ArtPrize 2013: Exploring Event's Effects on Grand Rapids in Numbers

GRAND RAPIDS PRESS 
By Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk

Detail of 2012 Top Prize winner: "Elephants" at Grand Rapids Art Museum.

MICHIGAN---Last year, an estimated 400,000 visits were made to ArtPrize with viewers casting 412,560 votes to award Adonna Khare, of Burbank, California, the $200,000 ArtPrize First Prize for her large-scale drawing “Elephants.” Five years later, the conversation begins once again. ArtPrize 2013 opens on Wednesday, Sept. 18, for 19 days of looking at art and talking about art. Time magazine, earlier this year, named ArtPrize one of its “Five Festival Events You Won’t Want to Miss in 2013.” It’s safe to say $560,000 in prize money is plenty of incentive for artists. An economic impact study of ArtPrize 2011 determined it added $15.4 million to the local economy, attracted more than 320,000 visitors that year and created the equivalent of 200 new jobs.

Detail of 2011 Top Prize winner: "Crucifixion" 
by Mia Tavonatti at DeVos Place Convention Center.

2013 By the Numbers:

• 1,812 artists
• 1,524 works of art
• 169 venues
• 96 hours (minimum official open hours)
• 47 countries represented
• 45 U.S. states represented
• 31 percent of artists coming from outside Michigan
• 19 days in the exhibition
• 18 years old – the minimum age to enter ArtPrize as an artist
• 16 years old – the minimum age to vote in ArtPrize
• 14 public spaces – parks, plazas, parking places – showing art
• 11 days to vote in Round 1
• 10 cash prizes chosen by the people
• 9 Exhibition Centers and Showcase Venues
• 7 percent of artists are from foreign countries
• 6 cash prizes chosen by jurors
• 5 days to vote in Round 2
• 3 square miles in event’s main downtown district
• 2 National Endowment for the Arts grants awarded to ArtPrize to date
• 1 official beer: Founder’s Brewing Co.’s Inspired Artist Black IPA