MichiganRadio

10,000 Register To Vote On ArtPrize's First Day GRAND RAPIDS, MI (Michigan Radio) - ArtPrize is officially underway in Grand Rapids. The competition will be decided by popular vote, and by last night about 10,000 people had registered.

Last night, the streets of Grand Rapids were packed with people checking out art. For the next two and a half weeks, 1,262 artists will show their work at 159 separate locations in a three square mile area downtown.

ArtPrize founder Rick Devos says he started the competition because he wanted to reboot the conversation about art in Grand Rapids.

"I say this a lot lately, you know, I really consider ArtPrize already a success," he said at last night's kickoff event. "There have been more conversations and relationships created around art in this community, in the neighborhoods, and in the streets in these past weeks than possibly in the past couple years."

Not all of those conversations have been positive. Some local artists are worried voters will overlook challenging or controversial art.

Contact Dustin Dwyer at dtdwyer@umich.edu.


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