At approximately 8:30AM EDT, ArtPrize.org, the website for the ArtPrize organization began experiencing higher-than-expected hits to its website.
The website traffic reached a critical moment at 8:37AM, which resulted in a crash of the artprize.org online database.
The ArtPrize staff has been working diligently throughout the day to bring the website back online and add capacity, but traffic continued and our servers have been unable to keep pace.
This has resulted in closure of basic functions such as artist and venue search, as well as essential functions including voting, registration and activation.
Essentially, ArtPrize 2011 is more popular than we ever expected.
We will reopen the website with full functionality at 8:00 p.m. eastern daylight time to ensure that our database is online and healthy.
Until then, registration and activation can be completed at the HUB or one of our eight Exhibition Centers.
With regards to voting, we have heard your requests, and we will keep voting for all artists open until 4:00PM on Thursday, Sept. 29.
This will not change the timeline for the Top 10 Announcement or the start of Round 2 voting.
The Top 10 Announcement will take place at 6:00PM on Thursday, Sept. 29, Round 2 voting will take place immediately after.
We had a town hall last night at the UICA, which can be viewed above. Afterward the ArtPrize team took questions one-on-one out in the gallery, which is not in the video. Our main goal was to get through as many questions as possible, so we divided and conquered by having nine of us in the gallery talking to people, rather than taking questions one at a time in theater. For those watching the live stream and didn’t get the chance to see that part, please feel free to ask questions here.
If anybody was unable to come and would like us to have another town hall, mention that in the comments.
Questions that came up frequently afterward:
Q: How EXACTLY will I be able to find a venue?
A: Artprize.org is still under construction. By end of May, an artist will be able to search for a venue, click a link to contact that venue and begin discussing whether his/her work will be a good fit. If it is a good fit, artist and venue complete a Hosting Agreement.
Sign up now and we’ll send you an email when artist/venue matching begins.
Q: Can you vote more than once on a work of art?
A: No. You can vote on more than one work, but not more than once on the same piece.
Q: Do I need to have an image of the completed work?
A: First, think of your artist profile as an exhibition proposal. If you don’t have an image of the work you are proposing, you should upload a sketch or similar past work and indicate how the proposed work will be different. You can change the image when the work is complete.
Q: Can I contact a venue that’s not on artprize.org to see if they will participate?
A: Yes, by all means.
Q: How does a venue outside the boundary get involved?
A: We’re a little flexible on the boundary. Contact dave@artprize.org
If you sent an email to an address that ended with @artprize.org yesterday (4/23), it may not have reached us. (Did I mention artprize.org is a work in progress?)
The email bug has been squashed and you can reach us now. Please, resend your email if you suspect we didn’t receive it.
If you sent an email to an address that ended with @artprize.org yesterday (4/23), it may not have reached us. (Did I mention artprize.org is a work in progress?)