Ariston: Creating Art To Share Connection

Since 1906, St. Catherine University’s student-run art and literary publication has been showcasing the thoughts and feelings of Katies as expressed through poems, paintings and everything in between.

A tradition that dates back almost to the very beginning of St. Kate’s itself, Ariston, has been a staple of the university’s student publications for over 100 years. Starting out as a publication that featured various types of student writing—poetry, prose and essays—Ariston expanded to displaying students’ visual art in 1940. Since then, all sorts of mediums, from acrylic paintings and poems to photographs and sculptures, have been featured in Ariston in order to share students’ inner thoughts and artistic skills with the greater St. Kate’s community.

Since its inception, Ariston has served as a space for students to display their works when they otherwise might not have had the opportunity— especially at a women’s college. “It’s always been a place for students to show and publish their art, their literature,” said Julia Handley ‘23 (English), co-lead of the Ariston literary team. “I think probably also in the beginning, it was an even bigger deal because at the time there were so few opportunities for women to get published and really have their work evaluated for the wonderful things they were doing.”

The 2018, 2019 and 2020 editions of Ariston.

The Ariston is and always has been a publication created for the St. Kate’s community, so its staff members focus on publishing works that students will enjoy, connect with and relate to. “It’s not even about how deep the pieces [are],” said Becky Arredondo ‘23 (Communication Arts/Literature: Secondary Teaching), co-lead of the literary team. “Some pieces are very simple, and sometimes that’s what our readers need.”

Oftentimes, after reading several deep, philosophical pieces, a more lighthearted story or poem can be refreshing, Arredondo explained. Additionally, many of the published works might relate to aspects of identity or daily life that all St. Kate’s students can connect with, touching on themes such as womanhood, family and happiness.

In fact, one of the reasons Arredondo became co-lead of the literary team is because she likes helping people publish art that others will be able to identify with. “These pieces can be very abstract, so they can mean different things to different people based on their experiences,” she said. “I just really enjoyed reading pieces that I might connect with, or helping publish pieces that other people would connect with. And so that’s why I joined, because I thought it’d be a good way of helping people share their creativity.”

But obviously, it takes many more staff members than just the members of the literary team to put together a publication as extensive as Ariston. There are actually three different teams, Handley explained: the literary jury, the visual arts jury and the design team. While the literary team works to select and lightly edit pieces of poetry and prose that they receive from the student body, the visual arts jury chooses which artworks will be included in this year’s edition of Ariston. The design team, however, has a quite different but equally as important job: They focus on creating the design and layout of Ariston itself.

While last edition’s theme was futuristic and dark, so far this year’s color palette is much brighter and has a springtime aesthetic. “There’s a big focus on very, very bright hues, so bright yellows, greens, blues, reds, oranges, that sort of stuff,” said Tara Harbo ‘25 (English and Visual Art), member of the design team. In particular, many of the design ideas Harbo brought to the table were inspired by ‘60s floral print.

Last year’s edition of Ariston, featuring an almost cyberpunk aesthetic.

Harbo explained that after developing a color scheme comes figuring out page layout and backgrounds, then integrating the artwork, poetry and prose into the pages so that everything goes together in an aesthetically pleasing way. When it comes to designing a page that displays a written work, the literary and design teams will come together to make sure the artistic structure of the poetry or prose piece is maintained. At times, Arredondo explained, artists will structure a poem in a certain way that is intentionally incorrect or unconventional in order to lend a certain layer of meaning to it.

But for now, those final stages of the process that perfect the look of Ariston are a long way off, as the design team is just beginning to put together a cohesive theme for this year’s edition. Anyone interested in reading the final product can look forward to its release in May, when all students will be able to read it for free. Find it displayed all around campus, ready to be perused by anyone who is intrigued by the curious Greek word on the cover: “ariston,” meaning “the best of the best.”