With over 1,500 artists par­tic­i­pat­ing in the ArtPrize event, down­town Grand Rapids has become a giant art exhibit filled with color, cre­ativ­ity, and character.

ArtPrize, which first began three years ago, opens its doors to works of any medium, includ­ing sculp­tures, paint­ings, and per­for­mances. The event draws in artists from all over the world, each com­pet­ing for the top prize of $250,000.

“ArtPrize cre­ates a won­der­ful trans­for­ma­tion in GR; the whole city becomes a gallery, and it really serves to bring art into focus for many peo­ple who wouldn’t nor­mally see much art,” said Lynette Vought, FSU teacher in the arts and human­i­ties depart­ments. “It’s a great oppor­tu­nity to see how many artists are out there work­ing their hearts out every day and every sea­son of the year. I encour­age my stu­dents to go because in one gen­er­al­ized loca­tion, they can get a glimpse of what is hap­pen­ing in the world of art and gain expo­sure to many dif­fer­ent styles and genres.”

As stated on the ArtPrize web­site, “art is the focus of this com­pe­ti­tion, but com­mu­nity is the main event.”

“ArtPrize has been an amaz­ing project that is help­ing to revi­tal­ize Michigan and has cer­tainly ben­e­fited the Grand Rapids region in many ways,” said Carrie Weis, direc­tor of Ferris’ Rankin Art Gallery. Weis com­mented on how ArtPrize has inter­na­tion­ally pro­moted Grand Rapids as a city look­ing to develop and pro­mote art. “Most impor­tantly, it has peo­ple talk­ing about art, some­thing I have devoted my life to, and so, find incred­i­bly important,”said Weis.

Ferris stu­dents have tra­versed to Grand Rapids to view the wide assort­ment of art­work, which began on Sept. 21 and will come to a close on Oct. 9.

Chelsea Israelson, junior in psy­chol­ogy, first attended ArtPrize by acci­dent two years ago.

“I was down­town for a con­cert and before­hand we were walk­ing around and ran into the main exhibit. It was a very dif­fer­ent dis­play of art that I really liked,” said Israelson. “I went back the next year and took more time to look. The expe­ri­ence was great. I love art and have always been inter­ested with art exhi­bi­tions and muse­ums; this is a fun, laid back way to expose your­self to that.”

Israelson has plans to attend again this year because of her great expe­ri­ences in the pre­vi­ous two years.

“A lot of the art is larger than life and very impres­sive, and some of it is crazy and out of the box ideas,” said Israelson. “It’s not just a room filled with paint­ings; it’s giant can­vases, glass art, mixed-media sculp­tures, among oth­ers. Sometimes they even have the artists cre­at­ing pieces in front of you.”

Rachel Trombley, sec­ond year phar­macy stu­dent, took her first trip to ArtPrize this year. She was sur­prised by all the dif­fer­ent types of art and her favorites included sev­eral paint­ings and an artist doing sand art by hand on the pavement.

“I think ArtPrize is great for the com­mu­nity because it brings peo­ple into the city that would oth­er­wise not go there,” said Trombley. “I have not expe­ri­enced much from the west side of Michigan yet, so it was inter­est­ing to explore down­town GR!”

Israelson’s favorite works from last year included those in the main display.

“Last year they had this really large pig (Steam Pig) sus­pended above and you could walk under it to get to the other dis­plays,” said Israelson, who said she enjoyed uncon­ven­tional art.

Art has a large impact on the com­mu­nity and enriches the lives of those who par­tic­i­pate in it.

“Art is impor­tant to the com­mu­nity because it’s a way for peo­ple to express them­selves,” said Israelson. “Children that have art classes in school usu­ally can achieve more in other areas of edu­ca­tion because art teaches peo­ple some­thing that can’t be learned straight from a text­book: It teaches you how to be imag­i­na­tive and creative.”

Robert Barnum, FSU art pro­fes­sor, believes ArtPrize brings the human stan­dard of liv­ing to another, more ful­fill­ing level. “Filling the side­walks, streets and build­ings with cre­ative work inspires a per­sonal response at the high­est level. Create an excit­ing and chal­leng­ing envi­ron­ment that allows a per­sonal response and you have evolved the human side of life,” said Barnum.

The win­ner of the event is decided solely by votes from the pub­lic. Voting ends Oct. 5 and the win­ners will be announced on Oct. 6 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the the DeVos Performance Hall; tick­ets for the event are lim­ited. The first-place win­ner will trans­fer the win­ning entry over to ArtPrize to be added to a pub­lic art col­lec­tion. Closing day is Oct. 9.

“There is no other com­pe­ti­tion in the world of this nature, nor is there such an enor­mous amount of work in any one place,” said Weis. “The atmos­phere is pos­i­tively energetic.”

For more infor­ma­tion about the event or to view the sub­mit­ted pieces of art­work, visit art​prize​.org.