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ArtPrize and Project 1 - Grand Rapids


GRDadof3

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While I highly doubt that's what will be anounced, I am quite intrigued by this vision of the future. In many ways it seems a mix of Rousseau, Marx, Bakunin etc...

The strong association with one name/company dashes my hopes that it'll be a Transition Town official unleashing. I hope that official Transition Town status is in Grand Rapids [not distant] future though.

My guess -- and it's a stab in the dark, is some green space and/or recreation facility and/or entertaiment/mixed use development that uses the river to greater advantage. That keeps it pretty broad, eh?

Edited by radicaljoy
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While I applaud them for their ambition, if this is what they are doing....

Do you really want to bring in an international audience for an art competition to GR???

People that are used to some of the most beautiful, sophisticated cities on Earth will be in total WTF shock when they get here.

As much as I love GR, this could embarrass us more than help. Art people are by nature very critical and wont hesitate to tell everyone about all the short comings of our town. The things we think are really cool about us are not gonna impress these folks. You may not get them to come back for year two of the competition.

"If there is something like that that's going on in the community everybody kind of benefits from it," said Cooper, "whether it's the art bringing people down, local business, and everybody around the area is going to benefit from it."

"Something that could bring in those kind of dollars and that kind of interest worldwide could be significant to the community," said Reuter, "it's a bit of a landmark we can now put on the map that they won't otherwise know about."

Yikes... if they say so. :dontknow:

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While I applaud them for their ambition, if this is what they are doing....

Do you really want to bring in an international audience for an art competition to GR???

People that are used to some of the most beautiful, sophisticated cities on Earth will be in total WTF shock when they get here.

As much as I love GR, this could embarrass us more than help. Art people are by nature very critical and wont hesitate to tell everyone about all the short comings of our town. The things we think are really cool about us are not gonna impress these folks. You may not get them to come back for year two of the competition.

Yikes... if they say so. :dontknow:

To say my thoughts nicely, I'll just say that you are MORE THAN 110% WRONG!

~John

Edited by John E
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While I applaud them for their ambition, if this is what they are doing....

Do you really want to bring in an international audience for an art competition to GR???

People that are used to some of the most beautiful, sophisticated cities on Earth will be in total WTF shock when they get here.

As much as I love GR, this could embarrass us more than help. Art people are by nature very critical and wont hesitate to tell everyone about all the short comings of our town. The things we think are really cool about us are not gonna impress these folks. You may not get them to come back for year two of the competition.

Yikes... if they say so. :dontknow:

I think "real" artists aren't as snobbish as you might think. The Meijer Gardens hosts an international sculpture conference twice a year (?) now, and I don't think attendees think it's a joke or bad mouth Grand Rapids.

$500,000 is a HUGE prize for an art competition (probably $500,000 in total prizes for multiple categories), so it's bound to get some national if not international attention. Plus, if this is combined with an outdoor "real" art festival (think AA Art Fair), I think it could be a hit. Is it going to make GR a mecca for young people or change GR's landscape forever? ehhhhhh...prolly not.

We'll have to see what the details are.

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As much as I love GR, this could embarrass us more than help.

You are absolutely wrong about this. I've worked with numerous, internationally renowned artists and dozens of art journalists, and ALL of them are unequivocally impressed with Grand Rapids and our open embrace of art--more specifically public sculpture.

What I've found most satisfying is to hear the shock and amazement that these people, who hail from NYC, Seattle, London and Paris, have when they see the flowing prominence of La Grande Vitesse, set against the lines of the City and County buildings--AND THEN their remarks when they realize that our city flag and the logo used on all of our city vehicles (even the garbage trucks) include this beautiful sculpture.

They see it and immediately know that Grand Rapids is a city that defines itself by it's public art.

If this IS an art competition, I say bring it. But bring it AWESOME, not like the lame excuse for a social network that Spout has become.

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Interesting.

If TV3 is right, this is a bit of a letdown, but that was inevitable given the ham-handed way the announcement has been handled.

Yes, a major art fair and competition are nice additions and beat more bad news (!!), but this could have been done with a bit more polish and subtlety.

This much spin and hype doesn't exactly mesh with the notion of attracting the creative class.

And no, it is not like attracting Google, and that's how the media have been treating this. Bad move on their part, but they are understaffed (sadly).

If this is it, it is nice for downtown, but not a lot of relevance to 90% of West Michigan or the "youth" audience of the talking points.

Edited by 201test
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Should be interesting if any national media (or national arts media) picks up on this, and how quickly. Methinks that will be the truer test of what kind of impact this will have.

(not that I, or anyone else should care about how we're covered in the press/media, but isn't that part of the motivation behind this? EDIT: I guess what I'm trying to say is if this doesn't get a blip in the NY Times arts section, it doesn't exist in a lot of peoples minds)

Edited by Kib
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Should be interesting if any national media (or national arts media) picks up on this, and how quickly. Methinks that will be the truer test of what kind of impact this will have.

