Ruckus Magazine, an online publication aimed at student artists in the GTA, launched last week at CineCycle.

Created by grads and current students at York University, the web site is still a work in progress but ultimately plans to feature local artist profiles, info about grants and art focused events, news, reviews and event previews in all arts disciplines from poetry to dance.

Earlier today I connected with Senior Editor Carl Hiehn who filled me in on the Ruckus story and plans for the future. Our Q&A is below.

For a web only publication, why did you decide to include Magazine in the name?

Basically, we feel the landscape of media is changing and our site is structured more closely to a magazine rather then a blog. We often refer to Ruckus as an e-mag.

What does that mean exactly? When I think of magazines I think of longer articles and content that's updated less regularly.

Certain aspects of the website, for example the feature article, will only be updated every other week giving patrons long periods of time to read the content. Magazines are glossy, well manufactured publications that are meant to sit on our coffee tables and be perused at leisure. Our feature articles are similar as they are left on our homepage longer then, say, a blog post.

What sort of feature articles should we expect from Ruckus in the next little while?

Our first set of posts, including the feature, really develop our stance on art and student culture. The current feature is a response to Stephen Harper's recent niche issue art comment while our other editorial posts discuss the new wave of mainstream hating.

Now that I feel we have created a point of view for the mag, we will be straying to other topics that aren't just about students, but interest them. For example, with L'Oreal Fashion Week coming up, one of our next features will focus on what Canadian fashion really is and how students are a strong force in reshaping that industry.

So how many articles do you plan to post a month?

Having just started up, we have decided to work at a pace that we can handle - especially since we all have to work other jobs and attend school. We will be posting one feature every two weeks and a minimum of one review and one editorial a week. All of the listings, calls for submissions etc. will be updated every Wednesday.

Do you plan on hosting any more events in the near future?

Yes. The events are a large component of Ruckus Magazine. We didn't want to just have a website that reviewed student art - we wanted to provide the opportunity to showcase student art as well. The events also bridge Toronto's different college and university art communities and we hope the students connect and inspire one another.

Anything you can tell me about? Will you be hosting art events at galleries? Poetry readings?

Currently, we have our reading series the first Wednesday of each month in TRANZAC's Tiki Lounge. We also have an all-weekend unplugged acoustic music festival/art exhibit coming up in November with the help of Back Burner Productions.

There are other ideas floating around as well, but we are taking everything one step at a time.

Last question. What's up with the web url? Why do you have the domain redirecting to cloakedstudios.ca?

That is because we are shifting from our web-designers domain (cloaked studios) to our permanent one. There is a small problem with the transfer but it will be fixed within the week and it won't transfer you anymore.

Ok. Good to know. Anything else you'd like to tell me?

All of us working on Ruckus were (well, are) student artists ourselves. We know how tough it is to be a student with financial constraints, pressure of school etc. and we also know the difficulties of being an artist in Toronto. Ruckus is our way of helping youth that are struggling to do what they love by creating a bright, inspiring community and connecting them to the resources they need to succeed.