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