ArtPrize Blog
May 27th, 2010
Old Federal Building. Photo courtesy of Rich Evenhouse.
ArtPrize 2010 is just around the corner and we’re five days out from opening up the ability for venues and artists to connect on the website and secure each other. It goes without saying that both venues and artists have been eagerly waiting to officially finalize their plans, and we want to help the process along as much as possible. In that spirit, each day leading up to June 1, we will highlight an ArtPrize neighborhood and the venues that fall within its boundaries. Today we’re showing off the Center City Neighborhood.
As a refresher, we suggest you take a look at how “matching” works here.
Please note, artists, you do not have to wait until June 1 to reach an informal agreement with a venue, but that agreement can only be finalized on artprize.org after June 1.
The Center City neighborhood was the hub for a lot of foot traffic in 2009 and is the most central part of downtown. Four of the Top Ten finalists came from this neighborhood. This year it boasts 64 venues, many of them returning and many new, and promises to be a very busy part of town come September.
Artists, say hello to the Center City Neighborhood.
Download the Center City Venue List
April 19th, 2010
Artist registration began today for ArtPrize 2010. With over 200 venues to choose from, there should be room for a lot this year.
UPDATE: ARTPRIZE EXTENDED ARTIST REGISTRATION, READ HERE
ARTISTS HAVE UNTIL 5:00PM EDT THURSDAY, JUNE 17, TO REGISTER
For those of you who recall 2009, ArtPrize will not publicly display registered artists until they secure a venue. Since the matching period when artists and venues secure each other will not begin until June 1, that means the general public will not see any artists until then. Only venues will be able to see the full list of registered artists. We do this for simplicity, so the public is not confused between artists that will be in the invent, and those that will not. It’s also more discreet for artists that never secure a venue.
Artists, be sure you know…
ArtPrize ends venue registration before artist registration begins, so that artists have a complete picture of where they can work. Feel free to contact venues over the next six weeks–many of you already have–to discuss what the venue is looking for and what you have planned.
Starting June 1st, you can officially secure a venue through artprize.org.
As you may know, there are the Exhibition Centers that will be large spaces curated by regional institutions. You can expect competition for those spaces to be intense. However, do not forget the lessons of Young Kim from 2009: a hidden but well-executed piece can capture public attention and become instantly popular. ArtPrize will be brainstorming ways for some “treasure hunters” that emerged in 2009 to get buzz growing earlier about significant pieces.
For now, get registered and have fun thinking up what you’ll bring.
January 28th, 2010
If you were a part of registering for ArtPrize 2009 and part of the “matching” process between artists and venues (think matchmaker.com, but with artists looking for space to exhibit), you’ll notice a few changes this year. Based on feedback from artists and venues regarding the 2009 event, we’ve changed registration and matching for 2010.
In 2009, artists and venues registered simultaneously. During registration, we even opened up matching. This created some confusion and angst. Many artists wanted to base their work on a specific space, but new venues were signing up all the time. Venues wanted to know all of the artists registered before planning their show, but artists were securing venues as new ones signed up each day. Urgency for artists and venues to rush through planning was part of the first year experiment. However, it doesn’t need to be part of the future.
In 2010, venue registration, artist registration and matching will be broken out into separate time periods.
Venue Registration for 2010
Open: Monday, March 15 (Noon EDT)
Close: Thursday April 15, 2010 (5:00PM EDT)
Artist Registration for 2010
Open: Monday, April 19 (Noon EDT)
Close: Thursday, May 27 (5:00PM EDT)
Artist/Venue Matching Period for 2010
Open: Tuesday, June 1 (Noon EDT)
Close: Thursday, July 1 (5:00PM EDT)
We’ll start with venues. So, when artists register, they can plan their work around a known quantity of spaces available. Then artists will register. Venues can use this time to see who is joining and start planning a show. After artist registration ends, matching begins. Venues and artists will have had time to develop a “game plan” during the registration process, and many will probably have already begun talks informally. So, during the month of June, negotiations over the Hosting Agreement can take place and artists can formally secure venues. By the close of Matching July 1, there’s plenty of time to work on the logistics of staging an exhibition.
ArtPrize 2010, the event, happens September 22 – October 10
Download ArtPrize 2010 Official Rules
August 12th, 2009
The 900th artist to secure a venue is Jean Sanders, a printmaking professor at Pennsylvania State College. You can see Jean’s work during the event at The Riverview Center.
There are less than four days until artist/venue matching ends.
