Canvas creative-arts magazine celebrates 10 years at IU with event

With 10 years of hard work tucked under their belts, the people behind Canvas magazine have decided to celebrate with their special 10th anniversary issue, to be released Friday.\nA premiere event for the magazine will take place at 4 p.m. Friday in the Sunken Garden of the Indiana Memorial Union. Canvas is a literary magazine that publishes work by students each semester.\nThe celebration will include students presenting their work, live jazz musicians and a cash wine bar. \n“The next issue is absolutely gorgeous,” said Alfonso Lerma, director of the Union Board’s Canvas committee. “It exemplifies the highest quality of students of the SoFA (School of Fine Arts). It’s great to see the creative element go together.”\nThis year, 5,000 issues of Canvas will be distributed to newsstands at the residence halls, IU libraries, the IMU and other locations. In the past, Canvas was distributed as an insert in the Indiana Daily Student. With Canvas placed in newspaper stands, Lerma said he hopes the magazine will evolve and extend publishing to other IU campuses.\n“We usually get about 75 people submitting per semester,” said Canvas Editor Blaire Berman. She said each student can submit up to five pieces of writing or artwork.\nWhile normally distributed once a semester, no issue of Canvas was published for the fall semester, in order to prepare for the special 10th-year edition. This edition will contain collections from each of the past issues and also feature new artists and writers.\n“I know they were trying to make this issue very special and they wanted the best work possible to be included,” said Mark Casey, a junior majoring in English, whose work will appear in the upcoming issue. “They’re just as selective as any other literary magazine, so it’s an honor to be included.”\nJoseph Kerschbaum, senior marketing coordinator for Hanapin Marketing, created Canvas in 1997. Overcoming struggles like what to name the magazine, for example, Kerschbaum turned the Canvas into something worth reading.\n“The original name was Kaleidoscope,” Kerschbaum in an e-mail interview. “But we re-thought that decision because A, who the hell can spell ‘kaleidoscope’? B, it was even more cliche than ‘Canvas.’ And C, it sounded like a kid’s show on Nickelodeon.”\nWith success from the very beginning because of a huge student response to the magazine, Kerschbaum said he could not have been more pleased.\n“Originally, I wanted to join the staff of an already established literary magazine,” Kerschbaum said. “However, I had a difficult time getting involved with any of these publications for various reasons. ... So, I decided that another student-focused publication was needed – one that would be more visible and viable to the student culture.”\nWith a large majority of the sponsorship coming from the Union Board, other places co-sponsored Canvas, including Hirons & Company, IU libraries and the Residence Halls Association, to cover the $7,700 required to publish and distribute the magazine.