ART PRIZE – Kalamazoo brings thousands out each summer to celebrate ART

By msquires May 23, 2018

Since 2009 Kalamazoo has brought art to the people and people to the art with the renowned Art Prize Festival

Kalamazoo is an hour south of Grand Rapids and a little over an hour and a half from Ann Arbor, Michigan.  Home of Western Michigan University and a great spot smack dab in the middle of the State.

ArtPrize is free and open to the public and now attracts over 500,000 visitors, making it the most attended public art event in the world in 2014 and 2015, according the The Art Newspaper’s annual “Big Ticket List.”

What is it:

ArtPrize is an open, independently organized international art competition which takes place for 19 days each fall in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  More than five hundred thousand dollars in prizes are awarded each year, which include a $200,000 prize awarded entirely by public vote and another $200,000 prize awarded by a jury of art experts.

Any artist working in any medium from anywhere in the world can participate. Art is exhibited throughout downtown Grand Rapids—museums, bars, public parks, restaurants, theaters, hotels, bridges, laundromats, auto body shops, vacant storefronts and office spaces. Artists and venues register for the competition then find each other through an online connections process in late spring. No one at ArtPrize selects a single artist or artwork, directs an artist where to show work or directs a venue what to show. In 2017, 1,346 works created by 1,512 artists from 42 states and 47 countries were exhibited in 175 venues.

ArtPrize is free and open to the public and now attracts over 500,000 visitors, making it the most attended public art event in the world in 2014 and 2015, according to The Art Newspaper’s annual “Big Ticket List.”

ArtPrize Nine from ArtPrize on Vimeo.

There’s plenty of time to plan a trip and it’s not too late to enter!