neon’s open mic nights, pleae send them to brightasneon@gmail.com and “like” Neon’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/UTampaNeon.
Jake Van Loon can be reached at jacob.vanloon@spartans.ut.edu