Visit McMinnville Launches CRUSH Publication

July's cover of CRUSH has a painting of a woman ducking her head back in a pool. — *Our splashiest cover so far. Oil painting by Jane Galletti.*

The word on the street is that there’s a new word on the street: CRUSH. CRUSH is McMinnville’s new printed arts and culture publication, produced by Visit McMinnville.

You might happen upon it while you’re exploring the downtown shops, eating in a McMinnville restaurant, visiting the public library, or moseying down 3rd Street. No doubt it will catch your eye with its colorful artwork on the front, and the word CRUSH emblazoned across the top.

Printed locally at Oregon Lithoprint, CRUSH features a calendar of events, food horoscopes, kids coloring pages, articles written by local writers, and of course, artwork created by local and regional artists.

To put it simply, CRUSH is our love letter to and about McMinnville. Our first episode, published in May, declared that, “We have a crush on McMinnville, and we can’t keep a lid on it any longer.”

“We have a crush on our blooming music scene. The art scene. The downtown community theater showcasing the talent of our next door neighbors. The food. The drinks. The people. All of the above gives us butterflies in our stomach, as if we were in middle school again, twitterpated by that fly hottie in home room. Yet, unlike the 12 year old who would rather die than be found out, we want the whole world to know how we feel about all things McMinnville that are all that and a bag of chips.”

*Visit McMinnville hosted a CRUSH launch party at Mac Market in June. Many of our local arts & culture organizations joined in the fun and shared information about their organizations with attendees.*

CRUSH would not exist without our incredible community. We are always on the lookout for new ideas so please contact us at CRUSH@VisitMcMinnville.com if you’re interested in contributing articles (or even ideas), art, tell us about events, nominate a local human or song of the month, or suggest a local artist or writer to work with.

With CRUSH, we hope to encourage the further expansion of McMinnville’s amazing arts and culture opportunities by bringing awareness to the people, talent, businesses, and events that make our community so special. One thing we’re really proud of is that the artists and writers that contribute content for CRUSH are fairly compensated. In our minds, this is a no-brainer. We’re working to support the arts in our community, so of course, we’re putting our money where our mouth is.

The team at Visit McMinnville is so stoked to work on this project. We expect it to evolve as the needs and desires of the community dictate. And we are here for the journey. As we wrote in our first episode, “Our community is already crushin’ it, we’re just bringing the bottle to the table. We can’t wait to sip on this delicious fizzy concoction of love, arts and culture with you.”

Jamie Howe is Visit McMinnville’s Marketing Coordinator & Arts Liaison, and she is the editor of CRUSH, Visit McMinnville’s monthly printed arts & culture publication. You’ll likely find her enjoying the arts in the form of theater, music, and the written word.