To keep himself engaged, 15 Bytes editor Shawn Rossiter has been playing around with different color palettes for each weekly 15 Bytes email.

Twenty-five years is a long time to be together. You get into rhythms. Certain habits. And then—if you’re smart—you start finding ways to keep things interesting.

People will suggest things. Maybe open the relationship up a little? In the case of an online magazine, what would that mean, guest editors? Or try a bit of swapping, partnerships with other media outlets, cross-pollinations? It’s not off the table. After 25 years, we’ve been thinking about these things. But in the meantime, 15 Bytes editor Shawn Rossiter has his own ways of keeping himself entertained.

“I’ve always had fun with it,” he says after almost 25 years at the helm of Utah’s art magazine. “Little games, inside jokes. Sometimes between friends, sometimes just in my own head. Odd facts or strange words mentioned over dinner I take on as a challenge to get into print, see if anyone notices. When people tell me how much they love reading 15 Bytes, it provides fodder for a pop quiz. I slipped in our family’s safe word once—but I don’t think my kids are avid readers.” He pauses. “Most people don’t notice. But it gives me a little private pleasure.”

Lately the experimentation has turned visual. Rossiter has been quietly curating the images in the weekly email so they share a palette—a private conversation in color running beneath the surface of the content. One week: all earth tones. Another: a touch of red in every image, à la Titian. “It’s just a little private challenge,” he says.

Our gray-bearded editor wants to keep the flame alive after 25 years.

Last week 15 Bytes sent out two separate emails, each in its own palette. “The first, headlined by our article on Shawn Stradley, was corals and pink with flashes of ochre—kind of a playful palette,” Rossiter says. “The second, with Greggory Wood at the top, was more moody: deep grays and dusty blues with touches of yellow.” After a few rounds of that sort of fun, Rossiter says he needs a bit of a breather, some time to build up his energy. So don’t go looking for color matches this week.

But spicing things up is only part of a recipe for longevity. After 25 years, you also learn to lean into intimacy—into the depth of what you’ve built together.

“We love bringing new people into the mix,” Rossiter says. “Fresh eyes, unexpected angles, voices that come at Utah art from somewhere we haven’t been before. That energy is great, and we always want more of it—stay tuned. But we also believe in commitment. Some of our writers have been with us for almost two decades. They know this community the way you know a neighborhood you’ve lived in for years—not just the landmarks, but the back alleys, the history, the people who’ve been here since before the changes came. That kind of depth is irreplaceable.”

“A relationship is built from daily moments, the now” Rossiter says, “the ‘What have you done for me lately.’ But it’s also the long history of shared stories.” Built up over the past 25 years, the 15 Bytes archive is one of the most comprehensive records of Utah visual art in existence—thousands of articles, reviews, profiles, and interviews stretching back to 2001, a resource that researchers, students, journalists, and other outlets reach for when they need to understand this place and its artists. “If nothing else, we’d need to stick together just to take care of that,” he jokes. “But to keep this fun for everyone, after 25 years, we can’t just tend what we’ve already created. We need to build on it.”

One example of that is the Utah Art Map or UAM! (pronounce it like the ’80s pop duo)—15 Bytes’ ongoing project to document artists, galleries, and public art across the state. “We’re building out the database with the goal of turning it into a full app,” Rossiter says, “a living, searchable tool that connects people to Utah’s art ecosystem wherever they are.” A businessman on his lunch break stumbles onto a sculpture he’s walked past a hundred times. A couple waiting for a table discovers a mural two blocks away. A family arriving at the airport asks: what’s worth seeing? “Think of it as everything we’ve learned about Utah art over 25 years—vibrating in your pocket.”

None of this happens without you.

15 Bytes has always been free to read, free to share, and free from the kind of institutional pressures that make arts coverage timid. That’s only possible because readers who care about Utah art choose to support it. Our spring fund drive is open now. If 15 Bytes has ever sent you somewhere worth going, introduced you to an artist worth knowing, or slipped a word into your vocabulary you can’t quite place—consider making a gift. Whatever you can give keeps the flame alive.

WE’RE LOOKING TO RAISE $3,000 DURING OUR SPRING FUND DRIVE
RAISED SO FAR: $1,255

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15 Bytes

UTAH’S ART MAGAZINE SINCE 2001, 15 Bytes is published by Artists of Utah, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.