Vagus Nerve updates, relocates

November 23, 2009 by Bryant Nguyen 

UNLV art and literature publication hits the stands

For the first time since the inception of Vagus Nerve, the art magazine brought its opening exhibition and launch party to campus at the Barrick Museum Friday.

“We’ve been wanting for some time to get a space on campus to help foster creativity and just involve the UNLV community more, so there’s less of a reason of, ‘Oh, we can’t go to this show because it’s not on campus,’” said Mikayla Whitmore, Vagus Nerve editor-in-chief. “It’s really a great place for… undergraduates and graduates to be able to display their work.”

The turnout for the three-hour launch party surprised many people, including those involved.

“It was an overwhelming response,” Whitmore said. “The museum had wanted and estimated about 50 people and I would say at any given moment, we had probably 100 to 150 people walk through the time frame that it was open. I had high hopes we would hit the hundreds, but the museum was a little hesitant and we far exceeded all expectations.”

Expectations were high for this semester’s edition and for good reason. As the Vagus Nerve has done in the past, the magazine continues to expand and incorporate new elements to the growth of the magazine.

In addition to being the first copy of the Vagus Nerve to unveil on campus, this semester was the first time the magazine held an art t-shirt contest, featured a new category and developed its own Web site.

“Immensely,” Whitmore said when asked about the magazine’s growth.

“This is the first year that we had [an] art t-shirt contest. The winning design got printed on about 500 t-shirts. This is the first year that we had a new film category and we are getting a Web site going.”

The Fall 2009 Vagus Nerve runs about 80 pages and features 32 artists with approximately 55 pieces of artwork, along with contributions from student writers of poetry and prose.

The cover also differentiated from past concepts.

“We just went for [this cover design] because we wanted to give it more of an interactive vibe and maybe make it more appealing to a more general audience,” Whitmore said. “It seemed to work out really well. We had good feedback from the launch.”

There were 450 submissions this year ranging from poems, paintings, sculptures, mix-media and short films. The submissions are selected by a selection committee.

“I look for a good combination of both artistic technique and creativity and sort of seeing what is being offered by UNLV students,” said Nico Holmes Gull, associate editor and member of the selection committee.

Significant changes have been made to the magazine over the years to transform the identity of the Vagus Nerve into a respectable publication.

The critical moment in the magazine’s history could be directed to about two years ago when then-editor-in-chief Jen Kleven was in charge of the magazine’s operations.

“She really started turning the Vagus Nerve [around] and setting the ground work for what it is today,” Whitmore said. “Before that, the publication was very scattered. The layout was confusing and you didn’t really know what this was.”

The magazine’s corresponding Vagus Nerve Exhibition will have a seven-week run inside the Barrick Museum that began last Friday.

“The Vagus Nerve Exhibition was the kickoff event for this collaboration,” Whitmore said. “We’re hoping it will continue to grow.”

From its humble roots as an insert inside The Rebel Yell to its current standing a full-fledged magazine, the Vagus Nerve has achieved the unimaginable through efforts of past and present students.

“It started out as this tiny little thing that nobody really knew about or cared about and it’s slowly being given the chance to grow and spread into the community,” Whitmore said.

The magazine has achieved tremendous success on campus, but Whitmore and the entire Vagus Nerve staff continue to work on providing the UNLV art students a voice in the cultural community of the city.

“Outside of UNLV, nobody really knows about it,” Whitmore said. “And knowing that is our history, we are trying to get the word out there and have people see it. Really just trying to give opportunities to all UNLV students and to help foster this idea of community and the arts in Las Vegas.”