ArtPrize: Do you trust the public to judge art?

September 22, 2009
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Call it the American Idol-ing of art. Starting Sept. 23, what's being billed as the world's largest art prize competition begins in Grand Rapids...with you as judge.

According to www.artprize.org, the ArtPrize competition is "open to any artist in the world who can find space. Open to anybody in Grand Rapids, Michigan who wants to create a venue. Open to a vote from anyone who attends."

The first place winner scores $250,000. Second gets $100,000. Third gets $50,000 and the rest in the top ten each get $7,000.

Here's how the voting works: During the first week, registered visitors 16 or older vote up or down on each work. Ten pieces move on to the second round. In the second week, each voter has a single vote. All voting is electronic.

So far, more than 1200 artists -- including Zionsville's Nancy Noel -- have found space in Grand Rapids to hang their work.

I'll admit that I'm skeptical about art-as-popularity contest. The winner, I'm certain, will largely depend as much on Facebook/Twitter skills as on artistic skills and vision.

But the creators of the event seem to know that, too. Quoth the site: "We do not believe that we have contrived the 'best' way to discover the 'best' art. The prize money, the public vote, the open venue system simply creates an environment where public can engage artist and artist can engage public in a fresh way."

Taking aside the notion of "best," the idea of a town being covered in artwork is a thrilling one. And whether or not I make it to Grand Rapids in the next few weeks (unlikely, since the program ends Oct. 10), I'm very interested in seeing how this all plays out.

So do you find merit in what's happening in Grand Rapids?

Could such an event have happened here?

Would this make you consider a road trip to Michigan?

Your thoughts?

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  • JeremySeptember 22, 2009 10:52 AM
    Art is subjective. In terms of rating art, I think the "best" art is that which appeals to the most viewers.

    Simply look at history as the best examples of this: paintings, statues, frescos, buildings. The ones which are still around, still seen, cared for, are the most appealing to the masses.
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  • HarveyFSeptember 22, 2009 1:49 PM
    I am so sick of this American Idol, America's got talent type stuff. What a waste of time and money.
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  • Mark KratznerSeptember 23, 2009 8:30 AM
    Art is more of a reaction than good or bad. You can hate the art but reconize the talent. I am not a big fan of Jackson Pollock but his art of spattering paint is considered good. Even Robert Indiana's street signs are thought of as great art. I worked in a musuem that had an artist make a shelf and then put items from the museum's collection on it and that was called "art". If you get some sort of reaction, good or bad, then it is art.
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  1. First, the Athenaeum is going to have to get past the hurdle with the Lockerbie residents and the agreement that the parcel would be residential. Second, and in my opinion, this prime piece of property should include parking, PLUS, a black box theater(s), some market rate and affordable artist housing and a plan to renovate and reconfigure the second story theater. I would negotiate to add the DeHaan property surface parking lot into the development mix, place a one story surface parking garage on the DeHaan lot on the street level (for the Dehaan tenants use during the daytime) and add a second story to the garage that would become an addition to the current second story theater and then change the direction of the theater by moving the stage across the alley and on top of the DeHaan lot parking. You can add all the stage elements that are currently missing from the Athenaeum stage to make it more attractive for use by Ballet, Opera and traveling productions. Plus, the theater changes would probably help solve some of the soundproofing issues. Alas,it does not seem to be a part of the strategic plan to conduct a study to determine best use of the property. Seems like the current plan is a quick and easy move that ignores the property best use/potential and any strategic property planning for the effect on future generations.

  2. I recall that MSA's pilings are still in the ground and hard to remove. It’s not likely any proposal will include significant underground construction/parking because of this. Start adding 2 floors of retail, 8 floors of parking and 5-10 floors of possible hotel, and/or 10-20 floors of residential, and you are at 30 floors already with possible expansion of all the uses. But then again I could be wrong.

  3. Accoriding to their website there is no deadline to the Do Not Call list. What is this article referring to??

  4. On what planet are they entitled to this largesse from the stockholders? These people make multi-million dollar salaries: Pay for your own personal travel.

  5. It matters because they're already paid enormously fat salaries: Pay for your own personal travel. Being "taxed on it" isn't a valid excuse--so what? They're still being gifted a raft of luxury perks from somebody else's money on top of an enormous, lavish salary.

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