Name: Elizabeth Johnson (or Lizzey, whichever you prefer)
Year: Freshman
Major: Journalism with a French minor
Hometown: Atherton, California
Claim-to-fame: Founder of Northwestern’s newest on-campus online publication: Scene+Heard
What exactly is Scene+Heard?
Scene+Heard is Northwestern’s first arts and culture publication. Its vision is simple: to make arts and events more accessible and engaging, both on-campus and off. Our coverage is two-fold–part of it is centered on highlighting the best events on campus in order to engage a more diverse, dynamic audience; the other is focused on chronicling local culture, in all of its rich, indefinable forms. Like the dynamic nature of our student body, we strive to make our content interactive, inviting, and inspiring.
What inspired you to create this publication?
As a Journalism major and a North Campus resident, I’ve often been frustrated by how hard it is to engage with arts on campus. It’s unnecessarily difficult to find out what’s happening just blocks down Sheridan Road. But I didn’t have any ideas on how to fix this until I was sitting in class in the Music Building on the first day of Spring Quarter. As we were doing introductions, I internalized just how foreign the artistic community was to me. And then I had the idea: Northwestern needs a medium for connecting artists and audiences.
The more I mused on the idea, I realized that Scene+Heard’s coverage could be far more extensive than just documenting events on campus. So I expanded it to encompass culture as a whole. I wanted to create a resource for inspiration and information on anything cultural, from meals to music festivals.
Was it difficult to get the publication up and running? What steps did you have to take?
I have been somewhat uncontrollably excited about Scene+Heard, so while it’s been extremely time-consuming, I definitely wouldn’t describe it as difficult. Once I had put into words what exactly Scene+Heard is, I created the website (sceneandheardonline.com) and drafted the Constitution, in order to become a recognized student group. I then sought to find students who were as passionate about culture and innovation as I am, and created an application for an Executive Board…and wow, I’m unashamedly obsessed with them. Ever since Exec came together, we’ve been working tirelessly in preparation for what I would call our “Beta Test” – our Dillo Day content. While we’re officially launching Fall Quarter, but we’ve created about 20 Dillo Day-related pieces (editorials, photo spreads, videos, and interactive media alike) to launch this year (May 26-30!) We decided this would be an exceptional way to establish our presence this year, in preparation for our expansion and evolution in the fall. Plus, people are starting to hear about Scene+Heard; they’re starting to draw an interest in who we are and a curiosity for what we do. So, it seemed foolish to not capitalize on our initial excitement.
Where do you hope to see Scene+Heard go in the future?
Scene+Heard should be two things: interesting and interactive. I completely geek out when I read an awesome article (Thank you, Medill), so I want our content to have that sort of effect. But I also want to change the way students interact with journalism on campus. I don’t want Scene+Heard to be something students peruse when they see it on their newsfeeds in lecture. Rather, I want it to be a part of their everyday experiences. Want to go to a show tonight? Check out our interactive calendar to find out what’s going on in every type of group on campus, and click on an event for a behind-the-scenes look into their rehearsal process. Want to boozy brunch in Lincoln Park? We’ll have Northwestern’s best brunchers do an extensive taste-test so you know where to go. Essentially, I want Scene+Heard to help students get more out of Northwestern—whether it be by propelling an engineer to go to his/her first student performance, helping an aspiring artist discover a new gallery in Chicago, or bringing together a diverse group of students over a new restaurant they read about on our site. If our vision comes to fruition, Scene+Heard will help students enrich their college experiences.
How does this tie into your future career goals?
In many ways, Scene+Heard is the intersection of my interests and my aspirations. Culture has always been a passion of mine, and I love the fact that it’s so subjective—everyone defines it a little differently. After college, I would love to do something that mandates I learn about different cultures—and hopefully, that allows me to chronicle them. I’m from the Silicon Valley, so I am inevitably enticed by the possibility of starting something small and seeing how it grows. I’ve always thought it would be fun to create somewhat of a Venture Capital-type firm for creative media: a company that acts as the front-end funder of publications and documentaries. Oh, and I have a weird penchant for puns, so if anyone knows how to become the person who contrives the names of nail polish colors, hit me up.