UMB’s art and literary journal tells the story of the last 18 months and shows how art has helped transform our grief and isolation into a celebration of healing, renewal, and hope.
The University of Maryland, Baltimore’s (UMB) Council for the Arts & Culture is pleased to announce that the third edition of 1807: An Art & Literary Journal is now available. It has been a labor of love during the pandemic.
It was a meaningful accomplishment in a challenging time given the trials of COVID-19, teleworking, and trying to achieve balance in a topsy-turvy world.
As Jennifer Litchman, MA, senior vice president for external relations, special assistant to the president, founder and chair, Council for the Arts & Culture, and 1807 editor-in-chief, says, “I think that we all deserve a hallelujah — for what we have been through, alone and together, and for how we have come together to endure the last year and a half, as a society, as a community, as a family. And for how art has helped transform our grief and isolation into a celebration of healing, renewal, and hope for the future.”
This issue’s compilation of artwork continues the arts council’s mission to create annual collections of previously unpublished works that broadly and creatively relate to the themes of social justice, health, healing, the mind, and the body.
This year’s cover features a beautiful photograph of a hazy sunrise — the soft collage of colors, the ethereal mood, and the leading lines of the cover conjure a feeling of peace. Cover artist Christopher Frisone, MSN, is a certified registered nurse anesthetist and an alumnus of the University of Maryland School of Nursing. He said he was “absolutely floored” to have had his photographic image “Tranquil Morning” selected. Notably, he is the first UMB graduate to have artwork chosen for a cover.
Likewise, the art within does not disappoint. Sixty-seven artists’ creations were chosen for the newest issue from over 235 pieces of artwork submitted. 1807’s creative director and managing editor, Dana Rampolla, shares, “I am most proud that each publication to date has resulted in a random representation of artists from across all of UMB.”
She describes the cover: “It has a smooth finish, different from the soft-touch of the first two issues.” Rampolla said she hoped to provide a different tactile sensation this time around. “The image warranted a very special finish, something that worked in tandem with the fluidity of the photograph. And the interior pages have a silky, smooth feel as you gently turn them.”
She goes on to say that her goal is to always make the journal itself part of the art. “From the layout to the printed product, I want the reader’s experience to be enjoyable.”
The journal features beautiful paintings, photography, images of varied and visual art, and writing: for example, a life-sized statue of mixed media, pandemic poetry, and a replication of needlework re-created in metal are just a smattering of art for review.
UMB President Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS, sums it up: “'The Healing Environment: Without and Within' (R. Staricoff, S. Loppert, D. Kirklin, R. Richardson) claims that there is ‘evidence that engagement with artistic activities, either as an observer of the creative efforts of others or as an initiator of one's own creative efforts, can enhance one's moods, emotions, and other psychological states as well as have a salient impact on important physiological parameters.’ My hope is that 1807 lifts and impacts you as you turn each page.”
You can see the journal, download a PDF, and find out how to buy a copy here.