Beer O'Clock brings together Grand Rapids' finest with new art crawl ArtPrize map

As the end of September catapults the city of Grand Rapids into its annual frenzy of citywide art installations, the trio behind Beer O’Clock Grand Rapids hopes to bring together the best of what Beer City, U.S.A. has to offer during its annual ArtPrize event with its new “art crawl map.”

Available as a PDF printout on Beer O’Clock Grand Rapids’ website, the art crawl map features a guided route through seven major ArtPrize venues with stops at 12 bars offering happy hour deals along the way. 

Daniel VanderMolen, who worked with Tyler Doornbos (North Sea Studio) and Megan Streng to create and launch the Beer O’Clock Grand Rapids website last March, says the idea came to the group during last year’s ArtPrize event.

“We talked about how last year when we went down, we didn’t have a real specific route for what we wanted to do and just kind of ended up going around aimlessly,” VanderMolen says. “Because we're Beer O'Clock and our big thing is happy hour, or going out and grabbing a drink, we figured if we could create a map that would take people through ArtPrize in a more specific way and hit up some of the hot spots while still getting to hit up some of our other favorite things, like the best happy hour deals, it would be the perfect mix.” 

VanderMolen says the team cross-referenced the most popular ArtPrize venues – like the area outside of the B.O.B. and DeVos Place – with some of the best happy hour deals in the city, coming up with locations that include Sundance Bar & Grille, One Trick Pony, Rockwell Republic, Pyramid Scheme and Bobarino's at the B.O.B., to name a few. 

Should any art crawlers lose their PDF printout during their travels or find themselves wanting to join in halfway through, VanderMolen says Beer O’Clock Grand Rapids has an additional 1,200 print-outs of the map that will be placed in key locations throughout the route.   

“We actually walked the map before we went and finalized the print for it,” he says. “We went in and talked to all different bars and talked to them about if it was something they would be interested in, and the reaction from just the bars alone was fantastic. We're pretty confident that it's going to have a good response.” 

Click here to visit the Beer O’Clock Grand Rapids website and print out your own art crawl map. 


Written by Anya Zentmeyer
Images courtesy of Beer O’Clock Grand Rapids 


Related articles:
Local design firm launches Beer O'Clock Grand Rapids