ArtPrize today announced its registration timeline for our 2012 event, which will run from Sept. 19 through Oct. 7.
The ArtPrize platform creates a system that values creativity, experimentation and above all, collaboration. Artists are encouraged to build a relationship and partner with a venue as early as possible to create a memorable and successful installation. Registration dates include:
Venue Registration
Open: Monday, March 12 (Noon EDT)
Close: Thursday April 12 (5:00 p.m. EDT)
Artist Registration/Connections Open
Monday, April 23 (Noon EDT)
Artist Registration Close
Thursday, May 24 (5:00 p.m. EDT)
Connections Period Close
Thursday, June 14 (5:00 p.m. EDT)
There are few differences between the 2011 and 2012 registration process, key changes include simultaneous Artist Registration and Connections Period, allowing artists to immediately coordinate with a venue upon registration. Connections will remain open beyond Artist Registration until June 14.
Any art proposed for installation in the Grand River, which runs through the center of the ArtPrize district, must be submitted to the city of Grand Rapids and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) according to the following schedule:
Pre-application filed with the City of Grand Rapids
Monday, March 5
Application filed with the DEQ
Friday, March 16
The DNRE will process the application using the following steps:
Public notice period begins: Friday, March 30
Public notice period ends: Friday, April 20
Public hearing, if requested: Friday, May 18
Required time for comments: Tuesday, May 29
Permit Decision
Thursday, June 7
This process allows the State of Michigan and City of Grand Rapids to review proposed work and ensure that the installation meets specific criteria relevant to the environmental, structural and navigability impact on the river.
In ArtPrize 2011, Mia Tavonatti, of Orange Co. Calif., captured the top prize of $250,000 for her work, Crucifixion. Chris LaPorte of Grand Rapids, Mich. won the top prize in 2010 with Cavalry, American Officers, 1921, and Ran Ortner of Brooklyn, N.Y. won in 2009 for his work Open Water No. 24.
ArtPrize, the radically open international art competition and social experiment in Grand Rapids, Mich., is pleased to announce a new award: the ArtPrize Juried Grand Prize.
The $100,000 award will be added to a revised list of public and juried prizes that will be distributed at the end of the 19-day event.
ArtPrize 2012 will take place Sept. 19 – Oct. 7, 2012.
With its public vote and juried awards, ArtPrize explores the tension between professional and populist in an epic conversation. In 2011, nearly 400,000 people visited Grand Rapids to engage with the work and ideas of nearly 1,600 artists. The new award changes the dynamic of the competition, and increases the total awards the event distributes to $550,000, making it the largest total prize purse for art in the world.
In addition to the Juried Grand Prize, ArtPrize will also increase its other juried awards to $20,000 each. The organization selected five categories to recognize:
Two-Dimensional
Three-Dimensional
Time and Performance
Urban Space
Venue
The increased commitment to juried awards will change the dynamic of the event and sets up a purposeful dialog between the opinions of arts professionals and the public, focusing on the artists’ work. Jurors for all of the professional awards will be announced in the spring, prior to artist registration.
“For the past three years, ArtPrize has set itself apart by empowering the public and giving them a critical voice, but the success of the event is based on the exchange of artists’ ideas,” said DeVos. “We want ArtPrize to be accessible for everyone, so we hope the new awards will help artists understand our goals and encourage them bring new ideas to the event.”
The changes in Juried Prizes will result in a revision of the ArtPrize Public Vote Awards:
Public Vote Award Revisions
Top Prize 2011: $250,000 2012: $200,000
2nd 2011: $100,000 2012: $75,000
3rd 2011: $50,000 2012: $50,000
4th-10th 2011: $7,000 2012: $5,000
The prize total for the public awards in 2012 will be $350,000, vastly outweighing the juried awards at $200,000, and keeping the organization’s focus on the community.
“The engagement of the community continues to be at the forefront of ArtPrize’s success,” added Catherine Creamer, executive director of ArtPrize. “Nearly 400,000 people participated in ArtPrize in 2011, not because we told them art mattered, but because we create a system where THEY matter to art.”
ArtPrize 2011 had more than 38,000 registered voters who submitted 383,000 total votes. With the increase of smartphones, mobile voting via the ArtPrize iPhone and new Android apps increased 62 percent.
