You Can Vote at ArtPrize

It may be too late to enter your artwork but it's not too late to vote for your favorite in the $250,000 ArtPrize 2010 competition. You will have to get to Grand Rapids, Michigan (about a ten hour drive) between Sept. 22 and Oct 6 if you want to take part in the ArtPrize voting. Last year they had 200,000 visitors with 37,000 people voting.  You can check out the voting rules at ArtPrize

The competition is open to any artist who can convince one of the event's venues to be his/her host. The top ten artists who are chosen by the popular vote of those attending will receive part of the total $449,000 with $250,000 to the first place holder, $100,00 to 2nd, $50,000 to 3rd and $7,000 to 4th through 7th place holders. This year ArtPrize will also have juried awards of $5,000 each for 2D, 3D, Performance/Film/Video, and urban space.  

The prize money, which is the largest art prize anywhere, is coming from the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation. Dick DeVos is the son of the founder of Amway. One of the foundation's trustees is Rick DeVos who came up with the idea of ArtPrize. The DeVos family is known in Michigan for their politically conservative views and for their philanthropy.

This year they have 1,713 artists showing at 192 venues around Grand Rapids, Michigan.  You can look at the artist's bios and their artworks on ArtPrize's Artist: Full list

To read more about ArtPrize, check out these articles:  Wall Street Journal Magazine: Critical Mass by Taylor Antrim and ArtDaily: Grand Rapids Awaits ArtPrize Crowds, Back for a Second Year by David Runk.

Eva Hyvarinen

Visual Resource Assistant
MCAD Library