Meeting People Behind ArtPrize 2009

Meeting People Behind ArtPrize 2009

With the Grand Rapids Art Prize voting finally totaled last night, we know that

most of 1262 entries didn’t win, any money, that is.  The Top Ten will now

compete for:

  • 1st Place – $250K
  • 2nd Place – $100K
  • 3rd Place  – $ 50K
  • 4th-10th –   $  7K

Not exactly small change when it comes to art.  I imagine most of us don’t

have anything close to a $7000 piece of artwork in our homes.

The Top Ten Entries are all worthy and I will have to check them all out

before I cast my final vote for the winner.  I really enjoyed the thumbs up,

thumbs down voting for all the artists.  It was really great to be included in

something this big and this important to our community.

But I digress, I want to talk about one of the Art Prize entries that didn’t win:

The Red Ball Project:Grand Rapids.  We have friends in Heritage Hill who have

served as hosts for 2 artists in this event. They provide housing and a home

base while the artist puts up, installs, paints, or whatever they have to do to

enter their art work.  We were fortunate enough to meet the young artist of

the Red Ball Project, Kurt Perschke and his wife Kate, while we were touring

Art Prize.

This Art Prize entry is a large (15 ft diameter) red inflatable ball that is placed

in strategic and well known places to tickle the senses and make you look again.

Did I just see a large red ball there?  Kids  love to punch it and jump into it…..have

fun with it.  The Red Ball has been all over the world since 2001, Sydney Australia,

Portland OR, Chicago IL, Korea, Rome Italy and Barcelona Spain, just to name

a few of the spots it has visited.

GR  Kids meet Red Ball

Red Ball installed

 Will Red Ball move?

MM Kurt Perschke Red Ball Project

Kurt and Kate are newlyweds and they are experiencing the Grand Rapids  Art Prize together.

They have been in Grand Rapids for at least 12 days and yet I doubt they have had time to see

much beyond the venues of their Red Ball placement in major downtown venues.

They noted that the citizens of Grand Rapids seemed to take their voting responsibilities quite

seriously, carrying notebooks and colored markers to note their reactions to different

Art Prize entries.

So even though Red Ball didn’t win the art prize Grand Rapids was a winner. We got exposure

to art work that never would have found our city without sponsors or a paid venue.

So, thanks Kurt and Kate. It was a fun experience for all of us in Grand Rapids!

____________________________________________________________________________________________

The authors of the this blog write about Grand Rapids Real Estate,

the Greater Grand Rapids MI area, and what it is like to live in West

Michigan. Grand Rapids Michigan is a vibrant, growing metropolitan

area with a diverse business community, great medical research & services,

numerous universities, plus lively arts and entertainment of all kinds.

We believe: Grand Rapids is a Great Place to Live!

ar125812212017642 East Grand Rapids Michigan Real Estate Market Report Jan Dec 2010 ar125812218972939 East Grand Rapids Michigan Real Estate Market Report Jan Dec 2010 ar125812225271331 East Grand Rapids Michigan Real Estate Market Report Jan Dec 2010

Westbrook Realty Grand Rapids MI Real Estate

Contact Terry   616-292-7263

OUR FLICKR PHOTOSTREAM

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.