GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Expect some new looks to the winners of ArtPrize in 2016.
The 8th annual ArtPrize event is scheduled for September 21 to October 9 in downtown Grand Rapids. Event organizers held a breakfast event Thursday morning to announce grants and changes to this year’s art competition.
ArtPrize will actually start the week of September 14th in 2016, with an official Preview Week. During the week of September 14-20, visitors will be able to see the installations in progress around town and venues that don’t charge admission during ArtPrize can do so to visitors in town.
The big news for contest entries for 2016 is that artists who have previously won the Public Vote Grand Prize or the Juried Grand Prize will not be eligible to enter starting this year. Past Grand Prize winners will still be displayed at the ArtPrize Hub or other locations to highlight the history of past events. Winners of the public vote and juried category awards are still eligible to enter.
Also new for 2016, venues are now limited to only having two entries advance to the public vote Top 20. The hope here is to have more venues represented during the second round of voting in the later days of ArtPrize.
Venue registration for ArtPrize 2016 is now open through April 7. Artist registration runs from April 18 – June 2.
ArtPrize also announced Thursday $273,000 in grants and a new member, Leslie Koch, to the Board of Directors.
