On June 26, for the second year in a row, five Twin Cities’ artists gathered at the
Walker Art Center’s ArtPrize Pitch Night to share their ideas for a highly visible installation at Grand Rapids, Michigan’s annual ArtPrize extravaganza – and compete for a $5,000 prize. Each had five minutes to pitch to five jurors.
The winner, Bjorn Sparrman, will construct a “faux border crossing” on the Gillett Bridge, a heavily trafficked pedestrian bridge in downtown Grand Rapids. The installation will stand for the duration of the festival, from September 24 to October 12. Along with work from thousands of other participating artists, Sparrman’s project will contend for one of two $200,000 grand prizes.
The project, which will straddle the dividing line between the east and west sides of Grand Rapids, is a tongue-in-cheek take on an international border crossing. According to Sparrman’s pitch, it will feature “border guards,” a fake customs booth with awning, and signs indicating the “political” barrier.
“[The] jurors were impressed with Bjorn’s awareness of the bridge as a passage,” says Jehra Patrick, one of the five Pitch Night jurors, in an interview with ArtPrize. “We were interested in his ability to create a point of engagement and an obstacle, making people stop and consider the work.”
The four Walker Pitch Night runners-up have impressive CVs: Aaron Dysart is a City Collaboratory Fellow with the City of St. Paul; Alison Hiltner is a prominent Minneapolis-based installation artist; Bill Mullaney is a performance artist and one half of the popular performance duo Fire Drill; and Aaron Squadroni recently served as Grand Rapids, Michigan’s Artist-in-Residence.
The jury included Melinda Childs, Director of Artist Services at Forecast Public Art; John Hock, founder of Franconia Sculpture Park; Mia Lopez, a current Walker Art Center fellow; Jehra Patrick, program director for mnartists.org; and Piotr Szyhalski, professor of media arts at Minneapolis College of Art & Design.
ArtPrize is in its sixth year, but last year’s Walker event – put on in collaboration with Delta Air Lines, mnartists.org, and Open Systems Technologies – was the first organized opportunity for non-Michigan artists to earn funding for more ambitious projects. Pitch Night has since expanded to Cincinnati.
ArtPrize itself is wildly popular with artists. Billed as “a radically open, independently organized international art competition,” ArtPrize turns “three square miles of downtown Grand Rapids [into] an open playing field where anyone can find a voice in the conversation about what is art and why it matters.”
Anyone can participate and any space within the designated district can host installations. In addition to the $400,000 in grand prizes, participants can win eight category prizes of $20,000 each. This year’s event will feature more than 1,500 individual entries.