We caught up with the brilliant and insightful T.K. Mills a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
T.K. , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
UP Magazine’s mission is to provide the art community with nuanced, provocative, and critical writing that navigates the questions of our generation. We pride ourselves on serving our readers high-quality articles that investigate, inform, and entertain. Like good art, UP Magazine is made to make you think and make you feel.
We were inspired to create UP, as an alternative to other publications that focused on established artists. While we do cover some bigger artists, our primary focus is mid-tier creatives and those on the come up.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
UP Magazine was founded by myself, T.K. Mills, alongside three collaborators, Vittoria Benzine, Stina Elia, and Lonnie Richards. In the beginning we were essentially strangers, but became as close as family over the months it took to put together the first issue of UP. We would meet in my apartment on Saint Marks nearly every day, writing, editing, and designing the magazine.
Over the past 5 years, UP has grown substantially, with five print issues and a globally ranked website, providing coverage on artists from all over the world.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
One of the things we overlooked in the beginning was the importance of financing our operations. Money isn’t everything, but when you don’t have it, it certainly makes things difficult.
How’d you meet your business partner?
I met Vittoria Benzine, while I was on a break from my day job at the time. I was walking by the McNally Jackson in SoHo, I saw her. Our eyes met, and I felt compelled to talk with her, and we ended up chatting over a cigarette. When UP began a few months later, I recruited her as our first writer, and she brought with her Stina, a friend of hers from college. Lonnie was introduced to us from an acquaintance, and the four of us together set out to make a magazine that would reshape the NYC street art scene.
Contact Info:
- Website: upmag.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/up__mag/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@upmagazine4884
Image Credits
Photography by Matthew Eller, Ana Candelaria, and UP Magazine