Optimo Mag

Keep your eye out for Optimo Magazine, the best magazine purely for Arts and Culture in Plymouth. Theres no better way to sum up the aim of Optimo than by quoting a letter from the editor himself, Rod Gonzalez (who is an awesome photographer by the way-check out his stuff on http://www.flickr.com/people/hypercontextualism/)

"Optimo magazine aims to create a focus for the arts in Plymouth and a forum and common voice for artists. Other local publications generally only feature very prominent artists and we have to wade through pages of mainstream listings to find details of local art.

We feel that Plymouth has enough artists and designers and those working in the arts and related disciplines to warrant a magazine dedicated to the arts in Plymouth. We also feel that local art should be given proper and extensive exposure – longer texts and bigger pictures.

We know that there are a huge number of artists working in Plymouth; indeed the south-west has the highest concentration of designer-makers outside of London. We also know that there are many successful (both financially and artistically) artists working in Plymouth - many frequently sell and exhibit nationally and internationally.

It’s great that the Arts department of the University of Plymouth has recently relocated to Plymouth from Exeter, bringing with it talent and national attention. Also, this year the Plymouth Arts Centre celebrates it’s 60th year. And we learned that Plymouth Arts centre was one of the first such organisations in Britain.

This year’s student shows at The University, PCAD, and FE colleges were great. All these establishments have shown a high standard in photography, fine-art, design, fashion and illustration. And soon there’ll be whole new set of art students starting at college."

Any contributions are welcome, please let us know if you have any ideas for articles or artists to profile. Any comments or ideas can be sent to:

magazine@optimo-images.com

http://www.flickr.com/people/hypercontextualism/