Artist registration is open now for the third annual ArtPrize. Part arts festival, part social experiment, part civic project, the event overtakes downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, bringing visitors in the hundreds of thousands.
Designed to be a simple yet transformative experience for both artist and audience, ArtPrize is a platform on which artists can experiment, collaborate, and explore new ideas. Artists have direct access to hundreds of thousands of art lovers, ranging from novice to expert.
Why design an event like this? ArtPrize is founded on the idea that art is important. Contemporary art is too often marginalized, and those who don’t collect often feel they have no meaningful connection to the dialog art generates. ArtPrize sets artists and the public on a collision course. The result is 19 days of chaos, fervent debate, and a lot of fun. Both artists and the public walk away changed.
ArtPrize is unlike any other public art event: the winner is decided by public vote, and any location in the city can host a piece of art. The work is not centrally curated, each of the nearly 200 venues—from art museums to parks to businesses—design their own exhibition and work directly with artists. ArtPrize gives away the largest amount of total prize money of any art competition—$250,000 to the winner, $484,000 total.
Since the first ArtPrize in 2009, nearly 800,000 votes have been cast through text, mobile app and ArtPrize.org. In addition to the public vote, which determines the top ten winners, ArtPrize hosts five Juried Awards which are judged by an international panel of contemporary art experts who award prizes based on the individual criteria of each category—Two-Dimensional, Three-Dimensional, Urban Space, International and Time-Based.
Artists can register through June 16, but are encouraged to enter now as venues make their selections early! ArtPrize 2011 is September 21 to October 9.
