Story by Valentina Garcia, Staff Writer 
Photo courtesy of History Grand Rapids

Art takes over Grand Rapids in the fall, and the city is certainly prepared for ArtPrize Eight to begin. The art competition, which showcases art made by international artists, will take place from September 21 to October 9.

This year, the hype leading up to ArtPrize has been bottled and used to produce an ArtPrize Preview Week. The preview week will run from September 14 to the 20, making the city wait less for the art to commence. More than 30 venues will be participating, including the Grand Rapids Art Museum, UICA, the B.O.B., and various downtown coffee shops and restaurants. However, entrance into the GRAM will not be free until ArtPrize officially begins.

On September 21, these 30 venues will increase to 170. All 170 venues are free to enter and open to the public. For two weeks, those venues will be home to 1,453 art entries. That is an immense amount of art for only two weeks.

The entries in this competition come in a variety of mediums. There are awards given to songwriters who participate in ArtPrize On Stage and filmmakers who participate in ArtPrize On Screen. ArtPrize On Stage will include a music festival from September 30 to October 1 and ArtPrize On Screen will showcase independent films for each day of the competition. The screenings take place at the Ladies’ Literary Club and are free to the public, but seats do have to be reserved. This can be done easily at: https://celebrationcinema.com/artprizeonscreen.

For those unfamiliar with the competition, the public is important; winners are decided based on public vote and an expert jury. Seeing all 1,453 entries may not be possible, but visiting ArtPrize is a must for everyone in Grand Rapids. ArtPrize is a highly important event, so important, in fact, that The New York Times listed the event as one of the “52 Places to Go in 2016.” People travel from around the world to see the art entries in this competition, it would be a shame to miss out while being in the same city.

For a list of venues and more ArtPrize information, visit http://www.artprize.org.  

About the Writer…

Valentina Garcia is a second-year student who loves sunny days, Jane Austen, and preferred tea to coffee until she started college.