***11:59pm SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, IS THE DEADLINE FOR ARTIST/VENUE MATCHING***
For anyone wondering what happens on Sunday–when the dust settles–to an artist without a venue or a venue that didn’t secure an artist, well… Read More »
August 1st, 2009
There are two weeks left for registered artists to secure a venue. Midnight, August 15 is the deadline.
Now that registration is over, venues can only secure a registered artist. There are two weeks for venues and registered artists to negotiate and sign a Hosting Agreement. However, signing the Hosting Agreement is NOT the final step. ArtPrize still needs to know you reached an agreement.
Know the Final Step!
How ArtPrize knows an artist and venue have completed the Hosting Agreement:
1. Artist/Venue sign the Hosting Agreement
2. Venue clicks “Secure artist” on artprize.org
3. Artist clicks “Secure venue” on artprize.org
FINISHED
July 20th, 2009
Many artists are in The Waiting Game, wondering when and if they’ll hear back from a venue. So, the question on most of their minds is, “What are venues doing right now?”
I’ve been asking the same thing, in more precise questions, to venues over the last week. In short, many of them are inundated with requests. More than a few report they spend 10-20 hours a week working on ArtPrize. A good portion are just getting ramped up and feel overwhelmed by the amount of artist requests, much less the prospect of diving into over 1,600 artists available on the website. We have volunteers waiting in the wings to help them if they need it. Read More »
June 3rd, 2009
We’ve just released a round of bug fixes for artprize.org.
“I paid the $50 fee but still can’t see the ‘Connect with venue’ button”
This has been a common issue for artists. Check both your profile and work details to make sure all required fields are complete.
A few of you may find that you filled out your profile, but the information is not there. The system did not delete your information. While you filled out your profile page something triggered an error–like if you typed more than 1,000 characters into your bio –and you may have gotten an error message, but it appeared you were able to save the information anyway.
Unfortunately, that information was never saved because of the error. We fixed that page so that, when an error occurs, it’s clear and there is no way to mistake that the information is saved.
“I see myself in a list of artists that secured a venue, but I didn’t secure a venue”
Should be fixed.
Broken Record Reminder
Venues put your dimensions and images into your profile, artists fill out your profile and submit work if you haven’t.
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
May 15th, 2009
Here’s an update of what’s going on behind the scenes at the ArtPrize World HQ this week:
Matching
“Matching” is the capability–currently under construction–for venues to browse the entire list of artists who have registered and paid the $50 fee. There is quite a variety of artists to choose from who have registered from all over. (Artists can currently browse venues, but since there’s no way for venues to tell the website they’ve accepted an artist’s proposal–or even seen the proposal–we’ve been asking artists to hold off on contacting venues.) With Matching, the website will begin to change.
Once a venue works out an agreement with an artist and accepts their proposal, they will be “matched” and the artist’s profile/proposal goes public for the world to see on artprize.org.
If you take an example like the Telluride Film Festival where the program is announced the day everyone arrives in town, you’ll basically see the opposite happen on our website. It will begin like a program with nothing printed on the pages. Starting in June, different artists and their work will trickle out and start filling those pages. As the deadline for matching approaches, August 15, those pages will become filled and we’ll watch the program for the event build before our eyes.
Venues
We’ve been speaking with many different venues. It turns out a lot of them want to loan their space to ArtPrize, but want somebody else to host it. Some arts organizations in town are planning to host these venues and have already begun contacting artists they’d like to see come here, some who have heard of ArtPrize and some who haven’t. This means that a couple venues will have a few artists with an agreement already worked out by the time matching begins on the website. If you’re an artist worried about not getting space, don’t worry because there is plenty of space to be filled, even in the Old Federal Building (which, judging from the emails and phone calls, tends to be the artist favorite).
In the next couple weeks before matching begins, you can expect to see several more significant venues signing up. If you’re interested in hosting/curating one of these spaces, contact Dave Deboer, dave@artprize.org. For all of the out-of-town artists who want to know more about these venues, we’ll be putting together videos for some of the bigger spaces to help you out.
Artists
It’s been exciting to hear from a lot of artists who are thinking of doing something specific for ArtPrize. It’s confirmation that we created a context that gets the wheels spinning in new directions. The IP addresses of people hitting the website are coming from as far away as Albania, South Africa, Ukraine and Iran to name a few.
As the matching capability has been looming, we’ve been telling artists to spruce up their profiles, and upload images. Descriptions and images do not have to be the completed work. They can be sketches of proposed work or images of similar past work.
That’s the down low. Sign up for email announcements about Matching in the upper right corner of this page.
