Grand Rapids

ArtPrize has wrapped

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What a great year it has been at The Women’s City Club this year. I am so honored to be a part of such a great venue which had 27,400 visitors for ArtPrize! Attendance for this venue was up 50% from last year. I see this as evidence that curator Fred Bivens has a great talent for assembling excellent art that speaks individually and as a body of work. This is the first show ever where I got a little misty as we were taking our work down. I have been humbled to be a part of a show with this caliber of artists. Not only do these people have amazing minds, I have found over the last couple weeks of getting to know them that they all have amazing hearts as well .

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ArtPrize hub sneak peek pics

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The months of September and October are always my busiest of the year. I am just coming off of a week long photo shoot for the company I work full-time for, and this morning I was tying up some loose ends downtown.

I took the opportunity to take in the preview opening of the ArtPrize hub which was from 9-noon. My daughter came with me, and together we took it all in. A large store, early voter registration, free cider and donuts along with a gallery showing of the last two ArtPrize winning works of art… It was a lot going on in a small space, and it was excellent.

Our walk, continued

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Here is another pic from the walk I took with my daughter yesterday. I have photographed this tree over the last 15 years or so. It was featured in a photograph of mine on the cover of a local arts magazine, On-the-Town, about 12 years ago. Half of the tree is living, and half is dead. I’ll post some photos of it later this spring when the leaves fill in. It is hauntingly elegant.

The Kendall Building Update (now 616 Lofts)

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In March of last year I wrote about the Kendall Building. It is located in the center of Grand Rapids, at the northeast corner of Fulton and Division. You can find the blog entry here.  

I had intended to post frequent updates about the building, but the construction area outside of the building was such a mess that it was hard to get near the place for quite a long time. I think my overall excitement about this project started to fade in September of last year when the sidewalks and park on this side of the street were literally gutted. For a while pedestrians had to walk out in the street to get around the mess.

Complaining aside, we now have a finished building that is really very beautiful. You’ll see from the photo in the first post that the civil war monument was actually moved to the center of the park, and all of the trees were replaced with benches and brick sidewalks.

Below are a few photos of the finished product as well as some comparisons of the Kendall Building’s transformation.

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