So, now we are at the end of ArtPrize 3 and I have to ask myself, “What have we learned over three years?” It is a question on the lips of many.
Most importantly, where do we go from here?
Since ArtPrize, at its core, has been fierce in saying their event is about the conversation, I offer up my open letter here in the hopes that we can encourage some dialog as we look to the years ahead.
I will admit that in the past, ArtPrize has been very defensive about some of the feedback, but let’s be honest: most of us (present company included) only talk about this city event, one of the many that dot our event calendar each year, only when the event is happening.
This is probably not the best time to bring up critiques when the staff is in the throes of just keeping the machine running smoothly.
In any case, I offer up my three suggestions at a time when I know that ArtPrize is meeting behind closed doors to determine what worked, what didn’t and what should be done to recapture the glory of year one when things were not so calculated.
It is time for a reboot and this is a good thing. It also goes without saying that the venues will either make or break this event. In short, less circus sideshow-style pandering and more serious curation, or the party is over.
Right out of the gate, I want to offer a radical addition to ArtPrize’s platform, based upon where we are as the public.
The handheld market is not where it was in year one. In fact, in the 20 years from 1990 to 2010, the worldwide mobile phone marketplace grew from 12.4 million to more than 4.6 billion.
Let’s make a leap in our technology-based application where we take the model set up by recent players like Foursquare that awards badges for those who show a willingness to be adventurous.
Think of this as an electronic version of getting a Montessori-style education where the public is free to wander and experience art at their pace.
By encouraging them to venture out to venues where they must check in with their phone from WITHIN the exhibition space and not just driving by as most do presently, they will have the chance to do what the off-the-beaten path venues and artists who exhibit there have been asking in one way or another for three years running.
This reward-based system should be more than just colorful neighborhood badges displayed on your phone, but also create the chance for one’s vote to carry more weight as similarity done on Amazon when they enable reviewers who log the most critiques to rise to the top as an “authority.”
I am avoiding the world “elite,” because that would imply smart, studied or actual degreed people -- and we know how much Americans love them. But let’s be honest, education is a good thing, even in art, so let’s cut through the crap talk about elites in year four.
Not only could these fresh and wandering art critics rise to the top thought their increased footprint, they could also be given super votes that count for more than just one.
Through this expanded model where the use of smartphones is encouraged, it will be easier for ArtPrize’s development office to attract national dollars from companies like Google, Pepsi or AT&T.
However, I would suggest any provider be required to upgrade Grand Rapids’ wireless infrastructure before implementation to avoid the endless delays in connections from this year’s influx of handheld users that resulted in many crashes and unnecessary missed connections.
As an informed voter who has experienced a lot of what ArtPrize offers, this person’s vote could not only grow in weight during the first round of voting (which needs to be extended as well), but it could also become a Super Vote worth much more than just one single vote. If we have gotten used to many up votes, then we surely can warm up to the idea that the more art you see, the more your vote counts.
I, for one, would be more than happy to ask a person who saw all the work their opinion than a person who just showed up at a party in a parking lot.
The next idea is one that has been pouring in from various sources but in the end, they are all saying the same thing: Expand the first week of voting to a longer period of time which would encourage real buzz to grow in our community. At the same time, limit the number of up votes one can deliver in this period of time. It could be a round number like 10 or maybe even as low as five.
This way we engage the public not in some random drive-by style of voting, but encourage them to thoughtfully cast their vote. Gone would be the random “like” option that many of us have eschewed on our Facebook walls in the past in the hopes it would create less clutter in our lives.
In the coming weeks, I know a few of these folks will present their views to ArtPrize staffers about this system and I hope their concerns will be taken to heart.
The last one is asking ArtPrize not to shut out the voices in our community who have spent our lives in the study of art. Our current city art reputation has evolved because of the collective voices that have transferred to paper, to canvas, to video, to stage, to … well, you get the picture.
No one group owns our city’s transformation and neither will ArtPrize. We can all stop puffing up our press releases as the saviors of our urban core. It takes a village and, in this case, a village of creatives, to find our way to year four.
If you trust me on this last point and are willing to share the wheel with people in our community who have resumes in the study of art and systems, more than your staff’s collective history of such experience, then you we will need less outsiders coming in to bring legitimacy to the event. We have the chops to make it work and if we build it as a community with the goal of elevating art and not junk, then we will have a chance to recapture the attention of the outside world we seem to crave a bit too much some days.
I believe in the power of the group just as much as you do. But as the passengers, who are all experienced drivers and have been down this bumpy art road can tell you, it only takes a few missed turns before the passengers and experienced drivers will shut up or just simply choose not to ride along anymore.
The backseat driver in this case is the person you should be willing to engage in dialog, but your reply has to be more than, “My car, my rules.” That’s not dialog, that’s just plain dumb. Taking new exits or turns always leads to discovery.
After three years, we have enough data in these areas to know the current path is going to be much bumpier if we do nothing.
Dialog is at the core of your mission and art is my life as well as my love. It is mine, and that of our community’s artists, but I believe it is yours, too.
Lets work together to find the next steps.
The Future Needs All of Us (to engage voices within).
Tommy Allen, Lifestyle Editor
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