ArtPrize Blog
March 14th, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ARTPRIZE MAKES COMMITMENT
FOR MORE MUSIC AND PERFORMANCE
Grand Rapids, Mich. – March 14, 2011 – Today, venue registration for ArtPrize 2011 opened. ArtPrize officials announced a dedicated Exhibition Center for music and performance. Music and performance have played a small role in the competition, which gives away the world’s largest art prize and had over 250,000 visitors last year, but organizers dedicated St. Cecilia’s Music Center–boasting a 650 seat auditorium–as a focal point for the 2011 event.
“I often say ArtPrize is the world’s largest excuse to get creative, and it’s been explosive its first two years,” says Rick DeVos, ArtPrize founder. “Going into year three, we continue to be intentional about making it open to a broad spectrum of creativity. We invite other performance venues to be ArtPrize venues and really experiment with how music and live shows can play a bigger role.”
General rules stay the same. Any space within the three-mile ArtPrize district can register on the website to become a venue. Artists and venues “connect” through the website to organize their exhibitions (ArtPrize organizers do not select any artists for the event). Exhibition Centers, which serve as large venues and launchpads into each neighborhood, are not-for-profit institutions and include the Grand Rapids Art Museum, the Diocese of Grand Rapids’ Cathedral Square, the Women’s City Club, the Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts, the Grand Rapids Public Museum, Grand Valley State University, St. Cecilia’s Music Center, as well as Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park.
Also, a twist on how visitors track the competition, ArtPrize organizers announced that no longer will the website display the top 25 vote getters during the first week of the competition. Instead, the top 25 artists in each of the five neighborhoods will be on display. Read More »
October 7th, 2010
This is it, with nearly 450,000 votes cast over a two week period, the ArtPrize Winners Announcement is here. The announcement will take place at the Steelcase Ballroom at DeVos Place, 303 Monroe Ave. NW. It is free and open to everyone.
The ceremony starts at 7:00 PM, doors open at 6:30 PM . However, seating is limited. So, show up early if you want to guarantee a spot.
UPDATE:
ArtPrize juried awards will be announced tonight at the Winners Announcement.
Will there be food?
Concessions will be available at 6:30.
Where do I park?
Parking is available at the DeVos Place Convention Center. Additionally, here’s a list of downtown parking ramps/garages.
I can’t make it downtown, how can I follow the event?
If you can’t make it downtown tonight for the announcement, we’ll be livestreaming the event starting at 7:00PM. Additionally, you can follow the ArtPrize social media feeds on Twitter and Facebook for live updates.
July 30th, 2009
Tomorrow, July 31 at midnight is the deadline for Artists and Venues to complete registration, including payment.
After tomorrow there are two weeks for venues to secure registered artists. Deadline: August 15. (What happens to artists that don’t finish registration? See the bottom of this post.)
ARTISTS
Complete registration by paying your registration fee and uploading a proposed work on the website. (The work itself does not need to be complete until the event starts.) Finish registration here.
VENUES
Keep in mind, that after the registration fee is paid, a venue still has to be physically inspected and approved. Any venue that registers in the next 24 hours should plan on securing a very manageable number of artists. The time to send and receive Hosting Agreements after being approved will be very short. Be sure you know the Final Step (see below). Register here.
Know the Final Step!
You have two weeks (until August 15) to complete Hosting Agreements. Having a Hosting Agreement signed by both artist and venue is NOT the final step. ArtPrize still needs to know you reached an agreement. How you let us know is:
1. Artist/Venue sign the Hosting Agreement
2. Venue clicks “Secure artist” on artprize.org
3. Artist clicks “Secure venue” on artprize.org
FINISHED
What happens to all artists that have not finished registration?
Artists who began the registration process, but did not pay the fee by July 31, will still keep their online account. However, they will not be able to edit that account, nor secure a venue. Artists that have completed their profile and paid by July 31 can still edit their profile while they search for a venue. Artists that secure a venue by August 15 can continue to tweak their profile, while those that do not have a venue cannot.
When registration opens for ArtPrize 2010, those artist accounts that have been on “lockdown” because they either never finished 2009 registration, or never secured a venue, will be open to edit again.
June 24th, 2009
This decision was made a while ago that voters at ArtPrize will not pay a registration fee. Since we’re still sorting through a lot of other details about voting (like, “What’s the best way to prevent fraud that doesn’t make registration wait times ridiculous?) we were going to just announce all of the voting information at once.
However, in the last week we’ve received emails and tweets and everything else asking specifically if we’ll charge a fee for people to register as voters for ArtPrize. The answer: No. (But we will charge you for the T-shirt, which looks pretty sick.)
If you know why this topic is hot this week, let me know. If, for some reason, you don’t know what we’ll be voting on, read this.
UPDATE: If you’re wondering whether or not ArtPrize will somehow charge you per individual vote, the answer is no. We will not charge anyone to register to vote or for casting individual votes. You can vote via text message or on artprize.org. If you choose to vote via text message, you can check with your mobile phone provider to find out how many text messages are included each month under your plan.
June 10th, 2009
Since matching began twelve days ago:
- The number of venues has doubled
- Artists with completed work proposals tripled
- Search has been drastically improved
- A lot of bugs on the site have been squashed
- 8 artists have secured venues
If you are a venue or artist waiting to start connecting, we recommend you start now. If you have questions about Matching, read this. Questions about the Hosting Agreement, read this. Questions about insurance, read this.
