“Muses work all day and then get together at night and dance.” – Edgar Degas
“Everywhere I go, I hand out my Aoide Magazine business card and show people the website on my phone. Young and old of all ethnic and social backgrounds love the look, creativity, and the variety of topics. The magazine shows them culture that many have never had access to before.” (Bruce Wood)
We are glad to announce that Aoide Magazine has been providing readers with sophisticated content for over five years since its launch in June 2021. Currently, the magazine has grown to almost 800,000 visitors and has been awarded the prestigious International Web Excellence Award. The magazine is also a sponsor of the Opera de Metro professional opera company, has contributed to exhibits at art museums, and has supported many professional singers, artists, musicians, writers, poets, filmmakers, actors, and fashion designers.
Aoide Magazine is an online underground cultural exchange of ideas shared by artists, writers, musicians, and stylists of all sorts. It offers sophisticated, intelligent, artistic, and entertaining content, with a flare for the offbeat and provocative
Named after the first Greek Muse of art and music. The online magazine centers around Culture and Style with a tilt towards the 1950s Golden Age of Hollywood, Broadway, music, and fashion. Aoide Magazine content is an eclectic mix of both Retro and Contemporary topics and genres. It attracts writers and artists to participate and seeks alliances in the visual, performing, literary, fashion, and culinary arts.
Winner of the International ‘Web Excellence Award’, 2026
Aoide Magazine has been named a winner in the Website-Magazine category of the 18th Web Excellence Awards, an international competition recognizing achievement in digital design, creativity and development.
The Web Excellence Awards recognize digital work produced by companies, organizations, agencies, and independent creators around the world. Entries are judged by professionals from the digital and creative industries and evaluated according to several criteria, including creativity, usability, content, visual design, technical execution, and overall user experience.
Rather than judging websites simply on appearance, the competition considers how effectively design, content, and technology work together. For an online magazine, those elements are closely connected. The Web Excellence Award recognizes the digital work but it also reflects something larger: the development of a publication with a clear editorial personality and a willingness to follow interesting ideas wherever they lead.
Aoide Magazine national TV ad
Aoide Magazine Sponsorship of Opera de Metro
Aoide Magazine is a sponsor of Opera de Metro, an up-and-coming, non-profit, professional opera company dedicated to promoting opera in the Michigan area. Formed in 2024 by Madeleine Krick and Jake Surjyn, the company has performed several opera and choir productions, including Mozart’s “The Magic Flute”, Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas”, Conte’s “The Gift of the Magi”, Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro”, Handel’s “Messiah”, and Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”. All productions are performed by professional opera singers and classical musicians. The company also hosts annual high school and adult singing contests.
Opera de Metro believes that opera is an art form meant for all. That it has the power to unite all through universal human experiences, be they laughter, loss, tragedy, or joy. Opera offers audiences the opportunity to find themselves reflected in the stories told on stage, whether they are first time opera goers or seasoned aficionados. Each stage production is directed into a ‘modern’ and English language frame-work which maintains the original work’s integrity. In this way the company attempts to draw new audiences to experience and appreciate this great art form of music, drama, comedy, and theatre arts.
Luciano Pavarotti
Aoide’s “Save Arts to Save Our Children’s Future” Campaign
The visual, performing, literary, and digital arts are critical to raising the cognitive and creative capabilities of the population, thus enabling economic and scientific development. Science comes from art. Art education has been shown to improve student intelligence, learning, and social and communicative skills. Students with access to arts education show remarkable improved learning in mathematics, language, science, geography, history, writing, problem solving, advanced conceptual development, and other disciplines.
Unfortunately, American arts quality standards as a whole, as well as U.S. education performance, have seriously deteriorated. As a result, Americans have become conditioned to accept mediocrity in the ats and education. This is a national crisis. The population, either by default and/or design, is being dumbed down.
In response, Aoide Magazine is launching an editorial campaign to address the decline in the arts and is seeking alliances with creatives and organizations to improve the arts and arts education.
Art is the cure for stupidity.
The arts can stop the zombie apocalypse.
Aoide Magazine’s Concept, Values, and Vision
Aoide Magaine was created to fill the chasm in cultural coverage between creativity and the dreck spoon-fed to the masses by the global media.
“I have been a writer my whole life – I developed Aoide Magazine to write what I am passionate about – style, art, music, dance, literature, poetry, theatre, film noir – genres I grew up with and have continued to study into adulthood. The idea for Aoide came to me thinking back on the late 1990s Swing Revival trend that reinvigorated the excitement of ballroom dancing, big band swing, jazz clubs, lounge crooners, film noir movies, Frank Sinatra Rat Pack, James Bond, the Madmen TV Show, fancy cocktails, retro fashion and style, and more.” (Bruce Wood)
Aoide Magazine was formed by Bruce J. Wood, an economist, writer, poet, ballroom dancer, and performing arts consultant. Award winning designer and creative Chris Nierhaus developed the branding, website design, and social media. Amy Tranchida-Waldschmidt, a professional dance instructor and college professor of English and creative writing, contributed to the website’s editing, content design, and articles. The magazine quickly attracted a network of talented writers, artists, musicians, dancers, poets, stylists, and filmmakers.
