Celebrating 10 Years of Artprize

ArtPrize is an open, independently organized international art competition which takes place for 19 days every fall in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Katelyn worked on the very first Artprize as part of her coursework at Grand Valley State University and ever since we have been together, we’ve been making the trip back to the west side of the state to check out the competition.

We love it because arts from around the world come to compete for more than five hundred thousand dollars in prizes with works created in every medium imaginable. One of the coolest elements of Artprize is that the competition is confined to one building or area. Art is exhibited throughout downtown Grand Rapids—museums, bars, public parks, restaurants, theaters, hotels, bridges, laundromats, auto body shops, vacant storefronts and office spaces.

In 2018, Artprize showed more than 1,260 works created by over 1,400 artists from 41 states and 40 countries, exhibited in more than 165 venues throughout the city.

There is so much to see and depending on how much time you have to spend in Grand Rapids, chances are you won’t be able to see it all.

To prioritize, we recommend making stop at the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Amway Grand Plaza, Grand Rapids Museum of Contemporary Art, the “Blue Bridge”, and the general public spaces of downtown Grand Rapids. If you happen to make it outside of the city proper, the Meijer Frederik Gardens is also an amazing venue.

The weather wasn’t the best but we made stops at our favorite venues as well as the Artprize shop to pick up this year’s screen printed posters to add to our collection.

It seems like the crowds dwindle a bit every year but the art is still good and it is a fun way to spend a day or weekend.

It looks like Artprize may be realizing things are slowing down. This year they’ve announced that Artprize will now take place every other year, which means Artprize 11 won’t we until 2020. As sad as we are to be missing a competition in 2019, we are looking forward to the show coming back bigger and better than ever!