ArtPrize, a contest for visual artists with a $250,000 first prize, came in for some criticism when it was announced last spring. Not from me — I wrote here saying it was a worthy experiment, partly because it seemed destined to create a lot excitement about art. The public, not critics or curators, would vote to determine the winners. More important, to compete for the ArtPrize — created by Rick DeVos, a scion of the family that founded Amway — artists had to display their entry somewhere in downtown Grand Rapids.
There were a few drawbacks, I said — only people who visited the Grand Rapids displays and registered could vote, and artists had to get themselves and their art to the city.
Others felt strongly the $500 $50 entry fee was too steep and, much worse, they didn’t like that ArtPrize wanted to the right to broadcast, publish, use, etc. the entries without compensation.
So much for those hurdles. By the end of last week, more than 1,000 1,261 artists from 24 countries and 44 states had met the deadline for registering to compete. Assuming they all wrapped up venue agreements by Saturday — and 900 had done so by last Wednesday — they’ll soon be assembling their work within a three-mile-square district in downtown Grand Rapids. Visits and voting take place between Sept. 23 and Oct. 7.
There’s a two-step voting process: in the first week, voters may cast a ballot for as many works as they want, though only one vote per work. The top ten will then be announced. In the second week, voters have just one ballot. But all top ten win something: $250,000, $100,000, and $50,000 for the top three — and $7,000 each for the rest.
Who knows what the art will be like? Who knows what the public will like? On Oct. 8, when the winners are announced, we’ll see how good this experiment is.
ArtPrize didn’t answer one question I asked — whether any well-known artists intend to participate.
But organizers are proud of the interest they’ve stirred up: As one measure beyond the artist participation, they say “ArtPrize.org is now averaging about 90,000 page views each day and the Facebook page has more than 5,200 fans.”
***This will likely be my only post for the week of Aug. 17-23. I’m away, and not likely to see much art while I’m gone.