Art News:
**MEDIA ALERT** **MEDIA ALERT** **MEDIA ALERT**
ARTPRIZE TO CLOSE CONNECTIONS JUNE 21
WILL ANNOUNCE TOTAL ENTRIES AND VENUES
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. June 18, 2012 – ArtPrize, the radically open, international art competition, will announce its final tally of entries and venues following the closure of Connections Period on Thursday, June 21, 2012 at 5:00 p.m.
As of Monday, June 18, nearly 1,000 entries had successfully matched with a venue. All Connections are made online at artprize.org. While some venues and exhibition centers have completed curating their ArtPrize exhibitions, many will be selecting artists' entries up to Thursday’s deadline.
In 2011, 1,582 entries from 36 countries and 42 states brought their work to 164 venues within three-square miles of downtown Grand Rapids, Mich. More than 322,000 people participated in the 19-day event, submitting 382,000 votes, to engage in a critical dialog about contemporary art at an epic scale.
ArtPrize 2012 will take place Sept. 19-Oct. 7, 2012. Artists who successfully match with a venue will compete for a combination of public votes and juried prizes to secure part of the world’s largest art prize, totaling $560,000.
WHAT Connections Period closes
WHO Catherine Creamer, executive director, ArtPrize
WHEN Thursday, June 21, 2012
5:00 p.m.
CONTACT: Brian Burch, ArtPrize
ABOUT ARTPRIZE
The ArtPrize event is a radically open, international art competition and social experiment, focused on expanding and broadening the conversation about art. Registered artists and venues match with one another at artprize.org and the public votes for the winners using mobile devices and the Web. ArtPrize 2011 included 1,582 artists from 39 countries and 43 U.S. states, as well as nearly 400,000 people who participated in the unprecedented event that awarded $498,000 to the prize winners. Since its inception, individuals of all backgrounds have cast more than 1.2 million votes for public art.
--------------------------
Brian Burch
Public Relations Director
616-214-7921
616-828-9813 c
