Five artists represent Hillsdale in art competition

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Five artists represent Hillsdale in art competition

 

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Bushey’s quilt was displayed inside a Grand Rapid’s church during ArtPrize | ArtPrize

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.

Statues pose on street corners, photographs frame restaurant walls, and canvases cover brick-walled storefronts. Grand Rapids, Michigan, has welcomed 1,453 artists to showcase their work within 3 square miles of town for 19 days in one of the most open and diverse international art competitions on the planet: ArtPrize.

While the whopping total of $500,000 awarded in cash prizes to 10 artists is enough to entice anyone to enter, the eighth annual ArtPrize holds far greater importance for both creators and spectators as a celebration of visual art.

“ArtPrize has opened up the conversation [about art] to a whole new audience because they lose their self-consciousness,” Amelea Pegman, managing director of ArtPrize, said. “It brings such an authentic cultural experience to the community.”

This year, five Hillsdale artists showcased their work in ArtPrize: Professors of Art Barbara Bushey and Sam Knecht, Associate Professor of Art Anthony Frudakis, Lecturer of Art Doug Coon, and senior art major Sara Pezzella. From quilts, to paintings, to sculptures, to photos, Hillsdale’s pieces nearly summarized the artistic diversity at the competition.

Coon said he encourages art students to enter ArtPrize through its “mind-numbingly organized” application process.

“I think it’s important to try to get your art outside of Sage and into the wider world,” Coon said.
“You want people to see your work.”

With just under half a million total spectators milling about the competition every year, showcasing at ArtPrize will do just that. On Friday, Sept. 30, a bus full of artistically-inclined Hillsdale students joined the ranks of spectators to take in the ArtPrize phenomenon.

“ArtPrize is such a hodgepodge,” Coon said. “I’ve never been to a museum or gallery that has even close to the variety here.”

This hodgepodge is no accident. Pegman said ArtPrize hosts a vast array of works to create a noticeable contrast between different styles of art.

“We want to have local artists as well as people who are showing nationally and internationally,” Pegman said. “We want the types of art to juxtapose each other and help people pose the question, ‘What is art?’”

Both Bushey and Coon said the unique ArtPrize environment encourages its visitors to think and communicate about the pieces on display, while the hushed tones of museums tend to discourage visitors from discussion.

“With the size and the openness of this event, more people think they get to have an opinion about art,” Bushey said.

Galleries all over ArtPrize raised this question, sporting every medium imaginable: stacks of shiny license plates, twists of bronze, sheets of Legos, gobs of paint, swaths of cloth, flashes of light, even swirls of animal blood.

Somewhere between crusted acrylics and butcher shop leftovers was “Emoh” by Loren Naji, another project challenging the definition of art.

Since Sept. 21, Naji has taken up residency inside his piece, a sphere made entirely of debris from the dilapidated and deserted houses of Detroit, Flint, and Grand Rapids. Inside, two empty milk crates support a mattress wedged under a shelf crammed with books.

Naji turned heads of passerby as he showed off his temporary home. He told a crowd of curious ArtPrize-goers his live-in project could offer a solution to the “backward system of homelessness.”

“With these shelters, we could have 100 people off the streets and more public art,” Blank said.

A few blocks up the street from Blank’s recycled home, Grand Rapids’ Kendall College of Art and Design ushered spectators through its revolving doors to contemplate a jumble of digital art.

Jenny Start, a sophomore majoring in graphic design at Kendall College, supervised a room of digital projectors casting flickering images across its white walls.

“In high school, I wasn’t big into art,” Start said. “ArtPrize helps kids see more art, be more aware of it, and celebrate it. Art shows self-expression … and with ArtPrize you can share that self-expression with others.”

As she spoke, a pack of 15 elementary school students stumbled into the room, hollering to their friends as they spied the projectors and lasers tucked into corners.

“If nothing else, ArtPrize is a good introduction to looking at art,” Bushey said. “If you lived through ArtPrize, maybe you’ll go to an actual museum.”