Each fall for the past six years the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, has undergone a purposeful re-transformation for 2-1/2 weeks remaking its community of urban dwellers into a thought-provoking collection of humorous, wacky, wild, and colorful presentations of art running from good pedestrian street art and entertainment to professionally produced pieces providing commercial or public appeal. Displays can range from the very sad and sobering to those filled with light and laughter. Each wishing to revision the common place worlds we live with the subtler, sobering truths found behind the screens of our daily lives. Many pieces are simply there to heal or make aware of deep injustice. Others think to confront in thoughtful shock or presentation. Still others wish for its viewing public to laugh with the artist in insightful revisioning of life's promises and failures, abuses and all-too-frail realities.
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"ArtPrize® is a radically open, independently organized international art competition and a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
For 19 days, three square miles of downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, become an open playing field where anyone can find a voice in the conversation about what is art and why it matters. Art from around the world pops up in every inch of downtown, and it’s all free and open to the public.
It’s unorthodox, highly disruptive, and undeniably intriguing to the art world and the public alike.
What Makes ArtPrize Unique?
Open Call for Artists and Venues : Anyone over the age of 18 can be an artist and any space within the ArtPrize district can be a venue. Anyone can participate.
Independently Organized : The entire ArtPrize exhibition is independently organized by venues and artists who connect through artprize.org.
Public Vote and Juried Awards: Two grand prizes worth $400,000 and eight category awards worth $160,000. Half decided by public vote, and half decided by a jury of art experts. - The ArtPrize 2014 Committee
ArtPrize Street Venues
Artprize 2013 - All Dressed Up with Somewhere To Go
Artprize 2014 - Imaginations
Artprize 2013 - Woodland Serenity
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Re-Purposing Light
Artprize 2014 - RePurposed
Instead of throwing away hundreds of disused lamps this artist had the vision to split the lamps in half and re-purpose them into a contemporary art setting. Many times in life this is what the Lord does with us as we move through life's many stations of living and working. Taking old collections of memories and talent and making them fresh and new and filled with light-giving vision to an unseeing world. Because the work is 40 feet long one does not readily see the word "shine" spelled out before them. In the fish-eyed photo below the word can plainly be seen reminding one of the verse in Matthew 5:16, "In the same way, so let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." I'm sure there is both a paradox and a truth to the sublimity of "unseeing the light before us" even as we are "light-bearers in our unseeing frames." - R.E. Slater
During the 2008 financial crash, industrial designer and business owner, Mark McKenna, lost his shirt. Six months earlier, Mark had taken out a large business loan to produce his newest product, the Betty Lou lamp. Two weeks after receiving the inventory, the crash occurred. Business dried up across the board, leaving him little choice but to close up shop, still bearing the enormous financial burden. It was a personal catastrophe, bringing Mark to the edge of bankruptcy and challenging his emotional and psychological resolve. Today, In Light of Failure is composed of the remaining unsold inventory. Each lamp -once a symbol of failure- is now a pixel of light and beacon of perseverance. The murals are a demonstration of the beauty that we can glean from our greatest life failures, and a celebration of the strengths that can be earned only through defeat. On the last day of the exhibit, viewers are invited to take a lamp; the artwork will be consumed, the failure figuratively erased.
- Artist's Statement
Artprize 2014 - RePurposed
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Memories of ArtPrize 2014
Below are collections of art we have found in our walking tours.
The names given to the art pieces are of mine own convention and
do not reflect the artist's titles. Which pieces may be found on the
Open Call for Artists and Venues
: Anyone over the age of 18 can be an artist and any space within the ArtPrize district can be a venue. Anyone can participate.
During the 2008 financial crash, industrial designer and business owner, Mark McKenna, lost his shirt. Six months earlier, Mark had taken out a large business loan to produce his newest product, the Betty Lou lamp. Two weeks after receiving the inventory, the crash occurred. Business dried up across the board, leaving him little choice but to close up shop, still bearing the enormous financial burden. It was a personal catastrophe, bringing Mark to the edge of bankruptcy and challenging his emotional and psychological resolve. Today, In Light of Failure is composed of the remaining unsold inventory. Each lamp -once a symbol of failure- is now a pixel of light and beacon of perseverance. The murals are a demonstration of the beauty that we can glean from our greatest life failures, and a celebration of the strengths that can be earned only through defeat. On the last day of the exhibit, viewers are invited to take a lamp; the artwork will be consumed, the failure figuratively erased.
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