Screenshot of “bookshelf porn” from Art Practical 5.3
The online-publishing landscape continues to change. Just one instance of how the aughts are catching up with the current decade: The California College of the Arts will begin a partnership with the Bay Area art blogs Daily Serving and Art Practical, effective immediately. The project has been one year in the making.
Formed in 2006 and 2009, respectively, Art Practical focuses on San Francisco and comes out with a thematic issue every few months, while Daily Serving provides a more global, and regular take on news, reviews, and criticism.
CCA will now be responsible for publishing the blogs and preserving their archives. Intricacies of the partnership include integrating Art Practical and Daily Serving into part of the graduate curriculum, in-kind donations of on-campus office and event space, and fiscal sponsorship.
“I’ve been referring to it as an alliance,” says Patricia Maloney, executive director of Art Practical and Daily Serving. “It’s been hard finding the language because there’s no precedent.” And in the world of blogs she’s right—though more broadly there are examples of public media relationships with larger institutions. (The partnership between the Colorado Symphony and Colorado Public Radio, may be amongst the most visible right now, as it soured when the symphony requested more positive advertising from the station. In this case, the blogs will have a fair amount of breathing room separate from the school.)
“It’s like CCA is Condé Nast publishing Art Practical and Daily Serving,” she laughed, adding that each publication will retain its autonomy. Administrative and editorial control will remain with the blog’s current staff members (along with Patricia Maloney, the publication staff includes Art Practical Managing Editor Kara Q. Smith and Daily Serving Managing Editor Bean Gilsdorf).
“We have in writing that there is no oversight from the school,” says Maloney.
By default, criticism requires a certain amount of independence, but this does not mean that Art Practical and Daily Serving will be shut off from the rest of the art school’s activities. As part of the new alliance, Patricia Maloney has received a faculty appointment to teach one class per semester. Each class offers hands-on editorial and production strategies to students who write, edit, and produce content for Art Practical.
Down the road, if staff members do choose different careers paths down the road, the publications will continue to live on at the school.
“If I walk away in five years, though, I know it can be sustained,” says Maloney. “That’s exciting.”
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