Broken Record Reminder
Venues put your dimensions and images into your profile, artists fill out your profile and submit work if you haven’t.
Other site fixes, for the curious:
- Collaborators appear on artist profile
- Avatars appear on the “Manage Connections” page
- Non-numeric zip codes are accepted
- A warning added for sessions about to time out
- Other things you shouldn’t notice, which is how we know they’re fixed
June 4th, 2009
One of the ArtPrize venues, UICA, secured two artists this afternoon and their selection committee secured one for The Old Federal Building (the UICA selection committee is handling both venues). These are the first three artists secured for ArtPrize, happening September 23 – October 10, and it’s kind of exciting for us.
Pascal Haudressy was born in Paris and exhibits at Louise Alexander Gallery with locations in both Italy and France (view his work on their website).
Last year he exhibited at the Scope Art Fair Miami, USA; the Louise Alexander Gallery, Porto Cervo, Italy; the Hôtel Royal Monceau, Paris, France; the Heritage Gallery, Moscow, Russia; the Shanghai Art Fair, Shanghai, China and at the Mercedes Center of Contemporary Art, Paris, France; ArtParis, France Read More »
May 29th, 2009
UPDATE 6/01/09: Only artists who paid the $50 registration fee can see the “Connect with venue” button. Sorry for the confusion.
Matching begins!
Ok, so there’s a lot of bustling at the office over a pretty “simple” feature we call “connections,” but it is the foundation of ArtPrize’s ability to actually track artists and venues participating in the event. It’s a new feature and may be buggy, contact support@artprize.org if something seems broken or not working right.
Want to know the bigger picture about this “matching” business? Read this.
HOW IT WORKS
- Venues can browse the list of registered artists
- Artists can browse venues that are currently available
- The general public will only see artists on the website after they secure a venue
If you are an artist or venue, KEEP READING… Read More »
May 29th, 2009
Here at ArtPrize Global HQ, it’s a big day. What we’ve been calling “matching” between artists and venues is about to go live. Phase 1 was launching the website and making the announcement. Phase 2 is the ability for artists and venues to officially connect to each other. Phase 3 will be the ability to vote and the final phase is the event itself. We’re still working on Matching as I write this post, and frankly we could use your help. If it is buggy or confusing, please tell us! Contact support@artprize.org if something seems broken or not working right. (You can also give me an earful at paul@artprize.org.)
When this change goes live, it may not look like much of anything happened. But keep in mind, this “matching” process is the central hub of how ArtPrize will track all venues and artists for the event and without it, there is no ArtPrize. As a venue, you will be able to browse the list of artists and each click “Connect with artist.” Artists will see a button on each venue page that says, “Connect with venue.” Everyone else will start to see artists trickle on to the website as they secure a venue to show their work.
As artists and venues come to an agreement (we’ve provided the Hosting Agreement as a standard template for them to use, learn more about it), venues will accept the artists’ request to connect and vice versa. As artists “connect” and secure venues, they’ll appear on artprize.org. As August approaches the trickle of artists appearing on the site will become a stream and we may see a flood just before the matching deadline on August 15.
I’ll publish another announcement when Matching goes live. Let me know if you have questions. If you’re a venue or artist and haven’t looked at our Hosting Agreement template yet, please download one and take a look.
-Paul
April 23rd, 2009
ArtPrize goes public today announcing the world’s largest art prize will be awarded by a public vote. The event will happen in Grand Rapids, MI September 23 – October 10. The top prize is $250,000, 2nd place receives $100,000, 3rd receives $50,000 and $7,000 goes to 4th-10th place. The top ten finalists will be decided solely by number of votes.
The mission of ArtPrize is to “reboot a conversation between artists and the public on a grand scale.”
“I’ve been to events all over the world celebrating creativity and ideas.” says Rick DeVos, creator of ArtPrize, “I’ve also been an entrepreneur using technology to bring people together. I think the two can be combined. I see this is where culture is going.”
People attending ArtPrize can register to vote, then either go to artprize.org and vote online or vote using text message at the event. Artists are invited to register on artprize.org before July 31 and submit their work (one entry per artist).
How ArtPrize selects artists to compete is unusually open, it does not involve an official curator or committee. Different venues across the city will have different “hosts” with varying degrees of curatorial experience. Anyone who wants to host a venue and agrees to the minimum requirements can open a new venue. There is no limit to the amount of venues that can be opened. So, the number of artists who can participate is only limited by the amount of space that becomes available. These hosts select which artists will show in their venue. Artists are expected to connect directly with venue hosts on artprize.org to come to an agreement over showing their work.
According to Rick DeVos, “By decentralizing the selection of artists, I think it really boosts the chances for completely unknown artists to compete and amazing new voices to be discovered. ”
ArtPrize.org is the central hub for artists to find venues for their work (and vice versa) and to track votes live during the event. The website is up but still under construction. The ability on the website for artists and venues to match with each other is coming soon.
Registration for artists and venues begins today and runs through July 31, 2009. The ArtPrize event kicks off September 23. Winners are announced October 8. Closing day is October 10, 2009.
