C magazine gets a makeover

C magazine, the edgy contemporary artistic cousin of the Canadian art publishing scene, has been redesigned and the new look is being unveiled on October 11. (Illustrated is the spring issue -- not the new look fall issue.) The new look has been created by Antonio de Luca of Open, Inc. De Luca is best known these days as the creative director of The Walrus. The launch party starts at 8 p.m. upstairs at Bar Italia, 582 College Street, Toronto. Cover is 10 dollars, which will include a copy of the current issue, light appetizers, door prizes, and music by Domaine D'or & Parallel Lions.

C is an interesting story of survival and mission. It was first published in 1983, as a quarterly. It reflected the optimism of then then lively and burgeoning Toronto contemporary art scene and it succeeded (although not in a direct line) various other artists' publications like FILE, Impulse and Impressions. The latter was morphed into C when its founder, the artist Isaac Applebaum, turned it over to Richard Rhodes. Artist Dyan Marie (who was the magazine's designer until 1988) created a visually compelling, large format publication with international ambitions. It was a heady time, when there was sustaining funding from the Canada Council and money available for international exchanges from the Department of External Affairs.

In 1990, Rhodes sold the magazine to Joyce Mason. She had worked with him for a time, after being a writer, programmer, editor and consultant for various Toronto-based and national arts organizations. (Rhodes went on to the Power Plant gallery at Harbourfront and then to edit Canadian Art, a generalist art magazine that is almost C's mirror opposite.)

Mason spent the next decade trying to encourage accessibility (the magazine had become a bit precious, some said), with a less academic and specialist approach, although it was one of the few such publications to encourage regular ambitious artists' projects rather than mere reportage and criticism.

Mason (who is now the managing editor of Professionally Speaking, the magazine of the Ontario College of Teachers) tired of the struggle (mostly about money) and arranged for C to be placed in the hands of a foundation created specifically to front the magazine.