Jennifer's 365 Project

I finally checked out the Artprize entries through the skywalk. The DeVos Place was pretty full of people. I feel like there are a lot more people wandering around during the week days this year. I didn't go last year so maybe the turn out was similar then.

I walked around downtown a little on my lunch break to take in all of the new Artprize exhibits. It officially launched yesterday but I've been seeing things crop up over the past week.
There are plenty of big and small entries and they're all different types of mediums. It's was pretty packed today compared to what downtown is usually like. The event really does a lot of getting people into downtown Grand Rapids.

Artprize is over, but the giant fortune cookie fortunes are still up around downtown.

Due to the government shutdown today, the Gerald R Ford museum is closed. That means any Artprize entries, including anything in the Top 10, wouldn't be view-able to the public. So the folks at the museum moved everything outdoors and under tents, so people could still vote.

One of the Artprize installations near my work features stealthy kitties in the bushes. And in a tree next to it as well.

I will say that Artprize really does bring a lot of people downtown. Normally this area is pretty sparse during the week, except at lunch.

We took a morning stroll around downtown Grand Rapids, checking out the Artprize entries. There are certainly less giant sculptures all over this year as compared to previous years.

It was overcast most of the day and rainy at lunch, so I took and umbrella and headed over to the Blue Bridge to see additional Artprize exhibits and to get out of the office. Not a bad way to spend the lunch hour.

I took a stroll around downtown Grand Rapids, since the weather was pretty nice and all my usual haunts are filled with people due to Artprize. While I was walking around, I came across a lightpole that was yarn bombed.
 A little further down Division, I came across another...
...and another. Pretty soon all the trees and fixtures were yarn-bombed, including part of an Artprize sign.

Apparently this is an Artprize entry. I am amused.

Now I'm just hungry....

Took a walk through the skywalk today and saw several Artprize installations going up. There are lots of interesting things through the hallway between the Amway Grand and Devos Hall.

Every year it seems, Artprize has at least one of each of the following:

• an over-sized entry of Gerald R Ford (this year a large bronze-colored bust of Ford)
• religiously themed art
• a dragon.

This year is no exception. There were plenty of dragons around. Don't get me wrong, I do love dragons (I have two dragon tattoos and tons of pewter dragons), but I feel like it's a bit much at this point.

This entry, however, I was more impressed with than past entries. While still a dragon, it's certainly a different take and not crafted of your typical welded metal statue. It's also more in the style of a Chinese dragon as opposed to the European style seen typically here in the United States.

In the evening we watched the debate between the two presidential candidates from the major political parties here in the United States (Democrats and Republicans).

It was pretty lackluster, but I wasn't expecting much either. I'd much prefer if they had more parties out on stage, but I can see why it wouldn't be in the interest of either major party to include anyone else. The debate  is mostly a dog and pony show.

Sometime next week I think I'm going to try to listen to the Democracy Now version where they paused the debate and included responses from two additional candidates (Green Party and Justice Party). It's about 3 hours so I may listen to it in sections rather than straight through.

Anyway, after the debate we fired up Skype on Chris's tablet and talked to Adam and Comfort a bit to discuss politics and life in general. Good times.

Chris's dad came over from White Lake today to hang out and check out Artprize.

We wandered around in and out of a few buildings downtown, including DeVos hall (which is normally pretty empty during the week).

There were all kinds of interesting things, including a giant sand castle, obligatory Gerald R Ford sculpture, and some metal dragons.
The most interesting thing, I thought, was the SiTE:LAB venue. I wasn't terribly interested in this last year, but this year they are apparently in the old Grand Rapids Public Museum.
And the old museum has a lot of the displays still in it.
So the SiTE:LAB setup has a lot of art intermingled with the existing displays.
Honestly it was a little disheartening. The museum has apparently been closed for 15 years (which explains why I've never heard of it - I've only lived here for 7).
There are holes in the walls and displays partially dismantled. It certainly would need a lot of work. Plus there is the in-use Grand Rapids Public Museum downtown which is situated in a better location next to Gerald R Ford Museum. I assume that the museum was moved to it's current location and this old building was just left abandoned.

