User:Hbridge88/Border Crossings (Magazine)

Border Crossings (Magazine) is a magazine published quarterly from Manitoba, Canada. It investigates contemporary Canadian and International art and culture. The editor, Meeka Walsh, specializes in rarefied articles and interviews about contemporary Canadian and international art and culture. The magazine is known for its intensive interviews as well as by reviewing artists' profiles, portfolios of drawings and photographs. Thereby providing its readers the opportunity to explore various forms of arts including paintings, performances, architecture, sculpture and films.

Founder
Robert Enright is a well-respected Canadian journalist that is considered to be one of the best cultural journalists in the country. He is the founder and the editor-at-large for a highly successful and to some considered one of the world’s most respected arts magazine, Border Crossings. Robert attended the University of Saskatchewan, in Saskatoon, from 1967-1971 as an undergraduate in the department of English were he obtained his Honours Bachelor of Arts Degree. He then moved on to the University of Manitoba where he worked on his Masters from 1971-1972 and the following with spending 1972-1974 at the same school earning a Ph.D. Upon graduation he began a busy professional career. From 1988 to 1992 he was a member of the Board of Directors for the Western Magazine Awards Foundation, as well as a Member of the Canada Council Advisory Panel on Book and Periodical Publishing from 1990 to 1992. In 1991, he was the External English Examiner for the Position of Head, in the Writing and Publications Section of Canada Council. Along with spending 25 years as an art critic for CBC, he has also contributed to Art News, Modern Painters, and Art Review. He to this day still regularly contributes to the Globe and Mail. All this work has been well recognized as it has gotten him countless awards, honours and grants in his field of work. Examples are the nominations and medals in the National Magazine Awards, and in the Western Magazine Awards. While working for CBC for 25 years he started the magazine Border Crossings and has this to say on the topic: “I’ve always been a border crosser, and the magazine was based on the premise that artists never looked at only one thing. Along with still working on his magazine today with his partner Meeka Walsh he is spending his winters in Guelph, Ontario where he is currently also a Professor in the MFA program at the University of Guelph where he spends the winter semester teaching.

Editors-in-Chief
Robert Enright (1982-1992) Robert Enright was the founding editor of Border Crossing, during his years at border crossing, the magazine received 41 nominations at the National and Western Magazine Awards, including five Gold Medals as "Magazine of the Year. He himself has won multiple awards on his editorial skill including entertainment and culture, film reviews. In 2005, he became a member of Order of Canada and he is currently an Art professor at University of Guelph.

Meeka Walsh (1993-Present) Meeka Walsh is a gold and silver medalist for her critical writing at the National and Western Magazine Awards in Canada. She has contributed essays to a number of catalogues and books published in Canada and the United States, most recently on Sarah Anne Johnson (On Transit, Visual Narratives in North America, 2005), April Gornik (Danese, New York, 2005), and on the drawings of Leon Golub (Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York and Anthony Reynolds, London, 2004). She is also the editor of the books The Body, its Lesson and Camouflage: The Photographs of Diana Thorneycroft, and Don Reichert: A Life in Work. She has written on the work of Robert Frank, Mary Ellen Mark, Diana Michener, Barbara Norfleet, Howard Ursuliak and Diana Thorneycroft. Ms. Walsh is interested in both documentary and in work that combines aesthetic quality with narrative invention.

