The Dilettante first came to life as a zine in 2018 at the hands of a nineteen-year-old version of myself, wilder and grittier and much less stable. It was born out of a desire to create something tangible, to turn my journals of poems and archive of photos into something that existed in the world.

This project began as a reclamation: creative work doesn’t need permission from credentials to matter.Its title was chosen to remind myself that, in a society that emphasizes institutional achievement and traditional markers of success, we have all the more reason to engage in creative pursuit as a process of personal exploration, divorced from consumerism, a sacred expression of our humanity. In the words of Kurt Vonnegut:

Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.

The Art World™ has made a career of constructing ceilings that structurally stifle spirited pursuit; we revere degrees as the antidote to artistic insecurity, look to resumés to deem us worthy. While the term “dilettante” has developed a pejorative connotation in the eyes of the current cultural zeitgeist, we hold true to its essence: a person with a mess of interests, motivated purely by love. And so, we reclaim the title of dilettante—not as a scarlet letter, but a badge of honor.

Amidst the landscape of productivity culture, in which art has become yet another industry, we hope to provide a home for creative work fueled by passion and curiosity. Over time, our understanding of what personal expression carries has come into focus: art is never made in a vacuum, but shaped by who we are, where we come from, and the social and political context we exist within.

The Dilettante is an anthology of art and ideas that explores how experience, culture, upbringing, and intersectional identity inform creative expression. Through year-round online content and one annual print issue, we platform independent, interdisciplinary, and nontraditional artists alongside established voices. We put disparate forms in dialogue to explore the ways that identity, culture, and circumstance surface in what we create.

The Dilettante is a print and digital publication, created in 2018 by founder and editor-in-chief Victoria (“Vi”) Conway.