Michigan Expats - Commentary
By Doctor
Earlier this week I shared my
highlights from this year’s Art Prize competition (see my Art Prize photos). One thing Art Prize as
an organization has done very well is that it has been receptive to criticism
and has instituted changes to reflect those criticisms to help the event grow
and improve. That’s my goal with this column and my third and final Art Prize
post coming up, offer criticism and propose solutions to help improve the
world’s largest art competition based in Grand Rapids. Because…
I love Art Prize. You love Art Prize. We all love Art Prize
together.
So here, in the spirit of an open dialogue, I present the
following criticisms and proposed solutions to help improve Art Prize.
The Top 25 &
Short List Announcement
This issue was brought to my attention from this letter
to the editor from one of this year’s artist participants, Sylvia Rombis,
who brought up the issue of people flocking to see only the entries leading in
the vote tallies or this year, on one of the juried prize short lists. Now this
is an issue Art Prize is continuing to find the best solution. The issue, as Rombis
put it:
“As soon as the top 25 information was released, the
competition was over for the almost 1500 remaining entries. Thousands of
visitors wanted nothing to do with anything other than the top 25…The top 25
frenzy turned out to be one of the most disrespectful and demoralizing acts I
have ever experienced in my 25 years as an arts professional.” – Sylvia Rombis,
2012 Art Prize artist - Bridging Humanity Sculptural Exhibition
It’s easy to dismiss a lot of these criticisms and
complaints as the whining of a sore loser thinking – “well, if you wanted more
votes, you should have made a better piece of art.” That would be a mistake.
The language Rombis uses, “most disrespectful and demoralizing” represent sincere
frustration with a process that still needs to improve.
Now I believe Art Prize understands this as it continues to
walk this new fine line of accommodating the art community and the mass public
in a truly revolutionary way. In previous years, live time voting results were
available on the Art Prize website. This year, Art Prize delayed the release of
the voting results to encourage people “to explore, discover ArtPrize on their
own, without anyone getting any information on what to see, or what to think,”
Art Prize spokesperson Brian Burch.
It’s a difficult obstacle. People like front runners, and
naturally are going to want to see what everyone is talking about and leading
in the vote tally. Another problem is media coverage. The media emphasized the Top
25 Announcement even though the Short List event focused more on the
jurists discussing their short list choices, and I can see how that coverage
could be interpreted as a first round of voting by Art Prize visitors
I attended the Short List Announcement at the Art Prize Hub
this year and it was a neat event that focused more on the jurist discussing
their short list choices for the respective juried prize categories. The
release of the top 25 was secondary, but I can see how the media coverage of
the event highlighting the Top 25 could be interpreted as a first round of
voting by Art Prize visitors. It’s not definitive evidence by any means but
that there was little
movement in the Top 25 after the announcement.
Critiques continue after the jump...
Location. Location.
Location.
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| Penguins in the Ford Museum fountain. |
The idea of Art Prize is just as exciting to artists as it
is to most people when they hear about it. An open art competition with the
largest prize awarded in the world ($200,000!); over 1500 artists; 3 square
miles of art; tens of thousands of people walking around enjoying, discussing,
and voting for art. Artists have come from all over the world to participate.
However, that excitement can quickly become disappointment
and yes, even demoralizing, depending on what venue your art is displayed.
After four years of Art Prize, one thing that has been clearly demonstrated
that location is essential for success in Art Prize. If you are not in one
of the prime locations, your chances of success are practically zero.
For example, High Five GR, specifically curetted for Art
Prize, had 1000 visitors come through the space on the opening day of Art
Prize. That sounds like a lot until you hear that 10,000 people went through
the Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM). Now compare that to the artists who stayed
with my parents who were in Purple East with 30 other artists. They were
fortunate if they had 100 visitors a day. Location. Location. Location.
I understand that people have a limited time to experience
Art Prize, and it’s practically impossible to see all 1500+ entries in the
three week period. People know this, so they are going to go to the main venues
(e.g. Ford Museum, GRAM, B.O.B. parking lot) where they can see the most art in
the most central location. However, it must be acknowledged that not all
entries and venues are on equal footing. Art Prize distances itself a bit from
this since it is the artists and venues that must play matchmaker, but it must
continue to work to help attract visitors to more obscure venues. I have a proposed
solution that should improve, but not eliminate, this problem that I’ll roll
out tomorrow.
Transportation
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| Subaru's - not available for Art Prize tours |
One way Art Prize can work to address this issue is better
transportation during the competition. “But Art Prize has shuttles and partners
with The Rapid” you reply. Yeah, about that…
I’m presently recovering from Achilles surgery, but I still
wanted to still take in as much of Art Prize as I could. So I decided that I’d
take advantage of the Art Prize shuttle to get around downtown.
I parked near Site-Lab, not far from the Hub, went inside
and then around the corner to the Women’s Center where I decided I’d pick up
the Art Prize shuttle to go to the Ford Museum. Now there were two Art Prize
shuttle routes this year. I knew I would have to transfer to the other line to
get to the Museum. I didn’t expect it would take 45 minutes to an hour to get
from the Hub to the Museum.
The shuttle was so inconvenient that I ditched it altogether
and decided that I’d rather hobble around downtown in pain than spend my entire
afternoon on a bus. It’s less than a mile, roughly a 15-20 minute walk from the
Hub to the Ford Museum. It is ridiculous that it can take upwards of an hour to
go from the Hub to the Museum on the shuttle.
There has to be a better way to employ the shuttle routes so
that they are convenient and people decide to use them. Possibly two shuttles circling
around center city to the high artist concentrated venues while the other two
shuttles are take on longer routes going East-West and North-South (e.g.
Cathedral Square/Bus Station – Leonard) to get visitors to-and-from the
outlying venues. This is something Art Prize needs to address for next year.
Juried Prizes
After seeing the ‘juried’ prizes it doesn’t appear that the jurists
know much more than the people. The juried short lists were announced less
than a week after
the start of Art Prize. Due to the concentration of juried selections in a
handful of venues and the time allowed, it suggests that the jurors did not
make a dent in seeing all of Art Prize. Granted most regular voters won’t see
everything, but if Art Prize is going to award additional juried prizes than
the jurists need be held accountable to do just that. Looking at the short
lists selection and that it is unlikely the jurists could see everything in 5
days anyway (Art Prize started on a Wednesday and the short list selections
were announced the following Monday) it is doubtful that the jurists did get to
every venue.
Communications
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| Me in the Herman Miller chair I did not win. |
I was disappointed by the Art Prize communications team on
how they utilized their Twitter and Facebook accounts for most of the
competition. This is it, Art Prize has 1500+ artists display art work in
multiple mediums at over 150 venues and almost all of the updates from the
official Art Prize accounts were hinting at what chair you need to sit in to be
entered into a competition to win a chair.
Art Prize has more than 14,200 followers on Twitter and
almost 65,000 Facebook “Likes” and probably the best way to communicate with
people visiting the competition. Post statuses about the competition. Highlight
the more out of the way venues; explain how to use Art Prize
transportation/shuttle schedules; how and why people should vote; spur the
dialogue; and post Art Prize artist events. Using these means of communication
would go a long way to help with some of the problems listed above. Or maybe
I’m just disappointed that I didn’t win one of the Herman Miller chairs.
Wow. This post really escalated quickly. I mean it really
got out of hand. I hope you survived it, and I applaud and thank you if you
read it all. Please add your thoughts, comments, criticisms, and solutions on
the post, Art Prize, or the status of my soul for daring to criticize Art Prize
in the comments below. Check back soon for my Art Prize “solutions” post.
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