ArtPrize is an art competition and festival in Grand Rapids, Michigan.[1] Anyone over the age of 18 can display their art, and any space within the three-square-mile ArtPrize district can be a venue. There are typically over 160 venues such as museums, galleries, bars, restaurants, hotels, public parks, bridges, laundromats, auto body shops, and more.
ArtPrize lasts for 19 days beginning in late September, and during each festival $500,000 in cash prizes are awarded based on public voting and a jury of art experts.[2]
ArtPrize was created in 2009 by Rick DeVos, the son of Republican gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos and United States Secretary of EducationBetsy DeVos.[3] The DeVos family contributes approximately $560,000 annually to the ArtPrize budget.[4] In 2017, the festival's connection to the DeVos family's wealth and their conservative politics was criticized by artist Eric Millikin in his “Made of Money” installation, placed within ArtPrize.[5]
In 2014, The Art Newspaper listed ArtPrize as one of the most-attended "big ticket" art events (those where visitors are often counted more than once), with ArtPrize's attendance of 440,000 being roughly one quarter of the 1.6 million who attended the Russian Imperial Costume exhibition at the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg.[6] ArtPrize was highlighted along with Slows Bar BQ and the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park as one of the reasons to visit Grand Rapids in The New York Times’ "52 Places To Go in 2016."[7]
In 2018, ArtPrize announced the Project exhibition to showcase larger works and planned to hold ArtPrize every other year, though the Project 1 event in 2019 experienced substantially less visitors.[8][9] The twelfth ArtPrize was postponed in 2020 with officials citing the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2022 event ran from September 15 to October 2, 2022, with many visitors criticizing the smaller scale of works present.[10]
Thousands of ArtPrize visitors gather in Rosa Parks Circle in downtown Grand Rapids.
ArtPrize was conceived by Rick DeVos as an untraditional art contest with its goals being: any artist in the world could compete; anyone with property in downtown Grand Rapids could turn their space into a venue; and any visitor could vote for their favorite artwork. Event organizers would provide no selection committees or curators. And the largest cash prize in the art world would be awarded entirely by popular vote.
At the inaugural ArtPrize, held in 2009, the winners were determined solely by the public, voting from mobile devices and the ArtPrize website.[11] In 2010, ArtPrize added categories judged by art experts,[12] and in 2014 restructured the awards format[13] bringing two parallel tracks of public vote and juried awards with equal prize amounts. The updated award structure includes two Grand Prizes of $200,000, one chosen by public vote and one selected by a panel of three arts experts. An additional $100,000 in awards are given to artists in four entry categories—Two-Dimensional, Three-Dimensional, Time-Based, and Installation—as well as the Outstanding Venue Juried Award for best curatorial presentation.[14][15]
Visitors must attend the annual event in person in order to vote. They can either download the ArtPrize mobile app, free for iOS and Android devices, which uses location services to determine when a visitor has stepped into the three square-mile event district—or visit an ArtPrize HUB location to register in person. Each artist is assigned a 5-digit vote code which is posted near their entry during the event, and available both online and in the mobile app.[16]
The 2009 exhibition occurred in a 3-square-mile (7.8 km2) area of downtown Grand Rapids, from September 21 to October 9, 2009. 1,262 artists or artist collaboratives displayed their work in 159 venues.[17][18] An estimated 200,000 attendees visited the event, with 334,219 total votes cast throughout the 19 days.
The 2010 event took place from September 22 to October 10.[22] The event introduced "Exhibition Centers," local cultural institutions featuring professional curation. Each ArtPrize Exhibition Center was required to host voter registration/activation as well as a retail presence. ArtPrize sought to have at least one Exhibition Center in each downtown Grand Rapids neighborhood.
Event organizers announced the addition of four juried awards for ArtPrize 2010.[24] Event organizers noted that, depending on sponsor availability, more juried awards might be added to the program.
The 2011 event ran from September 21 to October 9.[22] The biggest change to the competition was the addition of an exhibition center dedicated to performance art—St. Cecilia Music Society.[25][26] The organization was also the recipient of a $100,000 Our Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.[27]
In addition to awards distributed as a result of a public vote, the organization distributed seven juried awards for ArtPrize 2011.[30] An award dedicated to an outstanding venue was added in 2011. Each juried award winner received $7,000.
