Introducing Lemon, CMU's Student-Led Arts Publication
A team of School of Design seniors recently launched Lemon, a student-run publication that aims to showcase student work ranging from fine arts, performance, music, design, architecture and literature. Each month, the magazine offers readers interviews, activities, art, and more. This past fall, Lemon released its first issue. As the team gears up to release its second issue this spring, we caught up with them to learn more about the inspiration behind Lemon and what we can expect from the magazine in the future.
The idea for Lemon began with a group of friends who noticed a lack of space on campus for a way to link the artistic community. “There are so many cool people across all the schools within Carnegie Mellon doing so many cool things all the time, but sometimes it’s hard to know what everyone’s up to. It felt like a lot of disparate elements without a transparent way to relate them all,” says Jacky Lococo, co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Lemon. The team created the publication with the main goal of “displaying the inspiring work people are making,” and not just within the College of Fine arts.
“We wanted to showcase creative practice across all five schools. We also wanted the creative community at CMU to have ways to get involved in the broader Pittsburgh artistic community by highlighting different centers and activities around town.”
As the team reflects on the experience of launching Lemon, they share that they were surprised by the amount of task delegation, platform management and overall organization that goes into scaling a project from the ground up. “It’s been a journey!” says Lococo, and that journey is just beginning. With most of its editorial board graduating this May, the team is dedicating a lot of time and energy to ensuring Lemon’s future success. The team just launched Lemon's website and are currently curating issue two, the theme of which will be Absurdity. Readers can expect a couple of changes in the next issue, shares Lococo. “Since we’ve gained so many amazing people on our team since the production of issue one, issue two will be longer, more refined, and our identity will be more fleshed out.”
The team also intends to extend their campus presence beyond the publication, with hopes of hosting crafting workshops and other activities this semester to “further increase a sense of connection.” “We hope readers find inspiration and a broadened horizon of what’s possible at CMU. We also hope they feel an increased sense of connection with their campus community, and reassurance that their work can have a positive emotional impact on others, regardless of the medium or vehicle. Artistic expression is one of the most powerful forces in an ever-changing world.”
Lemon is currently accepting submissions for Issue 2. To submit, please use this form. The deadline to submit is February 13th.
To learn more about Lemon, feel free to check out its website and instagram.