Formatting
The Border Crossings magazine publishes quarterly in February, May, August and November. Each issue features a different cover portraying a work of art. In an issue from February of 2008, Wangechi Mutu designed the cover named “Perhaps the Moon Will Save Us.” The cover is a collage shaped like a moon made from mixed media, blankets, plastic pearls, aluminum foil, animal pelts, packaging tape, ink and other materials. The first 110 issues of the magazine were in a 8 ½-by-11-inch format, saddle-stitched at first, but later perfect bound. The current format is now 9 by 11 ¾ inches. The layout for the magazine has been renowned for its contemporary design and high production values. The photography portfolios have contributed to the magazine’s success as well as several awards for Best Non-Fiction Feature, Manitoba Magazine of the Year and several gold medals from the Western Magazine Awards. Each issue has several articles ranging from films to theatre, from architecture to writing, and many interviews and reviews. The magazine is typically structured with seven different sections: Bordernotes, Borderviews, Bordercolumn, interviews, articles, art pages and crossovers. Currently in its 29th year of publication, each issue continues to show its readers the freshest and latest in contemporary art as a ground-breaking magazine.

History
Border Crossings was founded in 1977 by Robert Enright under a different title, Arts Manitoba. Robert Enright had returned to Manitoba in 1972 to do his post-graduate studies at the University of Manitoba in the English department. During this time a group of professors at St. Johns College were toying with the idea of starting a literary press, and thus began the Turnstone Press in 1975. It was because of this literary press that Arts Manitoba became into existence. Arts Manitoba had originally intended to be a bi-monthly magazine, which soon proved difficult. By the winter of 1978 they began listing the magazine as “Special Double issues” which would eventually turn into the quarterly publications it is today. The magazine almost met its end in 1978 when they were confronted with massive debt. However, in 1982 it had a second chance. A small group got together (which included Meeka Walsh) and agreed that Arts Manitoba was worth reviving. They were aware that in order for the magazine to be successful they needed government funding and they needed to restructure the magazine. Eventually the members of the board realized that their current magazine title restricted their literary audience. Their first step to a new title was Volume 4, Number 4 titled “Special Canada/U.S. issue”. Only a few issues later the title had made the transition to “Border Crossings: A Quarterly Magazine of the Arts from Manitoba”. In 1993 Meeka Walsh became the official editor of Border Crossings. Her first issue as editor was titled “Silencers” featuring the painter, sculptor and performance artist, Gathie Falk. Over the years the magazine has explored themes like War, Drawing, Animals, Art and Technology, Multiculturism, Landscape, Love, Circus and many more. Each issue the magazine uses thematic qualities already present in art and culture to help give a comprehensive view of art in context with the rest of the world.

Awards
National Magazine The National Magazine Awards Foundation (NMAF) has given Border Crossings Magazine a total of 7 gold medals, 8 silver medals and 38 honourable mentions since 1985 to the present date. NMAF is known for their recognition of excellence in content and creation of various Canadian magazines. The NMAF has a total of 47 categories of awards: 23 written, 9 visual, 7 online, 4 integrated and 4 special awards. The 4 special awards categories are: Outstanding achievement, Best New Visual Creator, Best New Magazine Writer, and Magazine of the Year. Most of the gold and silver awards for Border Crossings were in Poetry, Illustration, Photojournalism and columns. Many of the honourable mentions were dispersed in a wide variety of categories ranging from travel, to essays to fiction and homes and gardens.

Western Magazine The Western Magazine Awards Foundation (WMAF) has presented Border Crossings with more than 55 awards in various categories including, Magazine of the Year, Best Article, Best Review and Best Photographic Feature. The WMAF honours and celebrates excellence in western Canadian magazine writing, photography, art direction and illustration. This non-profit organization has a strong ethic to raise the profile of western Canadian magazines among readers, creators, students and advertisers. WMAF works to enhance the professional development of Canadian magazines to ensure their long-term vibrancy.

Western Publishing Association The Western Publishing Association(WPA) hosts an annual Maggie awards ceremony and has awarded Border Crossings 2 Maggies. The WPA takes pride in promoting the pursuit of excellence among publishing professionals. For over 58 years, WPA celebrated excellence to deserving individuals and companies in a wide variety of categories. The awards ceremony is known as the “most prestigious publishing event in the West.” With hundreds of publishing professionals gathered together, the trademark of the ceremony is a visually high-tech creative multimedia show which features entries from the current year.