MichiganRadio

Want To Live With An Artist During ArtPrize? GRAND RAPIDS, MI (Michigan Radio) - A huge new art competition in Grand Rapids is looking for volunteers. It's for the ArtPrize, which will be held in the city's downtown in September.

Organizers say ArtPrize will offer the biggest cash award of any art competition in the world. The winner gets $250,000. And that winner will be decided by popular vote.

About 1,700 artists have already signed up to compete.

Kevin Buist is helping to match as many of those artists as possible with downtown venues. He says it helps that the city has a history of major public art projects.

"So I think that Grand Rapids is really not only the perfect place in the region, but I think it's the perfect place in the country for this kind of event," Buist says.

Many of the artists, though, are coming from out of town, and they'll need a place to stay.

"If we can help them by giving them accommodations in people's homes, that's what we would like to do," says Kathy Wildt, who's organizing volunteers for ArtPrize "So we're looking for people who will offer that."

Wildt says she's hoping to get 150-200 people willing to house artists for ArtPrize.

She's also looking for about one thousand people to volunteer during the event in September.

Volunteers can sign up at artprize.org.

Contact Dustin Dwyer at dtdwyer@umich.edu.

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