Heard of Artprize yet? It’s happening now in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. It’s more fun than I could have imagined, it’s brought over 1200 artists to our town, it’s got all sorts of people looking, and it’s boosting the moral of my Michigan community. It also comes with a $250,000 prize to the artist whose work is voted best in show. Of course, we all have our own opinions on who that should be and the conversations and who to see and what we all think is creating a great buzz here.

I’m just one of the people buzzing. My name is Beth, and yes, I’m an Artprize geek.

I keep my event map in a plastic sleeve and highlight each venue as I see it. This makes it easier to plan where to go next. I’ve got my official 144-page “Your Guide to Navigating Artprize” paperback and take it with me as I peruse the city. I paid 15 bucks for it and it came with an orange rubber “voter” bracelet that gets me on the city bus for free during the event – bonus. I circle and make notations next to the artists I plan to vote for, and then check them off once I cast my vote. I don’t own a cell phone so texting my votes isn’t an option. Still, it’s satisfying to go to the website and click on the thumbs up or thumbs down. I’m mostly a thumbs up kind of girl allowing for all kinds of expression, although there is one artist that is definitely getting the big thumbs down. More on him later.

There are some real gems here. And some wonderful surprises. Like the black-and-white image of a swimmer projected on the outside of the art museum last night. It reminds me of an old-timie cartoon and it was fun to watch as my friend Linda and I rode by on our bicycle rickshaw. One of the Dufala brothers rode his toilet tricycle downtown during the lunch hour the other day…delightfully, it seemed perfectly natural to me. And I’m “following” an artist whose drawings hang in the lobby of the building were I work. His work is one of the gems I’ve found. His detailed execution is amazingly good.

I’m blessed to have work and also to work pretty much right smack dab in the middle of Artprize. The world headquarters is just across the street. I go out everyday for lunch with a different destination in mind. It’s not my goal to see all 159 venues, although I’ve already seen 42 of them, and it’s only the third day. Part of the beauty of the event is that the venues were volunteered. Restaurants, museums, colleges, city buildings, bridges, street corners, churches, the Grand River, and office buildings are hosting the art. Even a laundromat got in on it. Within a designated boundary, Artprize is pretty much everywhere. If you’re an art lover, and even if you’re not, this is big.