Emory Arts announces the inaugural issue of “Conversations With Eggs,” a digital arts zine for and by Emory’s creative student “eggheads.”
“We founded ‘Conversations With Eggs’ to foster an environment where we take arts seriously and ourselves as art creators and consumers less so,” says Maggie Beker 18C, theater studies alumna and communications specialist with Emory Arts.
The zine has two aspects: an annual release of a themed volume of work and a year-long platform for student-written critiques and reviews.
For this first year, the six founding student members, affectionately titled eggheads, sought creative work that made up the Emory mosaic. No matter the place they are in their journey, each individual artist’s piece plays an important part in making the larger image of the mosaic. Or, in this case, the larger community of Emory.
“The eggheads thought it was important to highlight that art at any stage is worthy. That’s the element of taking ourselves as creatives less seriously,” says Beker. “The pieces we accepted not only show us where our Emory artists are creatively but also who they are as individuals.”
“The most exciting thing to me about ‘Conversations With Eggs’ is the amazing work – both the quality and the range – that’s being done by so many Emory students,” says Kevin Karnes, associate dean for the arts. “I’m thrilled that we now have a venue for sharing their work to the broader community.”
For its second goal, “Conversations With Eggs” hopes to develop a robust culture of reviewing creative work on campus by asking two questions: “What makes a good review?” and “What good is a review?”
“The eggheads and I talked a lot about how a review should be positive – not necessarily an endorsement of the work, but an opinion that will inspire and guide the artist whose work is being reviewed,” says Beker. “In the end, ‘Conversations With Eggs’ is about setting a tone for the arts on campus. Creatives should feel comfortable to create in new and different ways within a culture that celebrates the act of showing up, making and growing.”
“My time so far with ‘Conversations With Eggs’ has been nothing but amazing,” says first-year student and egghead Sungyoon Lim. “I've met and discovered so many Emory creatives, learned how to build a zine from scratch and further explored the depth and breadth of art.”
This year’s volume and reviews can be found on the “Conversations With Eggs” website. The 2021 volume launches in person on campus April 7 as part of Emory Arts’ Big Visions series, projecting art two stories high onto the facades of Emory buildings.
For more information about “Conversations With Eggs” and opportunities to get involved, visit the website or contact Maggie Beker.