Esopus is a twice-yearly nonprofit arts and culture magazine founded in 2003 by Tod Lippy and published by the Esopus Foundation. Its primary objective is to give artists a noncommercial forum (the magazine is completely ad-free) in which to publish their projects. It has been called "a thing of lavish, eccentric beauty" by the New York Times and was named "one of the 10 best new magazines of 2003," by Library Journal.
Each issue of Esopus focuses on three artists' projects, one from an established artist and two from emerging artists, developed specially for the magazine. In the past, these projects have included pop-ups and posters, and have required production processes ranging from hand assembly to the use of a photochromatic ink that only appeared when placed under sunlight. The magazine also features a CD of music commissioned for a certain theme, which have included the public domain, spam emails, Oiuja, and a reader invitational on imaginary friends, where bands composed songs based on stories of imaginary friends provided by Esopus subscribers. The magazine also features nonfiction writing on the arts, usually from practitioners themselves. This has included an essay by a Disney animator about animating cells and a personal essay about the world of decor art from a commercial painter. The magazine also regularly features three columns: "Year in Retrospect," a series of facts and figures from a single year; "Guarded Opinions," which interviews museum guards about the art they protect and oversee; and "Modern Artifacts," which highlights rarely seen items from the archives at the Museum of Modern Art.