ArtPrize® is an annual, international art competition in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It’s a celebration of conversations, experimentation, ideas, and inclusiveness. ArtPrize is free, open to the public, and to any artist working in the mediums of visual or experiential art who has work to enter and a venue eager to host that work. For two weeks, art is exhibited throughout the city in public parks and museums, in galleries and vacant storefronts, in bars and on bridges. ArtPrize awards over $400,000 directly to artists through both popular and juried voting. In addition, they distribute over $200,000 in annual grants to support the ambitious work of eligible participating Artists.

Grand Valley State University has been active in ArtPrize since the festival's inception in 2009, as an ArtPrize sponsor, venue, and programming partner. The University's participation has evolved, changing in step with the competition. In addition, GVSU has actively collected works of art for its permanent collection from past ArtPrize years. These pieces are on display across the Allendale and Grand Rapids campuses.

This year we will be hosting New York-based artist Daniel Roberts and his piece Gathering Currents from September 13-28. 

The sculpture is installed on the GVSU Grand Rapids Pew Campus outside the L.V. Eberhard Center and next to the Blue Bridge.

Artist Statement - Daniel Roberts is a sculptor working with themes of loss and change, memory, and the everyday. Beginning his work directly from encounters, found objects, and people, he uses daily life as inspiration to develop shapes that carry contemplative and immediate narratives. This particular stainless steel sculpture, "Gathering Currents" is from a body of work conceived as a celebratory study of the complex knot-like movement of the East River's tidal waters. Roberts' studio looks out over the river, and he was fascinated by the twice daily tidal change which continually twists the current back onto itself. His goal in making sculpture is to create work that feels unplanned yet urgent—like a portrait of the life we live in the city; evocative of intimacy and memory, of change and touch, and of passing time.

Artist Bio - Daniel Roberts (b. 1984 Oregon) is a sculptor who lives and works in Queens NY. He has shown recently with Slag Gallery, Second Ave Arts, and The Brooklyn Rail’s expansive show “Singing in Unison”. He has exhibited his outdoor sculpture publicly in New York’s bustling West Village, and in Detroit, Michigan as part of the Movement Festival in Hart Plaza. He received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2011, and his BFA from Oregon State University in 2008. He is based in Long Island City, Queens NY.

To learn more about other artists and venues, and to vote for your favorites, please visit ArtPrize.

In 2023, GVSU hosted local artist J Brett Grill and his piece Mathias J. Alten. This work is larger than a life-size bronze sculpture of regional artist Mathias J. Alten. The work was commissioned by the late granddaughter of Mathias Alten, Anita M. Gilleo (1924 – 2023).

The work is installed at the GVSU Pew Campus Mount Vernon Pedestrian Mall next to the L. William Seidman Center. The work is now a permanent part of the GVSU art collection and will also have an accompanying augmented reality component, which will bring the sculpture to life via the Art at GVSU mobile app.

The artist, J. Brett Grill, is a sculptor of figurative bronzes, monuments, and portraits. He worked as an Associate Professor of Art and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Missouri for 10 years and now maintains a studio in Grand Rapids, MI. Brett has sculpted presidents, politicians, athletes, coaches, and other leaders. His commissioned sculptures can be found in public and private collections across the nation including the University of Kentucky, the University of Michigan, Grand Valley State University, Albion College, the New Hampshire State Library, the USS Gerald R. Ford, the City of Grand Rapids, the City of Charlotte, and the National Statuary Hall Collection.

For ArtPrize 2022 we hosted work by California-based artist Scott Froschauer from his series The Word on the Street and The Peace Signs. The GVSU venue was located on the pedestrian pathways outside the L.V. Eberhard Center on the Grand Rapids Pew Campus, where the Blue Bridge meets the west bank of the Grand River.

Froschauer’s work is familiar yet surprising, taking the form of street signs but communicating messages of hope and positivity, rather than municipal warnings. Of his work, Froschauer states, “By using the materials and visual language of street signs, but replacing the traditional negative wording (Stop, Do Not Enter, Wrong Way…) with positive affirmations, The Word on the Street seeks to provide something that is missing from our daily visual diet.”

The Peace Signs series takes these ideas one step further and challenges viewers to consider their role in creating and reinforcing social standards of behavior. These works take the form of parking zone signs but utilize the text of the Lao-Tse poem Peace in the Heart translated into many different languages. Froschauer describes this project as "an exploration in visualizing world peace." 

Rethinking Street Signs Activity | Inspired by the Work of Scott Froschauer

Designed for grades 6-12, but adaptable for all ages, in this activity students will look closely at and think critically about the visual language of municipal street signs and other ‘official’ signs in their environments. They’ll question the impact of these signs in their day-to-day lives. They’ll re-imagine and create their own signs with alternative messages.

Lesson Plan

During ArtPrize 2021 GVSU hosted two massive sculptures; Jason Quigno's Infinity Cube, at L.V. Eberhard Center; and José Marcelino Valdez and Gerson Valdez-Cordòn's Mayan Stelae Of King K'ak' Tiliw Chan Topaat, at L. William Seidman Center.

To support engagement with Jason Quigno's sculpture, we created this lesson plan and activity for 3-6 grade. Students can learn more about Infinity Cube and the artist's subtractive carving process.