Photo by: Justin Edmonds

Foothills magazine, the literary journal distributed to undergraduates during the spring quarter, is revamping its content this year to include a greater variety of artistic work and attract more submissions.

“This is a transition to open it up to the campus because so many people have a passion for art but have chosen to study something else,” said Foothills’ editor-in-chief Rachel Howard. “We want them to know there is a resource for them.”

The annual publication has been in existence since 1946 and has developed from an offshoot of the English Department into a part of student media.

In previous years, the magazine featured mainly prose and poetry with a limited amount of photographs and paintings. This year the magazine will display a wider range of art, including digital art, performance art, graphic art and a greater number of photographs and paintings.

Foothills is also developing more sources of media to adapt to the expression of artistic work. A DVD will accompany the magazine to allow students to see performance and digital art submissions. In addition, the DVD will feature original music compositions and scores as well as poetry and literature readings by the authors.

“There is so much wonderful performance art out there that we really want people to get the chance to see,” said Howard.

Howard hopes that the newly incorporated art forms will encourage more students to submit their work. This year the magazine would like to double in size and go from having around 20 submissions of work to hundreds of applications.

With the expected growth of submissions, Foothills is also developing its selection process. Those submitting their work will receive feedback on their submission and editorial comments from the Foothills’ selection committee.

“In previous years people would find out if they were in it when the magazine came out in spring,” said Howard. “This year we are really trying to act more as a journal and give artists back evaluations of their work.”

Foothills’ staff is expanding to meet the new goals for the publication as well. In addition to two literature editors, this year’s staff will also include two visual editors to head the sections of digital art as well as photography and paintings.

Foothills is accepting applications for staff positions as well as submissions of artwork to be published. Artwork will be accepted during winter quarter. Students should visit du-foothills.blogspot.com for more information.