Riddle Fence is an arts and culture journal from Newfoundland and Labrador, the only one. Shortly after our first year, Prime Minister Harper eliminated sustaining funding to magazines with circulations under 5,000--meaning all literary journals. It was a huge blow. We have all had to find creative ways to support our journals in the last couple of years. We rely more and more on community partnerships and innovative fundraisers.

This is a common challenge faced by most grassroots arts and culture institutions in North America and around the world. I connected with Shoshanna Wingate to learn more about how Riddle Fence is going to their community and the RocketHub crowd in order to find a new level of support.

Riddle Fence enjoys a healthy reputation nationwide, so we thought we'd reach out to our community and ask them to support us. We need funding for next year. We pay our writers and artists well and put a lot of emphasis on aesthetics and design. We didn't want to compromise on either of those expenses. It's important to us that we maintain our standards, our design, our regular publishing schedule. 

We're still young--only three years old. We're finding our footing--and yet the response to our journal so far has been so positive, so supportive, that we're attracting stellar writers who want to work on our journal. We have momentum and interest because we're doing things differently. We're a bit on the edge, as one would expect from this part of the world.

What has your experience been as a crowdfunding pioneer in the world of new artistic expression in Newfoundland - how are your supporters responding?

Great! We raised 155% of our fundraising goal. Our local CBC ran a piece on our project. We've had writers and artists offering to donate pieces to support our cause. Amazing donations. One of a kind, really. Original songs. Hand-illustrated first edition books. Wood cuts. Original paintings. Out of print books. We've had a considerable response from our community.

Wow. How have you sustained this momentum? Any advice for Creatives looking to crowdfund a similar project?

We reached out to everyone who has shown interest in our project over the last three years and asked for their support. They are our community, our readers, our audience. But we also decided to offer unique and theme-specific rewards. Not just your standard subscription offer. We do have that, but we also included a gift subscription (because it's the holiday season) and a hand-silkscreened bookmark by Jacob Rolfe, who appeared in Riddle Fence last year. 

I think our rewards are really key. As I mentioned, we're offering original artwork, signed first edition books, audio books, handmade woodcuts, a handmade scarf and hand-illustrated book by award-winning writer, Kathleen Winter. An original song, written for the purchaser, performed and recorded by Bob Hallett of Great Big Sea. An original landscape painting by BookerPrize finalist Lisa Moore. An out of print chapbook by Commonwealth award winner Michael Crummey.

Congratulations on your success! Thank you for being a part of RocketHub. Grab cool rewards and support Riddle Fence.

-Vlad