Saving North East Culture

Yes I never thought that I would be writing about this either but here goes.

I can’t believe that it has come to this but The Journal Culture Magazine is due to end its publication.  They will still be continuing online but the psychical magazine is going to be no more.  And as an avid reader of the magazine I am really sad about it.

Fear Not

But fear not my dear readers, as I am going to do what The Journal Culture Magazine asked me to do, which is carrying on with my blog and writing about North East Culture.

@GemmHirst @TheJournalNews All the more reason why you shouldn’t stop blogging @GemmHirst – North East culture needs your words. Best of luck

— Culture Magazine (@culturemag) May 15, 2017

I/We need Culture in the North East

I would not have this blog if it was not for Culture, especially being in the North East- it is a cultural hub for both artist and audience. If it was not for the magazine I wouldn’t know about half of the events that go on in my area and I know there is online etc but there was something about having a physical copy of the magazine.

I used to get the magazine from the paper shop, role it in my bag and read it on the metro on my way to university. I used to see everyone reading the metro but for me I was proud to be reading The Journal Culture Mag, educating myself in all things North East Culture. I used to love reading what was going on, I used to note down things that I wanted to go and see and do. And quite often I did, after a performance venues ask you how did you find out about it and most of the time it was always the magazine.

Arts Journalism

The reason why I wanted to go into Arts Journalism was because of David Whetstone and the magazine, I had high hopes of one day to be writing for it after graduating. At which I managed to write for them before I even started university. Yes I wrote for 2012 edition  (page 21 and 25) and the 2013 edition (pages 21 and 24)  as part of The Juice Festival and I loved it.

It really kick started my arts journo career and it confirmed to me that this was something I wanted to get into full time.

What’s the plan now?

For the magazine, for myself and for you lovely lot I am going to keep up this blog and try to give more culture content.

So if you are reading this and you are an artist or theatre company etc please get in touch with me and lets see what we can do to save North East Culture.