We certainly only just scratched the surface. We didn't go near the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids Public Library, Kendall College of Art and Design, or any of the small restaurant venues.
After we got back from wandering around downtown, Chris and his dad performed some minor surgery on the grill and discussed various house modifications and fixes.

I took a stroll through the the skywalk today. There are a lot of Artprize entries up...
..including a massive wall of dogs running. Woof!

Downtown is slowly being transformed for Artprize, which officially starts on 9/19/2012.

I have no idea if this seahorse is an Artprize entry (I dont see a sign up and a few of the other entries up do have signs) but it did show up recently so I can only assume.
They've also added a new (I think) thing to Artprize - walking tours. These may have existed in the two prior years, but I certainly didn't see any spray painted stencils leading you through downtown.

They have a three, six, and nine mile tour. I'll have to poke around and see if they have a map anywhere. I'd like to see how they're getting 9 miles out of downtown. I'm guessing by snaking up and down and back and forth through most of the blocks downtown.

My parents and little brother came out to spend the day in Grand Rapids, celebrate a bunch of our birthday's at once (September and October are busy birthday months) and check out Artprize.

Artprize was...disappointing. There are a lot more businesses getting in on the action, as well as charities and other non-profits peddling their respective causes.

I don't have a problem with commercial art or non-profits asking for donations. I do have a problem with them being given venue space in what is supposed to be a fine arts event. I'm at Artprize to enjoy the art, maybe catch a bite to eat, and enjoy downtown. I'm not at Artprize to choose your bank (since you're sponsoring a kitschy photo booth in the hopes that I'll switch from a competitor) or decide that I want to help all the orphans in the world.

Since the venue chooses what to display, I suspect a lot of venues are just happy to loan space to whoever will drive traffic into their establishment. And that's a problem. (At least for me. Maybe other people are fine with it.) They should have more rules in place to restrict the entries like WMU flying a giant banner of horses which happens to be their mascot. You can't tell me that's not an advertisement for the college.
There was a nice ustream critical discourse on the Top 10 entries that is worth watching at least part of. And there's an opinion piece in The Rapidian that has some suggestions on how to improve the event in the future.

This is not to say the entire event is a waste of time and chock-full of glorified lawn ornaments - no. There are some great pieces. One of my favorite so far has been Lady of the Dance, which is entirely sculpted. There is some awesome stitching detail up the side of the woman's shirt that you can't see in photos.

Since I work downtown I have plenty of time over the next week and a half to check out some of additional venues I did not see over the weekend. I'm sure there are other awesome entries just off the beaten path.

Chris has some pretty good thoughts on Artprize as well.

A co-worker and I headed on our lunch break to walk around and take in some sights. We were both looking to take a break and enjoy the weather before it started to rain. So we wandered around and looked at a few Art Prize venues. Specifically we stopped at SiteLab, which is using a building that, for as long as I have been working downtown, has been empty. Three floors of stuff.

Interesting. But I'm terrible with Art venues. Hell, half the time when I read comics I'm literally just reading them - not looking at any of the art.

Weird, since I get fussy with what video games look like.

Anyway, looking forward to walking around a bit more downtown later this week and this weekend with my parents. Fingers crossed it doesn't rain much the rest of the week.

My parents came out today to check out ArtPrize in Grand Rapids and celebrate some birthdays with family.  So we all spent a few hours walking up and down the streets of downtown, checking out the various art exhibits.  We spent most of the time walking outdoors since the weather was relatively nice.

Today's lunch was an ArtPrize filled one.  Lori and I met up and walked through The B.O.B., around it, and into the Huntington Bank building.  It's about the halfway point for each of us on lunch so it was a good meeting spot.

Saw a lot of interesting things, including some very colorful sculptures of ice you see to the left.

For lunch this Friday Lori and I decided we'd try to get some ArtPrize viewing in.  Since there are a lot of venue options, both inside and out, we played it by ear to see what the weather was like.

Come lunch it was pretty windy and had just finished raining, though it looked like it might rain more.  So we bounced from the Grand Rapids Art Museum to the Waters Building to see a few things before heading back to work for the afternoon.

So far I've just seen a few exhibits on lunch and a short stroll with Chris.  Here's a few shots I've taken with my palm pre thus far.