ArtPrize 2011 began Sept. 21 with 1,582 artists from 39 countries and 43 U.S. states installing their work at 164 venues in a three-square-mile district in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Artist and venue registration for ArtPrize 2012 will be announced after the beginning of the year. For more information, visit www.artprize.org.
It’s getting to be that time of the year. A season of giving that everyone loves.
People in West Michigan love to shop local. ArtPrize has listened to the requests from our friends, and so for the first time ever, we will re-open The HUB Store at 41 Sheldon Blvd. for holiday shopping starting at Noon on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011.
And to make things even more magical, most of the store’s iconic ArtPrize merchandise has been marked down 40 percent.
According to the 3/50 Project, a small-business advocacy group, for every $100 spent in locally owned, independent stores, $68 returns to the community. Imagine the potential impact, since every purchase in the ArtPrize store will help support art in our community and help keep the ArtPrize event free for everyone.
The ArtPrize Store will open Tuesday, Nov. 15 through Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011. The store will be generously staffed by volunteers and therefore closed Thanksgiving Day and Friday, Nov. 25.
ArtPrize celebrates the diversity of ideas, voices and the work of hundreds of artists. Now, as we conclude our third year, few things have changed toward that mission. During the past 19 days, an estimated 500,000 people came to Grand Rapids, Mich., not entirely known as an ‘art mecca’ (we’re working on it) and participated in an epic dialog about contemporary art.
The level of engagement was record-setting. At a time when many are drawn to professional or college sports, or other events, hundreds of thousands of people of all ages and from all backgrounds sought out their favorite works and voted. Jurors, experts in their field, came from across the country, to select the works they felt best represented a particular category. Together we explored the tension between public and professional in an open dialog.
In all, 18 winners were awarded nearly $500,000, with the top prize of $250,000 going to Mia Tavonatti of Santa Ana, Calif., for her mosaic, Crucifixion.
The conversation was epically epic. Made possible by the voters, our partners, the artists and the venues. Thank you for your commitment. Together we are creating a place where engaging with art and engaging with each other is valued. Because of you, no other event is like this in the world.
Together, let’s congratulate all of our 1,582 artist participants, including our winners:
Popular Vote
Mia Tavonatti, Santa Ana, Calif. Crucifixion
Tracy Van Duinen, Chicago, Ill., Metaphorest
Lynda Cole, Ann Arbor, Mich. Rain
Laura Alexander, Columbus, Ohio, The Tempest II
Paul Baliker, Palm Coast, Fla., Ocean Exodus
Ritch Branstrom, Rapid River, Mich., “Rusty” A sense of direction/self portrait
Sunti Pichetchaiyakul, Big Fork, Mont., President Gerald Ford Visits ArtPrize
Robert Shangle, Sparta, Mich., Under Construction
Bill Secunda, Butler, Pa., Mantis Dreaming
Llew (Doc) Tilma, Wayland, Mich., Grizzlies on the Ford
Juried Awards
Two-Dimensional — Mimi Kato, St. Louis, Mo., One Ordinary Day of an Ordinary Town
Three-Dimensional — Michelle Brody, New York, N.Y., Nature Preserve
International — Shinji Turner-Yamamoto, Cincinnati, Ohio, DISAPPEARANCES – an eternal journey
Presented by Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University
The ArtPrize Speaker Series returns in 2011 with seven days of distinguished art experts, artists, designers, urban planners and more. The Speaker Series will be held at The HUB at 41 Sheldon Blvd.
ArtPrize Speaker Series
September 26, 2011
Cocktails: 6:00 p.m.
Presentation: 7:00 p.m.
The event kicks off Monday, Sept. 26 with Reed Kroloff, the Director of the Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum, a principal at jones|kroloff, an international architecture firm, and a nationally known commentator in the world of architecture and urban design.
Kroloff is known for his outspoken approach to the problems of rebuilding cites and a fearless eye for design. Just like ArtPrize is transforming how Grand Rapids is transforming the urban experience, Kroloff is helping to change the urban landscape of cities from New York to New Orleans.
Voting is among the most essential parts of the ArtPrize process. It is the building block of our epic, community-wide conversation about public art. This event is a result of whatever people put into it, by voting, everyone has a chance to add their unique opinion into the equation.
This year we are encouraging everyone to set aside indifference and actively participate in the public vote, which begins by registering for a voting account at artprize.org.