John Coltrane and Miles Davis
The original concept was to have an online magazine on culture and style with a hip, retro, film noir look and feel and with a jazz nightclub ambience. The magazine looks to the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s Golden Age of style, Hollywood, Broadway, jazz, art, drama, dance, fashion, literature, and culture. The articles are eclectic retro and contemporary topics of the arts, culture, and style. Readers are offered sophisticated intellectual content with aesthetic appeal, often with a flair for the offbeat and provocative.
The Goal of Aoide Magazine is to support writers, artists, stylists, and creatives. Its Values look to the excellence and style of the Golden Age as the standard measure. With an overall Mission to support the growth of literary, visual, and performing arts in the U.S. As well, support high quality style and value standards in the arts, fashion, and décor.
Aoide adheres to the concept that there is good art and that there is bad art. It disagrees with the current trend that ‘anything goes’ in the expression, theme, format, and content of art. Art involves the aesthetic concept of Beauty in art and Nature, a principle that art and Nature evoke a pleasing, intellectual, emotional, and ‘uplifting’ experience of the mind, senses, and spirit. Art can be provocative, challenging, offbeat, disturbing, and shocking, but the key criteria is if it is good art.
Frank Sinatra
Aoide’s Deep Bench of Talent
Aoide has a deep bench of creative talent who immerse themselves in retro and contemporary art, music, film, food, style, dance, poetry, and prose to deliver content designed to appeal to creative, intelligent, and affluent readers.
The magazine has a talented core circle of creatives:
- 8 novelists
- 9 professional fine artists, designers
- 14 writers, 3 with creative writing MFAs, one a creative writing professor
- 13 professional singers
- 11 professional musicians
- 8 film/TV producers/writers, 3 with Emmy Awards
- 15 professional dancers, 3 world champions, 5 national champions
- 6 photographers
- 5 published poets
- 8 actors of stage and screen
- 6 fashion designers
- 5 digital tech specialists
These people in turn have networks of thousands of creatives and art entusiasts.
“Over the past three years, I have enjoyed collaborating with Bruce Wood on the development of Aoide Magazine. It’s been a pleasure to contribute to and edit a broad spectrum of articles on culture and style. Aoide’s diverse content offers both social commentary and artistic insights to delight myriad readers. Happy 5th Birthday, Aoide!” Amy Tranchida-Waldschmidt, professional ballroom dance instructor and college professor of English and creative writing.
“I enjoy writing for Aoide Magazine because of the editorial freedom to choose the majority of my assignments, write in the style of my choosing (only the best), and the magazine’s willingness to write fearlessly about highly charged issues affecting art, music, and literature from the jazz to the electronic age. As a contributor, it’s cool to see new writers and artists joining the team to lend their unique perspective to the universe of Aoide.” Andrew Bufalini, freelance writer, software and advertising industries.
Billie Holiday
“I harbor a profound appreciation for the interplay of contemporary perspectives and mid-20th-century narratives portrayed within the pages of Aoide Magazine. This nuanced blend of eras captures both the modern essence and the enduring allure of the Golden Age. What distinguishes Aoide is its exceptional talent for blending innovation with nostalgia, paying homage to the echoes of the past offering readers a refined viewpoint through which to appreciate the magazine’s cultural sophistication.” Andrea Houle, writer, cultural arts consultant.
“Writing for Aoide Magazine has been, and continues to be, not just a job but a rich and rewarding experience. Not only is it a great publication, with a diverse entertainment and literary profile, but I have had the pleasure of working with some of the best writers and online designers in the business. Aoide is personally a great vehicle for me too, not only be a way to express my own brand and perspective, but be a part of an organization and platform that is growing its readership/fanbase and expanding exponentially.” Eric Harabadian, freelance journalist, musician, award winning documentary filmmaker.
Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca
Target Readers
Though Aoide Magazine offers content for all ages, readers tend to be affluent and educated adults who are enthusiasts of the arts and culture which represent 157.8 million Americans. Creatives and knowledge workers are 30% of the workforce which make up 46 million people. Affluent individuals represent 149.8 million. Readers of online magazines make up 109.3 million.
According to the National Endowment of the Arts, there are 175 million adults who participate in the arts, 136.7 million who read books, 103.2 million who attend visual art events, 61.9 million active in dance, 108.3 million who attend live music, 59 million who attend theater, 85.1 million who listen to jazz, and 54.1 million who listen to classical music.
Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev
Looking Toward the Future
Aoide Magazine hopes to grow as a prestigious cultural and literary publication with a large reader base. Its goal is to help foster creativity and excellence in the visual, performing, and literaty arts. Aoide plans to assist aspiring artists, writers, and stylists to reach their artistic potential. The publication will explore media channels and will look for opportuities to work with others to support the arts.
Please follow us and tell your friends. Become part of the cultural conversation.
