Writing | Editing | Communications
About
I am a Brooklyn-based writer and editor. My writing has been published in Bloomberg, The Bushwick Daily, Document Journal, Willamette Week, Oregon Arts Watch, and Portland Mercury. I am under contract with the Oregon Cultural Trust to write impact stories and media copy about grant recipients in the state. Currently, I work as an editorial assistant with The New York Post, where I edit the letters to the editor section.
As a journalist, I know how to distill interviews into meaningful narratives that have strong marketing potential. As a writer, I produce clean and compelling copy across a spectrum of communications channels, including stories, blogs, newsletters, and social media posts. You can take a look at some of my past work below and don't hesitate to get in touch.
Thanks for visiting,
Maximilian Tapogna
Arts and Culture Journalism
Further reading...
Past Projects
Oregon Cultural Trust: 2023 End of Year Campaign
The Oregon Cultural Trust's mission is to lead Oregon in cultivating, growing and valuing culture as an integral part of communities. Every year, the OCT awards thousands of dollars in grants to arts and culture institutions across the state.
Recently, I partnered with the OCT for its 2023 end of year campaign. I wrote fundraising materials, sourced media, interviewed grant recipients, and selected pull quotes for a social media campaign aimed at galvanizing Oregonians to support OCT.
Photos and texts from OCT's Instagram, Facebook, and Blog are included below.
Oregon Aquarium Highlight
(Published on Instagram, Facebook, and OCT's blog)
Let the river run!
In March 2024, a brand-new Salmon Run sculpture will greet visitors to Newport’s Oregon Coast Aquarium, supported by an Oregon Cultural Trust grant award.
Designed by Portland-based artists Shelby Davis and Crystal Schenk, the Salmon Run “river” will be constructed out of blue copper mesh and hang from the lobby’s vaulted ceilings.
While providing visitors with a warm welcome to the aquarium, the Salmon Run will also serve as an educational tool. Since the mid-20th century, salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest have declined dramatically due to overfishing, logging and pollution.
Molly Dumas, the aquarium’s development director, hopes the installation will “elicit a sense of wonder” in visitors, as well as “inquiry about their connection to – and impact upon – the natural world.”
Story by Max Tapogna
Oregon Jewish Museum Exhibit Highlight
(Published on Instagram, Facebook, and OCT's blog)
History speaks this winter at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education.
Oregon Jews, A to Z, an upcoming exhibition at the museum, sponsored by an Oregon Cultural Trust Cultural Development Grant. Opening in February, the exhibition brings history to life through a combination of artifacts and oral stories.
“The exhibition includes a balance of whimsy and weightiness, with its emphasis on storytelling,” says Judy Margles, the museum’s director of the past 24 years. “The goal is to encourage visitors to learn about the contributions of Jews in Oregon.”
Oral histories include a 1976 interview with Jimmy Berg (born 1914), who recalls how kids would translate films into Yiddish for their parents at the south Portland cinema, owned by Berg’s parents.
Ultimately, Margles says the exhibition demonstrates “the importance of culture through storytelling.”
Story by Max Tapogna
Document Journal: Editorial Internship
In the fall of 2023 I served as an editorial intern at Document Journal, where I wrote, edited, and pitched articles on fashion, music, performance, and art.
My favorite articles always centered on interviewing artists about their creative processes. The best part of the internship was getting to talk to so many interesting people.
I've inlcuded links to a few highlights below.
Willamette Week: Promotional Stories
Willamette Week is an alt-weekly newspaper with a daily online platform out of Portland, Oregon. The newspaper occasionally publishes sponsored news content. In addition to arts and culture reporting, I've worked with Willamette Week to write promotional stories about the University of Oregon School of Business and the Portland Art Museum.
You can read the stories by clicking on the links beneath the photos.
(Left) Paloma: an app designed to make the job search easier, created by UO business school graduates.
(Right) Perspectives: an exhibition at the Portland Art Museum about 2020's Black Lives Matter protests.
