"In the Doghouse - Lucky Dog" by Ritch Branstrom
It is now year 4 in Grand Rapids' art extravaganza, ArtPrize, "a radically open, independently organized international art competition with an unprecedented $200,000 top prize decided entirely by public vote."
Every year, ArtPrize distributes $560,000 in total cash prizes—$360,000 awarded by public vote and $200,000 awarded by jury—making the competition the world’s largest ArtPrize.
I attended this year and had a wonderful time.
It opened with a grand party for all participants (1200+) on September 18 and will end on October 4. There are events every day and thousands of people wander throughout Grand Rapids and talk about "art." It is lots of fun and eye opening, with a lot of so-so art and some knock out pieces also.
Even the telephone poles were covered with art, aka "yarn bombing."
As I walked through and around the museums, streets, cafes and riverbanks I kept looking for the piece of art that I thought would be worth a $200,000 prize.
There were many artists from our "art fair world": Jerry Berta, Kathleen Kalinowski, Clifton Henri, Albert Young, Fritz Olsen, Jennifer O'Meara, Bruce Niemi, Mark Chatterly, Jeff Condon, Todd and Kiaralinda Ramquist, Sara Youngman -- and many I am sure I missed.
Everyone can vote for the prizewinners and I did vote but had no clear choice, so I think maybe I missed something. Easy to do with over 200 venues and all this art. You have to be near the art in the city in order for your smartphone to register the votes, not just anyone can go online and make a choice, thereby limiting random craziness.
"Conversation" - 5 Six foot tall dogs by ceramicist Mark Chatterly - who you might meet at an art fair near you.
"Sky Song" by Fritz Olsen, kinetic sculpture. Fritz is a second generation art fair artist
"American Graffiti" by Jennifer O'Meara
I used to see Jennifer at art fairs, not sure if she is still attending them
If you ever have a chance to visit, it is worth the trip. Downtown Grand Rapids is beautiful, full of wonderful architecture, cool restaurants, great food, more restaurants, classy museums... more bars, etc. Here is the link to learn more: ArtPrize.org
See the Top 100 in the voting so far: http://www.artprize.org/entries/?promoted=live-100&page=1-3&sort=random_56
The event was started by Rick DeVos, whose grandfather started Amway and is still supported by DeVos Family Foundation.
I'd love to be there this evening for a seminar on the topic of "Can Art Save Cities?" I LOVE this event!
Has anyone else attended or entered their work?
Comments
Bill, you definitely should look into this. You don't have to be performing all of the days. Pretty much the big crowds come the first weekend and the first round of voting takes place and then many people, especially those that require interaction with the public, leave. You would be very popular there and folks would love the whimsy of it.
if he wore pants! Or was yarn bombed! ;>)
Maybe I should enter my Rainbow ZEEbra Bubble Tower ? At 14 feet tall it is -the world's biggest bubble toy® ! This from this last weekend at ARTsarben in Omaha:
http://www.ketv.com/news/local-news/ARTsarben-festival-draws-20-000...
Or perhaps our Giant Parade Puppets would be a better fit for Grand Rapids?
http://vimeo.com/51324381
Nineteen days of bubbles and puppets . . . now that would be a challenge. Maybe I should do a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign to fund the nineteen day performance? Hmmm . . . what say you?
As much as I love the concept of the ArtPrize, I've always been kind of embarrassed by what the general public picked as the money winners. In this contest, size matters. The work doesn't have to be good, just big. The Mona Lisa would get no votes. Michelangelo's "David" would have a real chance of winning, though. The real genius of ArtPrize is the economic boost to the city of Grand Rapids. Even when the rest of Michigan was economically in the dumps, Grand Rapids was doing great. I hope Rick DeVos runs for governor, one day. Btw, the DeVos family has donated an incredible amount of money to Northern Michigan University's art program. The ceramic's studio is very impressive. I'm taking a class there, now. By the spring shows I intend to have completely different work.
Right - I saw the controversy about the Calder sculpture. Actually it was an interesting turn of events, the flowers were put on with magnets, so definitely intended it to be temporary.
Several of the earlier winners did work that was clearly many, many hours of work, think of those drawings by Adonna Khare and the Infantry Men, by Chris Porter, I believe it was. So, I can think that anyone listening to that would think, "ah ha, that is the way to get the votes." Don't blame them for trying ;)
I loved Chatterly's sculptures and really thought he'd show up in the popular vote if not the jurors vote. They are so different from his usual work, and clearly he got the message also about what the public may be looking for. Imagine "dogs", not "grotesques." Hmmm.
Those Yoopers really know how to build a doghouse, eh? And, I might mention that Mark Chatterley took ceramics up here, too.
We have been gone quite a bit so I haven't seen a lot of coverage. This is the first year that I've gone down without knowing about any pieces or having some in mind that I wanted to see. I have heard a couple of things - the city is definitely "rah, rah" because downtown hotels are pretty much full. There has been some controversy. There were some nudes installed that were causing traffic jams - I didn't see them so don't know if they've been moved or removed. Also, someone's entry consisted of sticking white flowers all over the Calder sculpture that's pretty much the signature of the city. The outside art world was appalled - particularly Alexnder Calder's grandson and the Calder foundation in New York. So, they will be removed. I also caught part of a panel discussion among the jurors. One of them was way over the top ecstatic. Then another spoke up and said that he had seen several artists speaking to the public as they viewed their work and going on and on about how many hours (lots, of course) they had put into it. He said he hoped he wouldn't see any more of that because who cares how many hours you put into it if it isn't any good. LOVED that comment.
I'd really like to go back, Ruth. I looked at the top choices from the jurors and there were some things I missed, yet, some of those seemed lame even. You live near what are "they" saying in the papers, or is it all "rah, rah?" I couldn't find anything I'd want to give $200,000 for.
Connie, I'm so glad to hear what you had to say. We go every year since we live nearby and this year there was nothing that really made us go WOW! It's a great event with wonderful energy to it, but I kind of felt like I'd seen it all before. We hope to get down there again before it's over and look at some of the other venues.
I definitely thought the 'heavy hitters' weren't there this year. In past years the GRAM was full of amazing work. This year, not so much -- and in fact, not very much, plus nothing inside the Public Museum which usually has wonderful and exciting work. What happened? Did it get too expensive for people to participate?
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