Local arts connoisseurs, retailers and artists alike have a new voice in Richmond.

Urge, a new free quarterly arts, events and boutiques magazine, hits newsstands this week with a call to action for all Richmonders to "Try Something Different," which is also the publication's tagline.

Published by the creative minds behind Richmond-based Palari Publishing, Urge was designed with the purpose of getting people out of their usual week-in, week-out ruts, said executive publisher Ted Randler.

"It's a call to action. Go out and try something," Randler said. "People in their regular lives get into these ruts so we thought, 'Let's get them to go out and let's push them to get out of their comfort zone and go try a gallery or something new.'"

Randler said the magazine was also conceived to encourage an urge of creativity.

"When we say create we are talking about the artists and the galleries and the obvious ones but we are also talking about the people who create the boutique shopping experience and their personal art on top of the retail experience."

Though the magazine just left the presses this week, Urge has been a work in progress for the last two decades. Randler tried to create an arts publication based completely on the Richmond arts community about 20 years ago but he said it didn't pan out due to the smaller size of Richmond at the time.

"During the years since then, I have been trying to develop some sort of arts communication that would bring a focal point to all of the arts in Richmond, not just one particular aspect," he said.

Besides getting people out and about to participate in the local arts scene and boutique retail, Randler said he hopes Urge will also act as a single portal to connect everyone involved in Richmond arts.

"We are looking for ideas and ways to connect the arts community," he said. "In viewing all of the arts magazines out there, I saw a lot of different arts organizations all working very well independently but in parallel. We want Urge to be the connector or the intersection where they can come find resources and also market their products. The unique thing about this as an arts publication is that we treat art as a commodity and we treat retail shopping as a creative venture.

"Right now you see arts being covered in sort of a spotty way. It's done well, but it is done all over the place. So Urge is a portal for the arts and retail communities to come together to have this sense where you actually have support for producing your work and diffusing your work through the magazine."

Urge's content will come from its editors and team of staff writers, but will also come from contributors from the local art, theater, music and performing arts world. The magazine also has sections dedicated to interior decorating, fashion, entertaining, shopping, film and literature.

"We also have a section called Work in Progress, and most of it is done in first person where we go to painters, sculptors, musicians and we just ask them to talk about their work and the process," Randler said. "It is so fascinating the things they bring up in conversation and it is in their own words."

Besides the free magazine, Urge also has a Web site, urgeonline.com, that will feature many of the same articles as well as new stories to be published on the site during the times between the printed version's quarterly releases. The Web site will also offer reader's a chance to contribute articles and gallery reviews, that could be chosen later to appear in print.

"But it is not a blog," Randler said. "It is a receptacle for [readers' articles] and our editors will go through [submissions] and, if it merits publication, we will edit them and put them out for publication."

Prior to the release of Urge, all of Palari Publishing's periodicals have been either subscription circulation or sold on the newsstand. This is the company's first foray into free press, but Randler said that was a key aspect of the new magazine.

"I think to make the arts accessible, it has to be in a free publication format. That way you wipe away any financial barriers for anyone to approach the information."

He also didn't want to release another tabloid-style publication. Unlike other free publications, Urge is produced as a glossy, non-newsprint 9-by-12 magazine to separate itself from the idea of the classic tabloid style publication, Randler said.

As of this week, Urge can be found at Ukrop's and Kroger's as well as several other independent retailers and hotels around town.

• For more information on Urge: Try Something Different, check out urgeonline.com.