Meet McKenzie Watson-Fore, Boulder Reporting Lab’s new arts and culture editor

Boulder Reporting Lab is excited to introduce McKenzie Watson-Fore, who joined our team last month to expand our arts, culture and events coverage across Boulder County and launch Culture Club, our new weekly newsletter.

A born-and-raised Boulderite, Watson-Fore brings experience as a writer, artist and critic, along with a deep knowledge of the community. Her work has appeared in Electric Literature, Boulder Magazine, Full Stop and other publications. She helped launch sneaker wave magazine, an online publication dedicated to nonfiction storytelling, and holds a master’s degree in creative nonfiction writing from Pacific University.

At BRL, she’ll help shine a light on the artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, events and cultural institutions that make Boulder County unique. She’ll also lead Culture Club, a new weekly guide to arts, culture and events that complements BRL’s accountability and community reporting with a deeper look at Boulder County’s creative life. 

We asked Watson-Fore about her journalism background, her longtime connection to Boulder, and what readers can expect from Culture Club.

You’ve spent much of your life here. What keeps you excited about Boulder County’s arts, culture and community scene? 

I grew up in and around Boulder and the surrounding towns, so I hold a lifelong love for this place. Chautauqua is one of my forever favorite spots; I used to do theater at the Dairy Center when I was in middle school. I also lived elsewhere for about a decade — first in Massachusetts, then Houston, Texas. When I moved back to Boulder in 2021, I was delighted to get involved in the arts and culture scene here. 

Boulder’s entrepreneurial ethos extends beyond the tech industry: People are willing to try things here, to take risks and experiment. Boulder has that scrappy startup mentality, but we also have incredible institutional players that have been producing top-tier work for decades. (In this moment I’m thinking of Boulder Ballet, but there are so many to choose from!) I get excited about the activity happening in informal spaces where people are iterating on new ideas for how to assemble a community, or are exploring different containers for a creative project. 

For readers who may not know you, tell us a little about your  background and how you found your way into arts and culture reporting.

I got my start in the arts world in Houston while working at Project Row Houses, a nationally recognized community-based arts organization that repurposes vacant shotgun houses as a site for ongoing arts education and exhibitions. After that, I transitioned into working in arts criticism and nonprofit journalism with the publication Glasstire, an online magazine that covers visual art across Texas. 

Since then, I’ve written a lot of book reviews and cultural criticism, and I’m passionate about the way arts coverage — whether in the form of book reviews, profiles of significant individuals or organizations, or longform features that trace cultural trends — contributes to one’s ability to think critically about and engage with the world around them. 

My interest as a writer lies in bridge-building: connecting readers to topics they may not have thought they’d be interested in and translating the nuances of a subculture or a niche scene to a wider audience. I love getting into the weeds of something, and then taking all that specificity and making it digestible to anyone. 

There’s so much going on in Boulder that merits attention and curiosity. I’m so excited to cover the artists and organizers doing amazing work here. 

What attracted you to Boulder Reporting Lab and the opportunity to launch Culture Club? Was there something about BRL’s approach that resonated with you?

I’ve been a regular reader of Boulder Reporting Lab since it launched, which coincided with my move back to Boulder in the summer of 2021. I’ve loved watching BRL expand its coverage over time, keeping the critical core of accountability reporting while also adding Nibbles with John Lehndorff, Silvia Pettem’s history reporting, and now arts and culture!

I remember when the Rocky Mountain News stopped publishing after the 2008 financial crisis, and the dearth of local news is a crisis unto itself. I’m so grateful that we have a robust, nonpartisan outlet publishing hyperlocal hard news: city council updates, local ballot measures and election races, emergency alerts and more. 

Culture Club grew out of reader requests for more arts, culture, dining and event coverage. What do you hope readers get from the newsletter each week?

I want Culture Club to be your go-to resource for celebrating and expanding your awareness of arts and culture in Boulder County. We’ll be covering visual art, performing arts, music, comedy, literature and more. I hope it’s an avenue to celebrate the organizations and iconic events you already love as well as an avenue for learning about new things. 

You’re constantly out exploring Boulder County. What stories or trends are you most excited to cover in the coming months?

I’m fascinated by the explosion of sauna spots!

What’s the best way for readers to share tips, events, recommendations or feedback with you?

The most direct way is to send me an email at mckenzie@boulderreportinglab.org. I’m also out and about, so if you see me in the wild, please say hello! I’d love to know what you want to read about and how you experience Boulder’s cultural scene.