I n t ro L etter
express
empathy
connect
insight
Hello,
New Years Eve, 2012: Michael Zuch and Emilea Wright figure out how to open Welch’s Sparkling Grape
Juice, and make ambitious to-do lists for 2013: write a thank you letter every day; run ten miles; inspired
by something a friend said once*, create a publication with all of our friend’s work. Surprise: nothing happened.
New Years Eve, 2013: like all good ideas, this publication thing never went away. So we wrote our plans,
and let them simmer for six months.
Summer, 2014: here it is. A space that creatively represents the networks of Michael Thomas Zuch and
Emilea Hughes Wright. This is a place where friends, and friends of our friends, and people our friends
admire, can fantastically coexist. The internet is amazing, right?
There are four pillars to this space: express [our work]; insight [wisdom from older artists]; connect
[what we’re inspired by]; and empathy [how art affects our world]. Each publication will include these
characteristics, and emphasize one in particular. There will be an issue every season (four).
Our dream is for this publication to inspire and encourage, provoke thought and conversation, and to bring
joy and creativity. We’re over the moon about this first volume, and can’t wait to see where the next ones
will take us. Thank you all for your involvement, from contributors to readers!
- the collective: team
* “Someday, we will meet again on the bookshelves of libraries; hanging on the walls of museums; even
ringing in the ears of audience members at theaters around the world. So won’t it be nice to know that we’ll
always have each other’s support?...And when we do meet again, we won’t have to say goodbye. We’ll be
able to say, “Hello. It’s good to see you. What took so long?”
-VN Ford Commencement Address, 2011
South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts & Humanities