The 2012 ArtPrize competition ran from September 19 to October 7. The event introduced new changes to the ArtPrize Juried Awards program, including category prizes valued at $20,000 (up from $7,000) and a first-ever $100,000 Juried Grand Prize, decided by panel of three art experts.
Elephants by Adonna Khare, ArtPrize 2012 Public Vote Grand Prize Winner
In addition to awards distributed as a result of a public vote, the organization distributed seven juried awards, totaling $200,000, during ArtPrize 2012 in five categories and a juried grand prize.[30] Each category winner received $20,000. The Juried Grand Prize winner was awarded $100,000. The award was decided by a three-member jury panel.
The top 10 entries were determined by a record 446,850 votes, and announced on October 4.[32]
Sleeping Bear Dune Lakeshore – Ann Loveless, Frankfort, Mich.
Polar Expressed – Anni Crouter, Flint, Mich.
UPlifting – Andy Sacksteder, Port Clinton, Ohio
Dancing With Mother Nature – Paul Baliker, Palm Coast, Fla.
Botanical Exotica a Monumental Collection of the Rare beautiful – Jason Gamrath, Seattle, Wash.
Earth Giant – Benjamin Gazsi, Morgantown, W.V.
Myth-or-Logic – Robin Protz, New Hartford, Conn.
Finding Beauty in Bad Things: Porcelain Vine – Fraser Smith, St Pete Beach, Fla.
Taking Flight – Michael Gard, San Francisco, Calif.
Tired Pandas – Nick Jakubiak, Battle Creek, Mich.
The world's an untranslatable language II (for Charles Wright) by Charles Matson Lume, nominated to the Juried Award shortlist for Three-Dimensional work
In addition to awards distributed as a result of a public vote, the organization distributed seven juried awards, totaling $200,000, during ArtPrize 2013 in five categories and a juried grand prize. Each category winner received $20,000. The Juried Grand Prize winner was awarded $100,000. The award was decided by a three-member jury panel.[33][34]
David Dodde's Fleurs et riviere was an entry that placed magnetic flowers on the Alexander Calder sculpture La Grande Vitesse. After getting complaints, the City of Grand Rapids contacted the Calder Foundation to get their input. Calder's grandson, Alexander S. C. Rower, replied: "The initiative is luckily temporary and reflects an utter lack of understanding and respect of Calder's genius." The city decided to have the flowers removed before the end of the exhibition.[35]
The public vote determined three $20,000 category winners and a $200,000 grand prize winner. The grand prize winner does not receive $20,000 for their category win.[37]
The jury awarded five $20,000 category winners and a $200,000 grand prize winner. There was a tie for the grand prize, so each winner received $100,000.[38]
The Hair Craft Project – Sonya Clark, Richmond, Virginia
This is also the first time the opinions of both the voting public and the jury of art experts converged, awarding a top prize to one piece – Intersections by Anila Quayyum Agha.
The public vote determined three $12,500 category winners and a $200,000 grand prize winner. The grand prize winner does not receive $12,500 for their category win.[43]
The public vote determined three $12,500 category winners and a $200,000 grand prize winner. The grand prize winner does not receive $12,500 for their category win.
The public vote determined three $12,500 category winners and a $200,000 grand prize winner. The grand prize winner does not receive $12,500 for their category win.
Director of The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto
Christopher Scoates
Director of Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum in Detroit
Gia Hamilton
Director at Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans
Two-Dimensional
Miranda Lash
Curator of Contemporary Art at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville
Three-Dimensional
Rachel Adams
Senior Curator of Exhibitions for the University at Buffalo Art Galleries
Installation
Anila Quayyum Agha
Artist, Associate Professor of Drawing at Herron School of Art in Indianapolis, and $300,000 Public Vote and Juried Award winner at ArtPrize 2014 for her work Intersections
Time-Based
Scott Stulen
Director and President of Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa
Outstanding Venue
Larry Ossei-Mensah
New York-based independent curator and cultural critic, co-founder of ARTNOIR
For 2019, ArtPrize began its "Project" exhibition series, with Project 1 running from September 7 to October 27. The concept was to alternate between ArtPrize and the Project series every year. While ArtPrize organizers described Project 1 as a success, crowds were much smaller and visitors criticized the event as being less festive.[8] As Project 1 was concluding, the executive director of ArtPrize, Jori Bennett, announced that she would step down.[9]
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