Registration can be done in the comfort of your own home (in your pajamas, if you prefer) and requires only a unique e-mail address to begin the process at artprize.org. If you voted in 2010 or 2009, your email will still be on file. Just log back in to re-register.
Once registered, accounts must be activated in-person. This is step two of the voting process.
We require participants to present a valid government-issued identification in order to ensure the validity of the vote, and so outsiders can’t “game” the system. Your valid ID MUST be presented at any ArtPrize registration centers (probably shouldn’t wear your pajamas for this part) and be in the form of a driver’s license, state ID or passport. Anyone ages 16 and up can register to vote.
Beginning Sept. 17 at The Hub at 41 Sheldon, or at any of the eight ArtPrize Exhibition Centers starting Sept. 21 and through the duration of the event, including Diocese of Grand Rapids’ Cathedral Square, Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids Public Museum, Grand Valley State University Pew Campus, Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts and the Women’s City Club.
Voting during week one of ArtPrize 2011 begins Sept. 21 at 6:00 p.m. and runs through 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 28. Voters can vote up or down for any of the 1,582 artists. One vote per person is allowed for each work of art. Voting results will continually be posted online at artprize.org. The Top 10 finalists will be announced Sept. 29; 6:00 p.m. at Rosa Parks Circle, in downtown Grand Rapids.
Voting during week two begins after the Top 10 announcement. Voters can cast only one vote for one of the 10 finalists. Votes can be changed until the close of voting on October 5 at 11:59 p.m. In week two, voting results will not be posted online. The winners will be announced on October 6.
During ArtPrize 2010 more than 400,000 people visited ArtPrize and more than 46,000 people registered to vote, casting 465,538 votes during the 15 days.
ArtPrize 2011 begins Sept. 21 and runs through Oct. 9. Information about ArtPrize and scheduled events can be found at artprize.org.
When you look around ArtPrize 2011, chances are you’ll notice that all of the signs and other ArtPrize items look very similar. That’s intentional. Tonight the ArtPrize organization, with Square One Design, unveiled the poster for the 2011 competition at the new headquarters of Rapid Growth Media.
The poster sets the tone for the rest of the ArtPrize design elements–exhibition center monoliths, way-finding signs, the ArtPrize-specific metro card which will be offered by The Rapid, guidebooks, venue markers and more.
Created by Square One Design, the poster image was selected for its contemporary elegance and museum quality. From its metallic silver background to the colorful conversation bubbles that fill the sideways form of the abstracted ArtPrize logo “squiggle” shape, it is a design that is easily accessible and timeless.
The poster will be available at ArtPrize retail partners starting Friday, August 5, and will sell for $12.
1,582 artists from 36 countries and 43 states will show their work in 164 venues within three-square miles of downtown Grand Rapids, Mich. Each artist will compete for the world’s largest prize for art, which will take place Sept. 21-Oct. 9, 2011. Participating artists and venues can all be viewed on the Artist List.
Event organizers today closed Connections—the period when artists can officially secure a venue and participate in ArtPrize 2011. Applications for entries were open to any artist who could secure a location to display their art.
“ArtPrize facilitates relationships between artists of the world, venues in Grand Rapids and people from all over,” said Catherine Creamer, executive director of ArtPrize. “We broaden the conversation about art by making it accessible to everyone who comes to the event, inviting each person to create and discuss their own story.”
While Michigan is home to a large number of participating artists, as an international competition, artists from as far as Singapore and South Africa will descend on Grand Rapids. Canada, with 23 artists, has the greatest number of artists participating in ArtPrize 2011 who are coming from outside of the United States.
The number of national artists has also increased in 2011. Illinois alone has more than 96 artists traveling to Grand Rapids. New York artists total 29 participating artists, while California and Ohio will send 30 artists each to ArtPrize 2011. Hundreds more are coming from Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin.
Inspired by such competitions as the X-Prize and large-scale events like the Sundance Film Festival, ArtPrize is among the most unique competitions in the art world. It has no formal jury, curator or judge, asking the public to vote and decide winners using mobile devices and the web.
During its 2009 inaugural season, more than 200,000 people attended ArtPrize and more than 334,000 votes were cast. Numbers swelled in 2010 to more than 400,000 people and 465,000 votes cast. ArtPrize organizers expect more than 500,000 people to attend the 19-day event.
