As we continue our transformation under our five-year strategic plan, Burnaway’s leadership is pleased to announce the appointment of Atlanta-based Courtney McClellan as Interim Editor. Courtney, a Burnaway contributor, has experience with visual art regionally and nationally and adds a considerable wealth of hands-on knowledge to Burnaway’s team. Courtney has been onboarding with staff and will fully transition to her role on March 27.
“Since 2018, we’ve significantly and continually expanded our reach and talent—from our award-winning editorial staff to our deeply rooted approach to visual arts writing. We’ve transitioned from a local blog to a leading art publication with an international audience looking toward the South. Courtney’s Southern background, plus cross-disciplinary capacities from museums, universities, and editorially, her tenacity to jump right in make her a perfectly transformative figure as we make our next big steps,” said Brandon Sheats, Executive Director.
McClellan earned her BA in Studio Art and Journalism and Mass Communications from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2008, and in 2013, her MFA from Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She was awarded the 2019-20 Roman J. Witt Residency at the University of Michigan—where she created Witness Lab, an interdisciplinary, collaborative project with the Stamps School of Art—culminating in an exhibition at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. McClellan is a 2019-20 Working Artist Project Fellow at the MOCA GA and 2021 Innovator-in-Residence for the Library of Congress. Her work has been supported with fellowships at McDowell in Peterborough, NH; Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, NY; Stove Works in Chattanooga, TN; the Hambidge Center in Raburn Gap, GA; and Wassaic Projects in Wassaic, NY. She is also an instructor at Georgia State University.
“I am thrilled to join Burnaway’s team. I have long admired Burnaway’s enduring commitment to promoting art and artists from the South. As an artist, writer, and educator, I share this mission and hope to continue to foster a community that values artistic growth, programmatic agility, and emerging voices in criticism. Burnaway’s history attests that the South is a generative place for cultural production. There is more art to see and stories to tell, and we are here to listen.”, stated Courtney.
With gratitude and sadness, we also announce that after five years, Jasmine Amussen has departed as Editor as she pursues an MFA in Creative Writing from Bard. “Over the past five years, Jasmine has traversed the entire South with verve and a remarkable incisiveness to her cultural criticism. The intensity of her work guiding our Art Writer Incubator and other educational programming reflects her passion for supporting writers as they develop their careers – a passion rarely found..”, said Brandon Sheats, Executive Director.
“It’s been such a pleasure working at Burnaway doing work which I feel remains pressing and urgent as ever. I joined Burnaway in December 2018 as a part time assistant editor, and then full time assistant editor, and then finally it’s editor. In that time so much has happened, it cannot be repeated in it’s entirety here, but that the world is vastly different than it was when I joined, and I am changed as well and can’t wait to see what the magazine changes into.”, announced Jasmine.
