ArtPrize 2010

There are big things going on in Grand Rapids! It's the second annual Artprize competion. Grand Rapids Artprize brings artists from all over the world to be part of a public vote for a huge prize.
With a first prize of $250,000, more than 17,000 artists and 192 venues, the city is packed with art; on the sidewalks, in restaurants, hotels, parks, on the bridges and along the river! It's an amazing thing to see and people are coming from all over to see the art and to vote for their favorite.
My sister Terri and I spent the day on Thursday wandering around the city. We saw so many things and I'm going to share a few of our favorites, along with a few things that we didn't care for.

A spun glass exhibit.

I don't know what these are called but I thought they were pretty cool.

This is not what I consider art, but it made me laugh. This is an outfit to prevent social interaction. The hood makes you look straight ahead and not talk to anyone. I told Terri we should get one for her, because we always tease her that wherever she goes, she finds someone to talk to - and she talks a lot!

This was an exhibit on adoption, featuring these kids that were adopted here in the US and internationally.

This exhibit was so fun! There were all these tubes hanging down and when you walked through them, they made a variety of musical sounds. Jean Stauffer - I thought of Austin and how much he would have loved this one.

Does this look like art to you? We thought it looked like someone was cleaning their office, but I guess everyone has different tastes.

This one is made of 10,000 bars of Neutrogena soap. It smelled so good in this room!

Even the local news trucks are getting into the competition.

This exhibit is called Elephant Walk and is next to the Children's Museum. Their heads bob when the wind blows.

We liked this dragon.

This was one of our favorites. It's Martin Luther King; past, present and future. Here's the amazing part of it - it's made of Rubik's cubes; 4282 of them to be exact!

Here is a closeup of it. I can't imagine turning all those cubes to get the colors right and figuring out where each color should go.

This mosaic frog is reading the Lily Pad Daily.

This one isn't exciting to look at but so fun to see. When people walk up or wave their hands by the sensor, different chords would play. We saw a little boy having fun jumping up and down with a big smile on his face, listening to the music he was making.

This picture doesn't do this justice. There are all kinds of animals carved out of the roots - an eagle at the top, a turtle at the bottom, fish swimming out, a toucan, squirrels and foxes. It was really well done.

One man painted pianos and set them all over the city, so people could play on the streets. I played this one and we heard a few others as we walked.

This entire family of lions was made of nails.

Here is a closeup, so you can see the details.

Another neat dragon.

This is Parsifal, the steam pig. The idea was taken from a book by Jules Verne. Can you believe the size of it?

We had a great time and are already looking forward to next year!