“It started as a one-shot publication — 20 years later X-TRA magazine is celebrating two decades of art”
by Carolina A. Miranda
In spring 1997, Los Angeles artists Ellen Birrell and Stephen Berens published the first issue of a newsprint art magazine they called X-TRA. The plan, says Berens, was to put out a single issue — “and we wouldn’t publish another one until we had money to publish another issue.”
That first issue contained a call-out stating something along the lines of, “We’ll do this again if you send us money,” recalls Birrell.
“All of a sudden, we had $300,” Berens says with a laugh. “So we had to do another.”
And another. X-TRA is still going strong — evolving into a quarterly now published in full color on glossy stock. . .
Read the rest of Miranda’s feature celebrating X-TRA and our 20th Anniversary>>
Photo: Ellen Birrell, left, and Stephen Berens, founders of X-TRA, with executive director Shana Lutker. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)