It was dusk on the riverbank in downtown Grand Rapids, and I stood in childlike awe as 15,000 sky lanterns drifted above and away to parts unknown. The only sound was a symphony of gasps and cheers from thousands of others sharing a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle.
That was September 2012, and it remains my most indelible memory of trips to ArtPrize. And now, just as silently, this never-anything-like-it art and cultural event is gone – not with a celebration or even a fire-breathing robotic dragon blazing through downtown Grand Rapids.
No, it just drifted off across the horizon in the form of a press release two weeks ago saying the ArtPrize board of directors had disbanded, and the name and pieces of the event would be handed over to other groups for an uncertain future.
“I figured they would have done a press conference at least, because it was such a big event for Grand Rapids to end so unceremoniously,” said Brian McVicar, reporter for The Grand Rapids Press. But, he added, “I think a lot of people saw the writing on the wall.”
ArtPrize began in 2009 as the brainchild of Rick DeVos, a member of one of the most influential families in all of Michigan. It was radical in every way – an open challenge to artists worldwide to conceive the biggest, boldest and most provocative kinds of art, and then to display it in galleries and businesses, out in the streets, in the river and in the sky.
And it raised the stakes in a way no one ever had: ArtPrize offered a $250,000 top prize to the piece chosen by event visitors as their favorite, as well as $100,000 to second place and $50,000 to third place.
It not only turned the art world on its head, it forced art and conversations about art into the streets and into our lives in the most invigorating way ever. The public responded – more than 200,000 people visited ArtPrize and more than 300,000 votes were cast in that first year.
And the art establishment responded, triggering a debate about what constitutes art and ultimately leading to juried prizes to go with decidedly lower-brow people’s choices (such as a quilt winning not once, but twice).
The next few years were heady; as fall approached in Grand Rapids, the city would come alive with preparations and anticipation. What art would appear in the river? What entries would we all be debating? Could I find a hotel room and a dinner reservation?
One of the common themes among the artists who entered ArtPrize was change and impermanence – and that while some things are created as monuments, the act of creation itself is art. And so it was that ArtPrize evolved; even as its stature grew, its novelty inevitably wore off.
One change was a reduction in prize money and eventually, fewer entrants and visitors. In 2018, the ArtPrize organization announced that the main public extravaganza would be held every other year, and the alternating years would be a smaller event called Project 1.
“I think a lot of people just didn't know what it was,” McVicar said. “I don't think it brought in nearly the amount of visitors to hotels, restaurants, the people that come downtown, and so that was later ended by ArtPrize.”
When COVID hit, ArtPrize canceled the 2020 event and laid off the organization’s staff. When it returned in 2021, the grand prize was $50,000; this year there was no grand prize money at all. Attention – along with entries and attendance – dwindled.
This year, the event that once was in your face for three weeks was largely out of sight, McVicar said, notably with a lack of the public art that used to define the street scene.
“I talked to several people the first day of the event and most of them said, ‘Where's all the art? What's going on? You know, we came here from Detroit.’”
The groups that are inheriting what’s left of ArtPrize are pledging to find ways to keep it alive and build on the best that it inspired in both artists and the public.
But even if that never happens, we’ll be left with indelible memories of something amazing we all shared. Artists all want to make us feel and think, and on that count ArtPrize will have spectacularly achieved what it set out to do.
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John Hiner is the vice president of content for MLive Media Group. If you have questions you’d like him to answer, or topics to explore, share your thoughts at editor@mlive.com.
