Today is the first edition of InReview – an initiative of Adelaide-based Solstice Media to support arts criticism and journalism for our local community.

With the festival season launching in a few days, our first offerings are insights into what is to come and reflect on how irrepressible artists and companies found a way to do art, despite the immense logistical challenges of the pandemic.

You’ll find Fringe and Festival show previews written by people with deep experience, you’ll find reviews, poetry and more to guide you through the festival season.

You’ll find details of our mentorship program with the Helpmann Academy, designed to find the next generation of SA arts critics – and support those who have been doing it for a long time.

You’ll find our regular Forager food and wine content – and we have big plans to expand our critical writing in this area as well.

In the coming weeks and months, you’ll find other things, too: articles previewing and critiquing visual art, book extracts and reviews, commentary on who we are and what we could be, news and opinion about the state of the arts, profiles, interviews and anlaysis. We’ll take you inside our arts companies, big and small; we’ll show you how artists work; we’ll critique popular music, television, games and more. We’ll write about design and architecture. We’ll reflect on food culture.

Our ambitions for InReview are deep and wide.

We can only begin a project like this thanks to the support of our community.

We want InReview to be sustainable. Too often, the arts suffer the first cut when times get rough.

Our model is to largely support this project through grant funding, philanthropic organisations, and individual contributions. That way, we can insulate this work from the lumps and bumps of the brutal media economy.

Before we’ve even begun, we’ve been gratified by support from the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, Ulrike Klein AO, Tracey Whiting AM, and the Helpmann Academy. We’ve set up a not-for-profit fund to support this work, so donations can be tax-deductible.

I hope you enjoy our first offerings. We’ll be publishing new material most days at indaily.com.au/inreview

You can also keep up with InReview by checking daily editions of InDaily and watching your inbox on Wednesday mornings for our weekly newsletter. Subscription is free.

David Washington is editorial director of Solstice Media.