Portfolio Gets a Reboot
The Arts Club takes a new and exciting approach to this year’s literary magazine, including paintings, essays and multimedia works.
T
WORDS by DARE FITZPATRICK
his year’s Portfolio is different from the format of previous years. Rather than being a print magazine composed only of visual and written art, the 2021 Portfolio includes extensive online submissions. Behind the scenes of the literary magazine, are more differences; while there is usually a Portfolio team, which changes each year, the magazine is now run by the Art’s Club, which is a newly formed club this school year. The club’s founder and president, junior Claire Tolles, describes the vision and the conceptual changes made to Portfolio. Claire said that the initial reason for making the switch from print to online is, “Since the Arts Club took up the mantle later in the year, we weren’t necessarily able to put out a print issue with the manpower that we had.” However, the solution to the problem of “manpower” turned out for the best. Claire explains that she and club members recreated Portfolio to make it a “multimedia experience” in which all could participate. “It’s an online magazine, and instead of including just written works and photographs that you can put on paper. We
“Can’t Be Tamed” Senior Taylor Smith based her multimedia piece from a figure study drawing. “[I] screen printed it at another artist’s studio and put the piece through Photoshop to make it digital.”
“Pop Art Eclipse” Sophomore Molly Morouse took inspiration from graphic designs on Pinterest and put her “own artistic spin on it” for this vibrant color-blocking piece. She decided to submit the work to Portfolio because her sister worked on the Portfolio magazine before, and she saw it as “a great opportunity to share [her] work.”
wanted to include the music students, the performing arts students, the game design kids [and] the animation kids.” Portfolio showcases artistically motivated students’ work in a space where it is shared, admired and appreciated. One of the benefits to this unconventional Portfolio approach, Claire said, is the fact that the Arts Club “gets to display anything and everything that students create.” Another valuable aspect of the online Portfolio experience is the inclusive approach Claire, and the Arts Club are taking. Upper school students dominated Portfolio in previous years, but the new management made a conscious effort to reach out to younger kids in middle school. Claire said that before this new advancement, Portfolio “felt exclusive”— now, the Arts Club has “a ton of[students in]Digital Arts [classes] from the middle school that wanted to have their work up, so it’s nice we get to include that.” From painters to writers, artists share the inspirations for their works and why they chose to submit them to Portfolio. Junior Patrik Nugent submitted a poem titled “Phenomenon Born.” “The idea just started with me thinking about what to write about—then I thought about a window. I wish something did spark inspiration, but it was more just a concept, and I kept adding more concepts to it.”
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