Evaporative Buildings, 2010. Alex Schweder La. Winner of the 2010 International Award.
We’re pleased to announce the judges for our five professional Juried Awards, who will distribute more than $35,000 in prizes to the artists of their choosing. We’ve also established a category of Special Recognition Awards, which in 2011 will recognize work that excels in sustainability as well as an outstanding artist with the gift of an artist residency.
Launched in 2010, the ArtPrize Juried Awards program features an annual selection of judges, experts in their respective fields, to distribute $7,000 in each category to the artist whose work best reflects the category. The five ArtPrize Juried Awards and their respective judges include:
Award
Juror
Title
Two-Dimensional Work
Anne Ellegood
Senior Curator, Hammer Museum in Los Angeles Calif.
Three-Dimensional Work
Glenn Harper
Editor-in-Chief, Sculpture Magazine
Time-Based Work
Kathleen Forde
Curator of Time-Based Arts at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) in Troy, N.Y.
Use of Urban Space
Reed Kroloff
Director of the Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum
International Award
Nuit Banai
Art historian and critic, Tufts University
The five ArtPrize Juried Awards come in addition to the $449,000 awarded to the top 10 artists based on a public vote, firmly establishing the competition as the world’s largest art prize based on total monetary prizes distributed. Keeping with the mission of openness and providing the potential for surprise, each juror is given the privilege of setting their own judging criteria for the prize.
“ArtPrize is a one-of-a-kind, open platform with no formal invitation or jury process and no censorship of artists’ entries, but we’ve developed these five Juried Awards to add a layer of professional evaluation to the overall conversation,” said Catherine Creamer, executive director of ArtPrize. “In addition to the public vote, artists are given an open opportunity to have their work to be showcased before some of the leading professionals in their respective specialties.”
In addition to the five Juried Awards, ArtPrize is developing two Special Recognition Awards. The first, which is returning for its third year, the Sustainability Award, rewards a single artist whose work best reflects the importance of sustainable practices and the triple-bottom line.
For the first time, Ox-Bow School of Art, an affiliated program of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, will award one artist with a five-week residency at its location in Saugatuck, Mich. The selected artist will have their residency fees waived and will be provided room, full board and studio space.
“We hope to identify an artist who would benefit from the focused environment that Ox-Bow delivers, and support the vibrancy of our close community,” added Jason Kalajainen, executive director of Ox-Bow.
This year, a minimum cash prize of $7,000 will go to the artist for each Juried Award and the Special Recognition Awards will each hold a value of $5,000. Sponsors, who will be announced at a later date, may choose to increase the cash prize solely at their discretion. To learn more about ArtPrize Juried Awards, go to artprize.org/about/awards
About Anne Ellegood (2D Award)
Anne Ellegood is the Senior Curator at the Hammer Museum. Prior to joining the Hammer, Ellegood was Curator of Contemporary Art at the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden in Washington DC, since 2005. Previously, she was the New York-based Curator for Peter Norton’s collection of over 2400 works of international contemporary art. From 1998-2003, she was the Associate Curator at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York.
About Glenn Harper (3D Award)
Glenn Harper is the editor of Sculpture magazine, and formerly the editor of Art Papers. He has written for Aperture, Artforum, Public Art Review, Afterimage, Exit Express, and for books on the works of artists John Van Alstine, Athena Tacha, and others. He is the editor of Interventions and Provocations: Conversations on Art, Culture, and Resistance and co-editor of A Sculpture Reader: Contemporary Sculpture Since 1980, Conversations on Sculpture, and Landscapes for Art: Contemporary Sculpture Parks.
About Kathleen Forde(Time-Based Award)
Kathleen Forde is the Curator of Time-Based Arts at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) in Troy, N.Y. Prior to her current position, she was the Curatorial Director for Live Arts and New Media at the Goethe Institut Internaciones in Berlin and Munich. She has concurrently written and curated on a freelance basis for various organizations that have included the Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology, Independent Curators International; ATA Cultural, Peru; Kunstverein Dusseldorf and Cologne; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
About Reed Kroloff (Urban Space Award)
Reed Kroloff is the Director of the Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum, a principal at jones|kroloff, an international architecture firm, and a nationally known commentator in the world of architecture and urban design. Prior to joining Cranbrook and establishing jones|kroloff, Kroloff served as Editor-in-Chief of Architecture magazine. Under his direction, the magazine received more awards for editorial and design excellence than any publication of its kind, and quickly became the country’s leading design publication.
