Grand Rapids And ArtPrize Featured In Details Magazine
The current issue of Details magazine features Grand Rapids and ArtPrize in an article titled "The Rust Belt Revival".
Details writes about Grand Rapids, ArtPrize, and Rick DeVos in the article under a section titled "A Next-Generation Patron Of The Arts".
Grand Rapids is one of 10 cities featured in the April 2012 issue that has Jason Statham on the cover.
Details explains how the Rust Belt Revival is leading the way for the entire country:
While the rest of America has staggered under the weight of the Great Recession, the innovators, entrepreneurs, thinkers, and doers in cities like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Youngstown have raced out ahead, leading a heartland renaissance whose effects are being felt from coast to coast.
The article goes on to introduce readers to the basics of ArtPrize:
To vie for the world's largest award given to artists—$550,000 this year—head to, believe it or not, Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 2009, Rick DeVos, 29, an heir to the Amway fortune, founded ArtPrize, which brings more than 1,500 contestants to more than 200 venues in his hometown, with the public voting on a winner. The hopefuls and their host galleries pair off to plan the exhibitions in advance by finding each other at artprize.org, much like on a dating website. It's an arrangement born of necessity, since there was no way DeVos' small staff of 14 could orchestrate such a massive happening—and happening is the right word: Everything from parking lots to the sides of buildings are enlisted as exhibition spaces, turning the city into a giant open-air gallery that attracts more than 300,000 visitors. "There was a hunger in Grand Rapids for an event of this scale and impact," DeVos says. "More than even I had anticipated."
Great to see both Grand Rapids and ArtPrize getting more well-deserved attention. Hard to imagine, but there is still room for ArtPrize to grow. Articles like this will help to make that growth possible by making more people aware of all that ArtPrize and Grand Rapids have to offer.