(not that I, or anyone else should care about how we're covered in the press/media, but isn't that part of the motivation behind this?)

No, if media coverage were the metric, RiverGrand would have been a home run project.

I think the test is what the Rick project does for the community in the next 1, 3 and 5 years.

Do more folks come here from more than three hours away (CVB metric)?

Does it improve the quality of life overall?

Do we have more 20- and 30-somethings downtown?

Do we have a more diverse downtown business base?

Meijer Gardens has accomplished a lot on the first two points and gained national and international media in the bargain.

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No. I still think you are 13% off on your assessment of 97% right. When I have seen write ups about grand rapids by large magazines and newspapers, I don't remember them calling Grand Rapids a cess pool or backwater country. Quaint may be used ad nauseum. Charming and shocked also come to mind.

Grand Rapids doesn't need Napoleon complex. We're not Chicago, New York or L.A. We're GR, and that isn't a bad thing. We need more culture, but it sounds like this is what we're about to get (if Channel 3 is correct).

Joe

Alright then if I'm "110%" wrong. :rolleyes:

But I have a feeling that I'm 97% right, but good luck to them anyway. They built this up to being a real city-changing event. Now they are going to have to deliver just that.

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I agree if this is about an art competition it'll be great news for some, but a big yawn for me. Given the apparent association this announcement has with Spout, I suspect any competition is more likely to be movie-related.

Either way, it's not something of interest to me, and - as others have already pointed out - there are already several, well-established movie festivals in West Michigan. It'll undoubtedly sell a lot of hotel rooms and the subsequent boost to the GR economy can't be bad.

At this point I'm pretty convinced it's just a publicity stunt for something which will benefit relatively few people, but good luck to them.

I hope it boosts GR's visibility on a national (or even international) level because of the other benefits that brings with it.

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Interesting.

If TV3 is right, this is a bit of a letdown, but that was inevitable given the ham-handed way the announcement has been handled.

Yes, a major art fair and competition are nice additions and beat more bad news (!!), but this could have been done with a bit more polish and subtlety.

This much spin and hype doesn't exactly mesh with the notion of attracting the creative class.

And no, it is not like attracting Google, and that's how the media have been treating this. Bad move on their part, but they are understaffed (sadly).

If this is it, it is nice for downtown, but not a lot of relevance to 90% of West Michigan or the "youth" audience of the talking points.

Where has the media treated this like Devos was attracting Google? You can't blame the media for finding the invitations a bit cryptic, and speculating on it. And even that included some pretty understandable speculation, like a film studio, since the state is doling out $Millions and others are being built in other Michigan cities (and Spout is film related). In addition, we still don't know what Pomegranate Studios is, which is related to Spout somehow.

Whatever the announcement is tomorrow, so far, the only information out there is from "unnamed sources." I could be an unnamed source. That's why most media outlets don't use unnamed sources.

One interesting observation is that a lot of buzz has been created around the announcement, and primarily locally, and not around the actual thing. That seems backwards to me.

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I'm just going to throw this out there as a strong suggestion:

In the future, Rick (and probably the rest of his family as well !!! ) should run his (their) ideas past all of us wise and knowledgeable Urban Planet members, well in advance of actually pursuing them. Who does this guy think he is, anyway?!? Sheesh.

I sure hope he's reading UP tonight, I want him to get the message in a hurry!

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I agree if this is about an art competition it'll be great news for some, but a big yawn for me. Given the apparent association this announcement has with Spout, I suspect any competition is more likely to be movie-related.

Either way, it's not something of interest to me, and - as others have already pointed out - there are already several, well-established movie festivals in West Michigan. It'll undoubtedly sell a lot of hotel rooms and the subsequent boost to the GR economy can't be bad.

At this point I'm pretty convinced it's just a publicity stunt for something which will benefit relatively few people, but good luck to them.

I hope it boosts GR's visibility on a national (or even international) level because of the other benefits that brings with it.

Agreed. Maybe I'm just too simple-minded to appreciate something of such high culture but art, especially modern art, just doesn't do it for me.

Edited by j3shafer
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Whatever it is, I sincerely hope it involves actually making/doing/creating something, and NOT just creating an "event" or "process" for others (competing artists, filmmakers, etc.)

Amway actually MAKES great vitamins, makeup and other products. VAI is actually looking for a cure for cancer. Heck, Pam DeVos even designs the clothes for her fashion line.

Events, venue and processes have value and can certainly lead to good things...but GRAM, Meijer Gardens and the Louvre would all be one-visit destinations without the work inside.

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.......ArtPrize, eh? OK then. Sounds interesting. Could be fun. I like the feel of a citywide event that gets people out and about and visiting different parts of town. It could become the midwestern, small town, family values version of Burning Man. I'm looking forward to it. Rock on.

:thumbsup:

Edited by wingbert
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