About Nuit Banai (International Award)
Nuit Banai is an art historian and critic who received her Ph.D. from Columbia University before joining the Department of Visual and Critical Studies at Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She has been an invited critic at MIT, Massachusetts College of Art + Design, Rhode Island School of Design, Art Institute of Boston, Yale University, and Haifa University in Israel and has lectured at New York University, The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts and David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University, The Digital Art Lab for Israeli Art in Holon, l’Institut Nationale d’Histoire de l’Art in Paris, and The Alvar Aalto Academy in Jyväskylä, Finland.
ARTPRIZE OPENS ARTIST REGISTRATION FOR THIRD ANNUAL PUBLIC ART COMPETITION
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – April 18, 2011 – ArtPrize, the radically open public art experiment, today announced artist registration for the third annual competition. Open to any artist from around the world, organizers encourage participants to register any type of artwork at artprize.org. More than 300,000 spectators are projected to attend the 2011 event, which will distribute nearly $500,000 in prize money.
Unlike other competitions, ArtPrize has no formal jury, curator or judge, and asks the public to vote and decide the winners using mobile devices and the Internet. To exhibit, artists must secure space with one of more than 195 ArtPrize venues found within a three-square mile district of downtown Grand Rapids. Venues range from city parks to rooftops to museums to restaurants to the Grand River, which runs through downtown.
Artists are encouraged to register as early as possible to ensure a venue for their work, as these connections are already being made between artists and venues. Each artist may only submit one entry. Artists do not need to be present during the ArtPrize competition.
“ArtPrize has become world-renowned in its ability to challenge conventional thinking toward public art in surprising, poetic ways,” said Catherine Creamer, executive director of ArtPrize. “We hope to see an influx of new, national and international artists who will use Grand Rapids as their platform on which to create a conversation.”
To keep within the spirit of the event and help foster support of ambitious, out-of-state projects, ArtPrize 2011 has created a special home on Kickstarter, the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects. ArtPrize’s page on Kickstarter (part of the Curated Page program) will highlight and incentivize entries from out-of-state artists, providing them the opportunity to seek funding from their communities in exchange for products and experiences unique to their project. Details and criteria for artists are located at artprize.org.
“ArtPrize broadens the discussion about public art and quite unexpectedly, in its first two years, ArtPrize drew a huge—and highly diverse—audience around art in mostly non-traditional spaces,” said Rick DeVos, chairman and creator of ArtPrize. “By inviting and encouraging artists from all over the world to showcase their work in a community with a deep history and appreciation for design and public art.”
In 2010, ArtPrize saw 1,713 artists from 44 states and 21 countries. 465,538 votes were cast by more than 250,000 visitors to Grand Rapids. The ArtPrize process consists of one week of public voting, which results in an official list of the top 10 artists. Then, the public votes for their top single-artist choice. All votes were cast using a mobile device or the web.
On March 14, ArtPrize officials announced a dedicated Exhibition Center for music and performance art at St. Cecilia Music Center in downtown Grand Rapids. The venue boasts a 650-seat auditorium and will become a focal point for the 2011 event.
Michigan artist Chris Laporte won the 2010 top prize with his large-scale pencil and paper portrait, “Cavalry, American Officers, 1921.” New York artist Ran Ortner captured the top prize in 2009 with his large-scale painting, “Open Water, no.24.” Both artists earned the top prize of $250,000.
To find out more about ArtPrize or how to register for the ArtPrize 2011 competition, visit artprize.org.
About ArtPrize
ArtPrize is a radically open public art competition which has no formal jury, curator or judge, and asks the public to vote and decide the winners using mobile devices and the internet. In ArtPrize 2010, more than 1,713 artists from 44 states and 21 countries participated in the unprecedented competition that awarded nearly $500,000 to the prize winners. More than 460,000 votes were cast during the 19-day event. For more information about ArtPrize visit artprize.org.
ArtPrize today announced its registration timeline for our 2012 event, which will run from Sept. 19 through Oct. 7.
Presented by Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University 
