Media Kit
The ArtPrize® event is an international art exhibition and social experiment. Since 2009, it has redefined how art can create community.
It turns out that making art open, accessible, and playful is a radical idea. Radical enough to stir up thousands of ideas, hundreds of thousands of people, and an enticing stew of harmony, tension, and unexpected connections that’s enriched by everyone who takes part.
It brings together an unprecedented conversation between people of all backgrounds and critical dialog between the art world and the general public. The top prize in 2012, which is decided by public vote, is $200,000. A panel of arts professionals will decide our new, $100,000 Grand Juried Prize.
All prizes combined in 2012 total $560,000, the world’s largest total cash prize for art. To date, ArtPrize has awarded more than $1.4 million to artists.
ArtPrize is a 19-day event. For nearly three weeks, three square miles of downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan become an open playing field. Art from around the world pops up in every inch of downtown, and it’s all free and open to the public.
How do we get the public involved? We make every voice count. Unlike any other art competition, the public shapes the winners’ circle. News and social media watch the conversation, drive the vote and the vote drives the conversation.
Voting happens in two rounds. It’s unorthodox, highly disruptive, and undeniably intriguing to the art world and the public alike. And as 1.2 million votes cast by people from all walks of life prove, it’s simply irresistible.
ArtPrize is a radically open platform for anyone to be an artist, a venue or a critic. We enable conversations about ideas and encourage experimentation of urban spaces. We don’t know where the dialog is going or what it will do; because its success is built upon each person’s ability to define his or her own concept within the ArtPrize framework.
Pairing an open platform with a huge catalyst, ArtPrize is a first-of-its-kind art competition allowing any artist to enter, as long as the artist finds a willing exhibitor within a three-square-mile district in downtown Grand Rapids, and any person to vote, as long as they activate their ArtPrize account in- person.
More than 322,000 visitors participated in ArtPrize 2011 during the 19-day event, many of whom had their first experience engaging with art.