ArtPrize, created by Rick DeVos, a grandson of both the cofounder of Amway and the founder of the Prince Corp is apparently establishing a kind of huge scale people’s choice competition in Grand Rapds, MI. A few years ago I helped paint a Richard Haas designed Mural there and am thinking about creating another public art piece for this competition.
Of course one could argue that even though artprize is offering a few big prizes, basically what they are doing is asking artists to at their own expense to subsidize an art happening for Grand Rapids. I am sure that the many artists who probably will participate will end up in aggregate spending substantially more money than the sponsors. I would prefer to see more, smaller prizes that would give more artists a chance to recoup there expenses.
Here is the Mural I did at the corner of Cherry and Division . With Tim Luzak and Evergreene Painting Studios.
Stephan Giannini 