About the Opportunity:
HAPPENING IN COMMUNITY
A creative journal and archive for wherever you are in the world
What have you been making, showing, experiencing, documenting, or witnessing?
Confluence is creating space where those things can be preserved and brought into a larger conversation.
Happening in Community is meant to become an ongoing section within Where We Are Magzine that gives creatives, artists, photographers, filmmakers, musicians, writers, organizations, and community members a place to document their work and experiences. Tell us about the exhibition you just finished, show us how you made the work, share photographs from your latest project, tell us about a performance, film, installation, event, or community initiative, or walk us through an idea that you are still developing. We are interested in the process as much as the finished work. This is a space to document what is happening now so that it doesn't disappear when the exhibition closes, the event ends, or the next project begins.
Your contribution becomes part of the living archive in Where We Are Magazine, a record not only of finished work, but of the people, places, processes, and creative activities happening within different communities.
THE ASSIGNMENT
What have you been doing?
Choose something from your creative life or community that you would like to document, and share. Something to preserve, and be able to reflect back on.
It could be one of these options, or a combination of them:
A PROJECT: What have you been working on? Something you have been making, developing, filming, photographing, writing, performing, or building.
AN EXHIBITION: What did you show? Where? What was the experience? Something you have shown recently, or something you have seen that deserves to be remembered.
YOUR PROCESS: How did you make it? What did the beginning look like? What changed along the way?
A PERFORMANCE: What did you create, perform, or experience?
A FILM What are you making? What inspired it? What is happening behind the scenes?
A COMMUNITY: What are the people around you creating, organizing, discussing, or experiencing?
A MOMENT: Something small that captures what is happening where you are, or what you have done, a moment of inspiration, or even confusion or wonder.
A REFLECTION: What did you learn from making, showing, performing, collaborating, or participating?
THINK OF IT LIKE A CREATIVE JOURNAL
You don't have to write a formal article, it can feel more natural like a journal entry, a reflection, a creative writing prompt that evolves into an essay, or something more formal.
We are looking for:
Photographs + captions
A photo essay
Studio/process documentation
An exhibition reflection
A short written journal
Poetry + images
Film stills + notes + process
Music + photographs + a reflection
Sketches, drafts, or works in progress
A combination of whatever best tells the story.
We are interested in the record of the experience, not just the polished final product.
WHY CONTRIBUTE?
Creative work disappears surprisingly quickly, an exhibition opens and closes, a performance happens once, a project finishes and life moves forward, a photograph gets posted and buried, a studio process gets cleaned up, a community event becomes a memory. You're helping document the creative life of a place, a person, or a community at a particular moment in time.
We want to preserve some of those moments, and encourage others to consider the impact these moments have on themselves, the people around them, and their local community.
Where We Are gives you a place to document what you have been doing while it's still fresh, and create a lasting record that you can return to later. Your contribution becomes part of a growing archive, and may appear in the quarterly magazine, become part of Confluence's digital archives, or help someone somewhere else discover your work and the community you are part of.
THE SEASON PILOT
Try it for one season.
We are inviting creatives to participate in a three-month editorial pilot. Over the course of one quarter, we encourage you to submit 1-3 pieces of work from the options above. 1 for each month, or 1 for the whole season. It is up to you what your work load can allow time for. They do NOT have be long, extensive, cumbersome pieces of work, simply what feels fun, inspiring, and exciting to share from your world. Three months to share in the visual medium that works best for you, and your creative style.
At the end of the season, we will look at what you created, review what you liked about the experience, and whether you would like to continue.
No long-term commitment. No requirement to create your column unless you would like to.
EXAMPLE
HAPPENING IN COMMUNITY: JACKSONVILLE
After the Exhibition By Jane Smith
Three weeks ago, I opened my first solo exhibition... (tell us about it)
Photographs of the installation.
The Process of Preparing... (tell us the work that went into preparing for the show)
Images of the work studio.
A few paragraphs of reflection... (what did you learn, what do you plan to do differently next time?)
FORMAT & SUBMISSION
Contributors are encouraged to design and create their own column pages for Where We Are Magazine. Think of it as creating a small editorial spread that represents your work, your voice, and your community.
Page size: 8.5 × 11 inches, portrait
Format: High-quality PDF preferred
Design: You create the layout, combining your writing, photography, artwork, graphics, or other materials
Editable files: You may also submit a Canva or Adobe file/link that allows our team to make minor edits or formatting adjustments if needed
Length: Generally 2–4 pages per contribution, depending on the story and available space
Images: High-resolution images are strongly recommended for print
Don't consider yourself a designer? That's okay too, you can submit your materials without designing the final pages, and we will design the spread based on what you have contributed.
This is your column.We want to give you as much creative control over how your work appears in the magazine as possible. Your contribution can feel like a portfolio, journal entry, photo essay, field note, exhibition record, or something entirely your own. Our role is to help bring it into the larger Where We Are publication and archive.
Requirements
Must be at least 18 years of age.
Access to a computer, internet, and basic creative tools (Canva, Google Docs, etc.)
Willingness to work independently while staying connected with the team
Respect for diverse artists, creative expressions, and community values
Open to feedback and reflective learning throughout the process
Openness to learning, collaborating, and receiving mentorship.
About Us
The Confluence Community is dedicated to uplifting artists, nonprofits, and grassroots projects through storytelling, design, and intentional community building.
Our work centers on creating spaces for authentic connection, providing mentorship and technical support, and amplifying voices that often go unheard in mainstream art spaces.
We build programs like the Artist of the Month to honor and support artists.
