Sea Change Celebrating 50th Year

by Robert K. Foster

Sea Change, the student produced arts magazine at 4Cs, was first published fifty years ago this spring. The 2018 edition of Sea Change is in the works this term following a great issue last year. The magazine has not been published every year and some years there were actually two editions produced, one in the fall and one in the spring. The latest issue will not be the 50th edition, just published in Sea Change’s 50th year. The technologies for publishing, writing, and even creating artwork over those years have changed dramatically but the history and tradition of the magazine continues.

Image: Cover image from the most recent Sea Change

“Our college should be proud of keeping this publication going for so long. Sea Change has literally featured multiple generations of Cape Cod Community College creative writers and artists,” said Rebecca Griffin, professor for the class producing this edition of the magazine. “This year, we will celebrate the creative community this publication has fostered for so long,”

Campus from the Spring ’76 Edition (Photo Credit: Gordon Brown)

The first issue of the magazine was published in the spring of 1968 with the inside front stating simply: “A selection of student writing from Cape Cod Community College.” It was a digest size magazine of 42 pages, with a few pages left blank at the end. The title was actually “…sea-change”, with an ellipsis preceding the name. It’s an interesting writing mix of poetry and prose. Sea Change began as a literary magazine but has since expanded to include all of the Arts at the College.

The second issue in 1969 was the first to include a graphic cover, but continued in the mold of the first issue. It also included artwork inside the magazine in strictly black and white. It was published in the winter of 1969 with another issue published in the spring of 1969. Following that were many editions, forms, and styles of the magazine, reflecting changing culture as well as changing times and technologies.

From page 2, December 5, 1968 edition of “The 4C’s”, a predecessor of the MainSheet, there is an article on Gordon M. Browne, the first advisor for Sea Change. The article contains the following: “In expressing his attitude as advisor to Sea Change the college’s literary magazine, Mr. Browne stressed the hope that it will always be an interesting read, and will be used as an effective vehicle for those students wishing to be heard and … published.”

The magazine is one of three media traditions here at 4Cs, the MainSheet newspaper and WKKL radio being the other two, which are funded through the Student Media Board of the College. If you’re an artist, sculptor, writer, or other creative person and are a student, faculty, or staff of the college then you can submit your work for publication. It is likely, when you read this, the deadline for submissions (this year it is March 1st) has passed but the hope is that the magazine will be produced on at least an annual basis.

The main college web page has more information about Sea Change. The William Brewster Nickerson Cape Cod History Archives on the basement floor of the college library houses a physical archive of back issues of Sea Change.

Update 16 September 2021: Web addresses for the Sea Change and the Nickerson Archives were updated.

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