What is art? You have a chance to decide the answer to that question for yourself each year in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as part of ArtPrize, an annual event billed as part arts festival and part social experiment.
Grizzlies on the Ford, finalist Llew (Doc) Tilma
One of the things that impressed me most about ArtPrize after I've attended it the past two years is the feeling of excitement and vision for the future that seems to permeate the entire city during the two-week contest, which took in 164 venues across the city exhibiting the work of 1582 artists this year.
Untitled, finalist Ritch Branstrom
Organizers say that the ArtPrize mission is to act as a catalyst for connecting artists with the community and to get everyone talking about art long after the event is over. In that, I think they've definitely achieved their mission.
Under Construction, finalist Robert Shangle and Jasper Shangle
Voting is open to any member of the public attending the event, and the top prize is an astounding $250,000. The second place winner gets $100,000, the third place piece earns $50,000 and the remaining seven finalists each receive $7,000.
President Gerald Ford Visits ArtPrize, finalist Sunti Pichetchaiyakul
This year, we managed to get out to ArtPrize early enough to register and participate in both rounds of voting. The first round determines the ten finalists, and the second round determines the eventual winner.
The Metaphorist project, finalist Tracy Van Duinen, Andy Bellomo, Todd Osborne, Phil Schuster and friends
Using the ArtPrize app on my phone was a particularly easy way to vote while I was touring the venues, although a database crash late in the first round of voting caused problems with voting the one full day we were there. Fortunately, organizers got the database up within a day and extended the first round voting period, so we were still able to vote on the pieces we liked.
The second round of voting to determine the eventual ArtPrize winners continues as I write this, but check out the ArtPrize site to see the results as announced on October 6.
Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.
© Dominique King 2011 All rights reserved
What a unique way to support the arts!!
Posted by: Lisa | October 07, 2011 at 10:41 AM
Is that a real statue? Because if it is, that's really amazing. I can see the details on his face and on his jeans. Or is it a man acting like a statue?
Posted by: Halley | October 07, 2011 at 10:45 PM
Lisa-We love ArtPrize. Not only is it a cool way to support the arts, it really seems to generate a lot of excitement and enthusiasm in Grand Rapids each year. We've been to two of the three years they held it, and I hope we'll be able to go again next year.
Halley-The "statue" was part of a performance art piece. There was a regular statue on the scaffold (which you can see on the right of the top photo of the sequence). The "live statue" was to the left and occasionally changed positions-freaking out some spectators who didn't realize he was a real guy!
Posted by: Dominique King | October 09, 2011 at 07:45 AM