MichiganRadio

So You Want To Pick The Winner Of ArtPrize? First, You Gotta Know The Voting System GRAND RAPIDS, MI (Michigan Radio) - Over the next two-and-a-half-weeks, ordinary people in Grand Rapids will decide who wins the biggest cash prize in the art world. More than 1,200 artists are competing in the first ever ArtPrize. The winner will get $250,000.

But to have your say, you have to know how the voting process works.

To help explain the process, I sat down with the founder of ArtPrize, Rick DeVos.

So, first, just like in a political election, you have to register. But unlike a political election, you have to show some form of ID, like a driver's license or a passport - that, you have to do in person at a registration site in downtown Grand Rapids. But DeVos says you can pre-register online.

"And that will save you a little bit of time so that the person doesn't end up having to ask how you spell your name and things like that," DeVos says. "You can fill out the data yourself, and then all you're doing in the actual registration is the person is verifying that data against you and your face."

The idea behind making you show your ID and your face is that they don't want anyone gaming the system, and voting multiple times for the same piece of art. It also means if you're under the age of 16, you can't vote. Sorry kids.

Once you register, the most logical next step is to go look at some art. Then you decide whether you want to vote it up, or down. And if you want to cast your vote right there on the spot, you can do it by text message.

"Every artist will have a sign that has their name, and each artist has an 'up' vote and a 'down' vote code," DeVos says.

If you have an iPhone, DeVos says voting is even easier, because there's an app for that. You can also just keep track of what you like and vote online when you get home.

During the first week of ArtPrize, you can cast as many or as few up or down votes as you want. You might want to be strategic about this, because there's no "I like it" vote or "I love it" vote. Everything you like is an "up." So if you want to be stingy with that "up" vote, you can be. If you want to spread it all across town, you can do that too.

You only get one vote per piece of art, but...

"You can change that vote," DeVos says. "So something that seemed really amazing at the beginning, maybe looks more gimmicky by the end of it when you engage with some of the more of the deep works."

The winner of ArtPrize is whoever gets the most "up" votes. Down votes don't count at all. But DeVos says they do serve a purpose, because during the first week, voting results will be tracked at artprize.org.

"There will be kind of daily updates that will go out in terms of how people are ranking, and where the hotspots are, and what's getting the most attention, the most controversy," he says.

And for those works that are getting a lot of down votes, the hope is, it'll start discussions, and maybe some people will change their vote.
On October 1st, ArtPrize organizers will announce the top 10.

From there, the process changes. You will only get to vote for one of the top 10 pieces, and you won't get to see how the other pieces are stacking up.

"There won't be any live ranking of that top 10 during that week," he says. "Just 'cause the universe of things that you're trying to keep track of is just 10 pieces at that point, as opposed to 1,262 pieces."

But DeVos says you can still change your vote up until 11:59 p.m. on October 7th. The winner will be announced the next day.

All artists in the top 10 will get a cash prize. 10th through 4th place all get $7,000 each. Third place is $50,000. Second is $100,000 and first place is $250,000.

For more information on ArtPrize voting, you can check out ArtPrize's explanation page here.

Contact Dustin Dwyer at dtdwyer@umich.edu. © Copyright 2012, Michigan Radio