Janie Ramsey, an English and Creative Writing teacher at Santa Fe, has introduced a new art and literary magazine to showcase students’ creativity. “Ink & Instinct” will feature students’ poetry, short stories, songs, photography and any other form of physical and digital art.
“It would be a newsletter that gets sent out to anyone who wants to submit one through a Google form,” Ramsey said.
The magazine will be released each spring, which gives students a yearly opportunity to showcase their creative work for the school to see. The deadline for this year’s issue is Sunday, March 1. If a student is interested in submitting, they can email Ramsey at [email protected], fill out the form she sends and upload their pieces there.
Ramsey wanted to start the magazine to highlight student artwork that often goes unseen or unrecognized.
“Seeing art from students, especially from kids, we don’t see represented as much, a lot of our creative people tend to be introverts and tend to themselves,” Ramsey said.
In addition to starting the magazine, Ramsey also created a second Creative Writing course designed for her advanced writers to have a chance to be editors for the magazine. They go through the art submissions, choose which ones to use, and format two to three works each on Canva pages.
Senior Micah Morgan and juniors Kaitlyn Gellman and Makayla Forest are a part of the advanced writers in the course, and all enrolled in it after Ramsey recommended it.
“We have a Canva page, which is like a rough draft for the magazine, and we take their submissions, name, and grade, and it’ll all be on the page,” Gellman said.
Each of them gained some experience while taking the first Creative Writing course, which helped them connect with each other as well.
“It helps to know the people I’m working with, I have the class with both of them,” Forest said.
They work along with the Creative Minds Collective, which a few seniors run. If the magazine gets a large number of submissions, they will vote on which ones to include to ensure everything is fair.
“We are considering if there are enough submissions, taking forms, and printing the magazine for people who want a physical copy,” Ramsey said.
The magazine is still in its early stages, but Ramsey encourages all students to share their work to help foster creativity around the school. With “Ink & Instinct,” Ramsey and her students aim to create a space where all forms of creativity are valued and where students feel encouraged to share their voices.
