GRAND RAPIDS (WKZO AM/FM) — The ninth annual ArtPrize begins today in downtown Grand Rapids.
The world’s biggest and richest art competition continues to evolve from the first year when the general public picked all the winners.
Now a good portion of the total prize money is awarded by art critics and professionals.
It’s really become the two richest art competitions in the world, one for the public and one for the art community, which has been reluctant to take the competition seriously. ‘
The event draws about half a million people to downtown Grand Rapids during the two week competition and that makes it a success, regardless of what anyone thinks about the art.
Guinness World Record officials will be in Grand Rapids today to weigh what could be the largest bean bag in the world. At 24-feet by 26-feet, it’s as big as a small home and will weigh 13-hundred pounds.
The bean bag, which is also an ArtPrize entry, was still being stitched together yesterday by Comfort Research, which makes them in normal human size for sale all over the U.S.
Crews will use a crane to lift the comfy ArtPrize entry on to the roof of Lambert, Edwards and Associates.
The official measuring is set to take place at 5:30 pm.
Not all of the furniture made in the “Furniture City” is apparently made of wood or steel. Some of it is full of beans.
The ArtPrize entries that get the most publicity are often the pieces that become winners, for whatever reason.
It would not help the credibility of the art competition if a giant bean bag took top honors.
Voting begins at noon today.
