And So It Begins

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. 
                                                                                                        ~Aristotle


Artprize officially opened for the public to vote on it's art yesterday.  I've volunteered for the past three years for Artprize doing voter registration.  Last year I also volunteered for the Grand Rapids Art Museum, better known as the GRAM.  I loved it so much, that I didn't bother to volunteer for Artprize this year, but rather I'm spending time registering voters at the GRAM.   I got to the GRAM early today so I could stroll around and take in some of the art before starting my shift.  The photo below shows the area where I normally work, off to the right side...

Because the cash awards are some of the highest given for art, a lot of special precautions are taken to make sure there can't be duplicate voting and to avoid any fraud.  People can actually register themselves on their own computers, but they MUST show up in person to get activated for voting.  Voters must be at least 16 years of age and every person must produce a government issued photo ID, and we must record the number of that ID.  Again, there's a lot of cross checking to make sure this is all fair and square.  This year there's over $500,000 that will be given away to artists in different categories.  There's so much to tell about it and how it works that it's really more simple to just click on Artprize above in this posting and it will take you directly to their site.

Artprize runs from September 19 through October 7.  I will be volunteering a few more times and Mr. Cottage and I will be going downtown to take in more art at different venues.  What's really amazing is to see the city of Grand Rapids, which is the second largest city in the state of Michigan, become fully alive and crowded with people who are all fascinated with all the art that is around our city.

So I just want to give you a heads up and let you know that over the next few weeks I'll be doing a lot of posting about Artprize (along with other happenings) and sharing some wonderful photos of amazing, unusual and beautiful art.  I hope you stay with me on this journey with Artprize. 

This is one that I saw today titled Sojourn

Remember that none of these photos can do justice for the actual art.  Sojourn is quite large in size and it caught everyone's attention as they got to the second floor of the GRAM.