ArtPrize 2013: Exploring event's effects on Grand Rapids in numbers
By , on September 16, 2013 at 7:30 AM, updated September 16, 2013 at 12:00 PM, Source
GRAND RAPIDS, MI — ArtPrize was created in 2009 to “reboot the conversation between artist and audiences.”
Five years later, the conversation begins once again.
ArtPrize 2013 opens on Wednesday, Sept. 18, for 19 days of looking at art and talking about art.
Viewing and voting begins at noon in the contest that ArtPrize founder and social media entrepreneur Rick DeVos called “the world’s largest excuse to get creative.”
Time magazine, earlier this year, named ArtPrize one of its “Five Festival Events You Won’t Want to Miss in 2013.”
It’s safe to say $560,000 in prize money is plenty of incentive for artists. But it’s also time for art lovers and art haters alike to have a look and have their say in the conversation.
In 2009, DeVos remarked to the New York Times, “The first challenge is to get people to show up and get engaged.”
Last year, an estimated 400,000 visits were made to ArtPrize with viewers casting 412,560 votes to award Adonna Khare, of Burbank, California, the $200,000 ArtPrize First Prize for her large-scale drawing “Elephants.”
In fact, since its debut in 2009, more than 1.7 million votes have been cast through four contests to date.
The effects of ArtPrize are not to be underestimated. An economic impact study of ArtPrize 2011 determined it added $15.4 million to the local economy, attracted more than 320,000 visitors that year and created the equivalent of 200 new jobs.
The fifth edition of the urban exhibition once again turns 3-square miles of downtown Grand Rapids into a strolling art gallery, with art just around the corners outdoors in public parks, parking garages and even in the Grand River, as well as in stores, restaurants, offices and, of course, in museums as well.
Artists from 45 U.S. states and 47 countries will show paintings and photography, sculpture and mixed-media installations along with musical and video entries.
“As someone coming into this with new eyes,” said new executive director Christian Gaines, in June, “I am personally thrilled by the response from the artist community and its willingness to take risks.”
Jessica Joy London for the past week worked on her 150-foot installation, “Natural Phenomena/Synthetic Wonder,” in the windows of Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, facing Fulton Street at Division Avenue, the geographical center of downtown.
The native of Guyana in South America, who grew up in the United States, is a first-time participant, but the recent University of Michigan graduate has visited the past three events, and fondly remembers artist Beili Liu’s “Lure/Wave, Grand Rapids,” located in the then-unfinished building. Liu won the $50,000 third prize in ArtPrize 2010.
“It was one of my favorites,” London said. “I’m happy to be showing just next to where she was.”