Last year, CEOs for
Cities President Carol Coletta published an article in Good entitled,
"What an ArtPrize in Michigan Can Teach Us About Building Better
Cities." The article highlighted multiple lessons Coletta felt could be
learned from the ArtPrize model including "the value of giving people
permission to be entrepreneurial," "rapid prototyping," and
decentralization:
"The competition makes it clear that the middle, once
again, is threatened and may soon become obsolete. The middle, in the case of
ArtPrize, are the arbiters of taste. DeVos' deep belief in decentralization
resulted in a platform to match buyers (initially, those with exhibition space
and ultimately, voters) and sellers (artists) directly to one another."
As ArtPrize moves into year two, we at Rapid Growth Media
thought it would be appropriate to ask Coletta about her opinions regarding
ArtPrize's sophomore effort.
RGM: Now that it's bean a year, I'd like an overall opinion
regarding your perception of ArtPrize -- how you think it's going to go, and
what changes you think will be implemented.
CC: First of all, I think the first year was better than
they could have ever expected. I've been involved in a lot of events over the
years -- creating and producing them -- and the success of year one was really
breathtaking. It's clear that the word got around. You can see what's happening
this year is better, and somewhat bigger, but certainly better -- there's the
quality of the work, the recognition of ArtPrize and the legitimate art
undertaking. But it's about more than art. It's about engagement, and I think
that people very much are respecting ArtPrize for the lessons even in just one
year that it taught us. I can't wait to see what happens this year.
RGM: It's nice to get an outsider's perspective, because we
live here all the time and all of a sudden it's full of people. It's different,
but it's still home base. You talk about this being a potential lesson to other
cities. Over this past year, do you think other cities have taken this as a
lesson; do you see evidence of this having a national effect?
CC: Chicago attempted to do a version of ArtPrize. They
didn't really get the essence of it. They were inspired by ArtPrize, but
certainly didn't take to heart the foundation on which Artprize is built, the
deep belief system on which ArtPrize is built, and that doesn't surprise me.
When people see something that is great on the surface like ArtPrize, they
don't necessarily stop to really understand it, they just see what they see and
then they go try to copy it. I'm saying the exciting thing about ArtPrize is
the aesthetic principle upon which it is built and how closely the organizers
adhere to that set of principles. So instead of being another 'food, music and
beer' (event), they've done something that started so very different. It's just
an incredible gift to Grand Rapids, and Grand Rapids gives it back by sharing
venues and hospitality. They're providing a platform for people to get
together, and a whole lot of prize money, of course, but they trust the process
enough to be hands-off. They're not going to choose the artists, the venues or
the winners. How extraordinary is that?
RGM: I think that's particularly unique to ArtPrize versus
other prizes and even some artist showcases.
CC: Completely,
and what's interesting is that I think this a model for how companies are
sticking their toes in the water in terms of how they relate to their customer,
but ArtPrize jumped in the deep end... and made it.
I think anyone wanting to take inspiration from ArtPrize
needs to really study and understand what it's all about.
RGM: Right. And those principles, you think, are namely how
open ArtPrize is to its public?
CC: I think that if you look at their very formal document,
it's really interesting. They say ArtPrize is not here to validate creative
output, but to be an incentive, and has the sense of wanting to be a catalyst
for collisions and connections between artists and community. Then they think about the requirements
(to participate), and the requirements are really very simple. I just think
it's amazingly smart, this whole notion of holding the reigns lightly as to how
people participate in the event, and their biases towards enabling other to
create the experience rather than create it themselves. That's something that's
very exciting to me not just as model for other events, but it's a model for communities,
government, businesses and non-profit. I think they're way ahead of the curve
here.
RGM: When you were talking about this, I was reminded of
something else CEOs for Cities is involved in that's happened here, where it's
very simply executed but involves an incentive. I mean MyGRCity Points, which
we just started. I believe (this program) uses an incentive to encourage people
to use the single-stream recycling program, and this program is unique to Grand
Rapids. A lot of people have said they think Grand Rapids is a good testing
ground city. Is that something you think is true?
CC: I think it
is for a couple reasons. One thing is its size: it's small enough to get your
arms around, but big enough to make a difference. The other thing that is
exciting about Grand Rapids is that there is a group of people where it's like
innovation is in the blood. They're willing to try things and they care so
deeply about their community that they will do things on behalf of their
community. You have a pretty extraordinary city manager. I mean, he operates
more like New York. 'Yeah, we want to get this done, we're going to figure out
how to get this done.' What (Grand Rapids) has been able to do in very short
order, like My GRCIty Points, would have taken other cities three years.
RGM: Last year, there were a lot of people upset about
ArtPrize. They thought having art be a competition with no curator for the
winner was going to make people think that Grand Rapids didn't take art
seriously, or make Grand Rapids seem like a joke to the art world. I'm
wondering what someone who works with cities might say to the people of Grand
Rapids to get them universally excited about this in its second year.
CC: Well, again, I think that ArtPrize is a model, not just
for other arts events or other events period, but for all sorts of ways of
organizing and situations and businesses, non-profits, governments, etc. I feel
like the future is being invented in Grand Rapids with ArtPrize, and that to me
is something that everyone can take pride in whether or you're interested art
or agree with the way art is being selected. I think everybody in Grand Rapids
has a stake in what the world thinks about Grand Rapids. You may not think you
do, but you do. It has a lot to do with 'can you attract talent, can you
attract business, will people invest in Grand Rapids?' What ArtPrize is doing
to increase the brand value of the city is really important to everybody,
whether you feel it directly or not. Plus, there's how ArtPrize invites the
community to participate in a way that is genuine, in a way that says, 'Come
help make a significant decision.' How many times are we invited to do that?
Photo: Carol Coletta
Photo Courtesy of Brad Johnson Photography