If so, you may be interested in becoming our Circulation Assistant! This volunteer position offers you a more hands-on role within the Metrosphere, and you’ll be able to promote the magazine and possibly your own work.

So what does a Circulation Assistant do you ask? Their responsibility is to help the Editor in Chief and myself with promotion and distribution of the magazine. Have a great idea for an event? Help us plan it. Want to spread the word about Metrosphere‘s upcoming and bumping release party? Help us hang flyers and hand out invitations. It’s a new position, so you’d get to help define what the position entails.

Interested? Send me an e-mail at assistant@metrosphere.org that includes your name, major, and why you’re stoked about taking on this new role within the magazine by March 5th.

Sadly, the submission deadline has passed. However, we’re happy to report that we received 150+ submissions for this volume! Thank you so much to everyone that submitted. Now we’re working hard to begin the judging process, and from the looks of it we’re going to have some hard decisions to make.

If you happened to submit something, don’t forget to tell the world about it! They can make a profile too and post comments on your piece and vote for it. If your piece starts generating a lot of buzz, we’ll feature it on the Crowd’s Pick section of the homepage. That means your piece will be more visible, and we’ll be able to take that into consideration during judging.

And if you sadly missed our deadline, drop a comment on a piece that moves you or speaks to you. Let that artist or writer know that you appreciate their work. They’ll appreciate you back, and you could be shaping whether or not that piece is selected for publication!

The Auraria Campus will be closed December 24th-January 2nd, so we here at the Metrosphere will also be on break. We will be back to catalog all of the submissions and applications we receive during that time on January 3rd. We appreciate your patience, and can’t wait to see everything that comes in! It’ll be like unwrapping presents all over again!

We asked the question, and you all answered.

It was great to see the variety of responses we got to the deceptively hard question “What inspires you?”. So many of the respondents I saw took their time to really think about what they were going to put up, wanting their response to really ring true for who they are and what they value.

The evolution the board made was inspiring for me to witness. As more and more posts were made, newcomers took the time to read and react to what others said before them. Over time, it developed a personality of its own: doodles and quotes and single words all began to mesh together to form one portrait of the Auraria Campus and what inspires it.

If you didn’t have time to make your mark on the board, leave us a comment below about what inspires you! We’d love to know.

Have a question about the submission process or guidelines? Feel free to contact me by email at assistant@metrosphere.org or stop by the office in Tivoli 313.

You never forget your first Art Walk.

At least that’s what the look on my roommates’ faces said as made our way down Santa Fe Drive, pushing through throngs of street vendors and fellow art appreciators. Each blue-hued lamppost signaled some new discovery or curio shop and led us forward. One guided us to a gallery featuring photographs from a local artist; another led us to a humid oasis for exotic orchids. We felt our eyes darting from one gallery window to the next, just trying to absorb a small fraction of the scene.

We were so caught up in sensory overload that we almost missed a small doorway framed by Day of the Dead prints strung up like banners on a string. Unable to press forward because of the crowd, we decided to enter.

Lamps cast a blue hue over the Art District on Santa Fe.
Photo credit | Brittany Leddy

We had stumbled on Hope Tank Gallery. Led by founder and owner Erika
 Righter, the coalition of local artists behind Hope Tank believe the gallery has the power to incite change. According to the gallery website, Righter, a former social worker, “wanted to combine her love and passion for the arts and her commitment to philanthropy, and … Hope Tank was born.” With the sale of each piece in the gallery, from art to jewelry to baby clothes, a portion goes to support a non-profit of the artist’s choosing. This not only gives the artists the chance to raise awareness for their particular cause, but underscores and strengthens the connection between art and society.

As non-profits ourselves, Metrosphere, MSU Denver’s award-winning literary and arts magazine, and other Student Media entities are searching for the same thing: partners who believe in our mission and want to support what we do. We could not be more thankful for the partners we have gained – be they sponsors, advertisers or other campus offices. Just one example is Metrosphere’s partnership with MSU Denver’s Center for Visual Art. The Center has not only provided us with a physical space to exhibit the creative work featured in our magazine, but its team has expanded our reach into the vibrant Art District on Santa Fe. Without them, and sponsors like them, students like me who hope to work in the communications industry would have a harder time gaining rich, real world experience. Through the Office of Student Media, I have a pretty impressive title to place on my resume, assistant editor of a professional magazine. More importantly, I have gained insight into not only how a publication is put together, but also how it develops its identity over time through a diverse network of channels.

So, if you haven’t checked out the amazing student work that’s produced here, I urge you to take a moment to browse our new website. It is a portal to all of our communication channels – magazine, newspaper, radio, television. We hope you see something that inspires you. Then, we hope you take action, just like the artists of Hope Tank. Pick up a hard copy of the student newspaper, change the channel to cheer on aspiring broadcasters, comment on poem, submit your own work. In short, be a part of our community. We need you.

Our mission here at Metrosphere is for burgeoning artists and writers to get their work out of the classroom, studio, or workshop setting. In keeping with that, we’ve found a great opportunity for you artists! Unit E and Primed are hosting a local juried art show and they want entries! There is a $200 Best in Show cash prize, and the show will be on November 2nd at 1201 Santa Fe Dr. in the Santa Fe Art District.

You can drop off a ready to hang or display piece October 24th-27th in the Painting studio (Arts 172). The hours to do so are:

• 9-5pm Wednesday-Friday
• 8-12pm Saturday

If you are planning to submit any 3D pieces, they must be picked up/ dropped off/ installed by the artist. You’ll also need to be sure to bring your $5 per piece entry fee.

If you’ve got any questions, you can contact arndtt@msudenver.edu.

Metrosphere is hoping to be there to watch all these great artists display their work! Check in later for our post that will cover all of the action!