Meeting People Behind ArtPrize 2009
With the Grand Rapids Art Prize voting finally totaled last night, we know that
most of 1262 entries didn’t win, any money, that is. The Top Ten will now
compete for:
- 1st Place – $250K
- 2nd Place – $100K
- 3rd Place – $ 50K
- 4th-10th – $ 7K
Not exactly small change when it comes to art. I imagine most of us don’t
have anything close to a $7000 piece of artwork in our homes.
The Top Ten Entries are all worthy and I will have to check them all out
before I cast my final vote for the winner. I really enjoyed the thumbs up,
thumbs down voting for all the artists. It was really great to be included in
something this big and this important to our community.
But I digress, I want to talk about one of the Art Prize entries that didn’t win:
The Red Ball Project:Grand Rapids. We have friends in Heritage Hill who have
served as hosts for 2 artists in this event. They provide housing and a home
base while the artist puts up, installs, paints, or whatever they have to do to
enter their art work. We were fortunate enough to meet the young artist of
the Red Ball Project, Kurt Perschke and his wife Kate, while we were touring
Art Prize.
This Art Prize entry is a large (15 ft diameter) red inflatable ball that is placed
in strategic and well known places to tickle the senses and make you look again.
Did I just see a large red ball there? Kids love to punch it and jump into it…..have
fun with it. The Red Ball has been all over the world since 2001, Sydney Australia,
Portland OR, Chicago IL, Korea, Rome Italy and Barcelona Spain, just to name
a few of the spots it has visited.
Kurt and Kate are newlyweds and they are experiencing the Grand Rapids Art Prize together.
They have been in Grand Rapids for at least 12 days and yet I doubt they have had time to see
much beyond the venues of their Red Ball placement in major downtown venues.
They noted that the citizens of Grand Rapids seemed to take their voting responsibilities quite
seriously, carrying notebooks and colored markers to note their reactions to different
Art Prize entries.
So even though Red Ball didn’t win the art prize Grand Rapids was a winner. We got exposure
to art work that never would have found our city without sponsors or a paid venue.
So, thanks Kurt and Kate. It was a fun experience for all of us in Grand Rapids!
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The authors of the this blog write about Grand Rapids Real Estate,
the Greater Grand Rapids MI area, and what it is like to live in West
Michigan. Grand Rapids Michigan is a vibrant, growing metropolitan
area with a diverse business community, great medical research & services,
numerous universities, plus lively arts and entertainment of all kinds.
We believe: Grand Rapids is a Great Place to Live!
Westbrook Realty Grand Rapids MI Real Estate
Contact Terry 616-292-7263
