About - Burnaway

Burnaway is an Atlanta-based digital magazine of contemporary art and criticism from the American South.

Since 2008, the magazine has brought vital critical dialogue to one of the most politically polarized, historically fraught, ecologically threatened, and economically disadvantaged parts of the United States. The issues facing Southern artists, institutions, curators, and writers often represent the country’s most dire social and cultural challenges. Despite this, contemporary art in and from the region receives little national coverage or inclusion in major survey exhibitions, and even less internationally. By embracing our geographically and culturally unique position, Burnaway provides a range of frank and fresh perspectives on art and life in the South today—from Appalachia to Miami, Nashville to New Orleans.

A decade into its existence, Burnaway continues to pioneer new approaches to reading and writing art criticism. In 2019, the magazine began publishing select reviews bilingually in Spanish and English, acknowledging the region’s significant Latinx population and spurring further investigations into cultural intersections between the American South and the Global South. Instead of relying on easy conventions or common wisdom, Burnaway continues to ask and wonder, “What is the South?”

Later this year, the publication will relaunch with its editorial content divided into two separate but complementary categories or columns: BA Daily, which will contain regular resource-oriented articles such as the To Do List and Call for Artists, the DIY Index, and short-form exhibition reviews; and Burnaway Reader, which will publish in-depth features, profiles of artists and curators, longform interviews, and specially commissioned artist projects at slower, more considered pace.

In addition to its publishing activities, Burnaway annually hosts the Art Writing Incubator (formerly known as the Art Writing Mentorship Program) to foster the voices of emerging art writers and critics, a monthly art magazine reading group, and other public programs.

Burnaway is a 501(c)(3) organization and has been certified by W.A.G.E.