Well, we just visited ArtPrize 2014 (a public-juried art show/contest downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan). I go every year because I love art. But this year, ArtPrize signally failed to impress. There were very few large, 3D pieces. The prime locations--bridges, Grand River, museum lawns, B.O.B.--had few, if any, pieces. The B.O.B's parking lot, always a hot spot crammed with fascinating pieces was mostly food trucks and DJ stands this year. I feel like I called this last year, when I enumerated the fails of ArtPrize. ArtPrize 2013 Frustrations and Fails.
I got a Smartphone this year and was supposed to be able to vote (one of my biggest peeves of ArtPrize is the need to vote by phone). But the app didn't even work. Also, I just learned that some of the prizes are awarded by a panel--thus negating the concept of "public-juried" as we've always been led to believe ArtPrize was. It's kind of like the beefs with the electoral college vs. popular vote in elections. And that small panel seems to have a bias, or at least a very different idea of what constitutes art, than the general public. Take Gon Kiron, the fire breathing dragon from Detroit. That entry WAS ArtPrize 2013. It was always featured in media, newscasts, articles, etc. People came to ArtPrize specifically to see Gon Kiron. Downtown merchants have Gon Kiron artists to thank for the huge influx of business. It was big, loud, interactive, hands-on, loved by all ages and tons of fun! It was probably expensive for operators to feed that thing all the propane it needed for nightly fire shows that people mobbed the BOB (I can attest to standing room only) to see.
But it didn't even place in the top 25. I think these problems led to fewer high-quality entries. Artists don't want to bother putting lots of energy and time into a piece when judging is so (I'm sorry to say it) incompetent. If coordinators don't fix some of these problems, they turn this around and change some of the glitches, I predict that ArtPrize will fizzle out. And that would be heart-breaking.
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