Michigan's ArtPrize Competition Continues To Grow and Evolve

ArtPrize 2011: September 21 - October 9
Grand Rapids, Michigan

I've posted a few times in the past when ArtPrize first started-in perhaps what was percieved as the least likely place-Michigan.

It's continued success comes as no surprise to me--raising the very real question--why is this type of open ended invitation for creative interaction between communities and the wider world still so rare?

A good recent article from The Washington Post--which is covering some of the D.C. area artists participating.

Started in 2009 by Rick DeVos, with funding from his family foundation, the showcase now attracts 1, 582 artists from 36 countries and 42 states. The competition is spread over 164 venues around Grand Rapids, an approach which won an “Our Town” grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in July. “We want to reboot the conversation with the public around the arts,” said Catherine Creamer, the executive director of ArtPrize.

The unusual exhibition style is combined with a departure from the expert juried panels. From the opening on September 21 until September 28 the public votes on all the art. Then the Top 10 works are announced on September 29 and the public can cast one vote for its favorite until October 5. The festival closes October 9.

In spite of lots of buzz, I can't help feeling the "professional, institutional arts infrastructure is just trying to ignore all the implied potential here. Thankfully, many artist's are not.

"ArtPrize appealed to her because “it’s a very different concept. The public is voting, and you are getting unbelievable exposure,” Hester said .

In Grand Rapids the work is displayed for 19 days. The venues range from a coffee shop to a mechanics workshop to a theater. “We wanted to bring artists together and let the public curate,” said Creamer, the program’s executive director. The boundary of the displays are 3 -square miles from downtown Grand Rapids."

Anyone from the wider, Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia or Ohio Region participating or attending? What are your thoughts?

Beachland Ballroom Celebrates The Plaza Apartments: Cleveland's "Chelsea Hotel"

A great story in The Cleveland Plain Dealer.

""I grew up at the Plaza. It's where I became an adult," said Ravenstine. "I was a kid from the suburbs. When we bought this inner-city building in the red light district in 1969, we did everything from paint to carpentry. When the building was first built, it had 24 apartments. When we bought it in a land contract, there were 48 apartments. We tried to restore it unit by unit."

Bloomquist, who now restores historic buildings in Savannah, Ga., said his involvement in the Plaza spanned from 1969 to 1985. "There were several hundred people that called the building home during those years," he said.

"There were scores of wonderful community dinners, insipid and treacherous burglars. Innocence was lost, and there were raucous outrageous parties. Families were formed and raised, there were tragic early deaths of close friends. But music, art and life were in joyful abundance all the time," he said."

Great Article: Regrets of a Former Arts Funder

This might be one of the best essays on the history of American arts funding and it's often deep failures to support viable institutions or more importantly, living creative communities. The author, John Killacky was former arts and culture program officer at the San Francisco Foundation.

There is a crisis here, as arts funding remains disproportionately skewed toward the classical behemoths. With organizations like Philadelphia Orchestra and New York City Opera imploding because of structural deficits, I worry that precious philanthropic resources will be further diverted to maintaining what was, instead of capitalizing a more representative future. By merely preserving the past, we fail as cultural stewards and act irresponsibly.

Finally, my last “philanthro-past” reflection: it is time to give up the false dichotomies and biases between professional/amateur, high/low, esoteric/popular, and contemporary/traditional. Instead, philanthropy should be investing in the cultural interests that allow people who live in our communities to lead more expressive lives.

This would truly be representative arts philanthropy.

Likely will be back with more thoughts.

Hipsters In Pittsburgh Conversation On Pittsblog

Karen's great post about affordable urban hotels and Hostels brought me back to a nice post and heated debate about "hipsters" in the city that's worth a look.

The thread contains lots of comments by me. Far too often, we classify groups as desirable (wealthy, employer, skilled,) or undesirable, (weirdo, starving artist) when the lines are often a lot more blurred. How does someone like Swoon or Eric Singer fit in ?

More importantly, many of these people have shown that they love and desperately want to live in town in a way that's compatable with the city.

Me

This is what we saw in NYC, with area after area, hand rehabed by artists. It's also the source of a lot of anger as these people, who often were renting are kicked out.

The thing is that what a lot of these people want is customized spaces that are adapted to their work, not marble counter tops.

That's the thing. Pittsburgh has a very low number of real yuppies (or fake hipsters) and a growing number of (sincere) artist types, most of whom don't have a lot of money.

Isn't it wiser to build on the market we know exists for creative people rather than one that really isn't here yet.

Mike Madison

"Why does it need to be an either/or? Resources are scarce, choices need to be made, time is money, etc. etc. But why not set the table as inclusively as possible, be expansive with zoning and other regulation, support different communities with institutions designed to do that (real estate, law, finance, housing, neighborhood development), and see what emerges?"

This is the bottom line. We should just let it be and see what emerges while perhaps putting a lot more effort to make people more aware of all the assets here.

P.S. I would imagine this post is even more relevant in Cleveland. A place that seems to have a lot of awesome potential artist space.