Art Prize 2010 - Frederik Meijer Gardens

Art Prize started last night! I've been looking forward to the second installment of this wonderful competition that brings artists from all over the world to Grand Rapids. Right here in our backyard, more art than I saw in London and Paris combined.

Today I decided to visit Frederik Meijer Gardens, the venue closest to home. Most of the art is located in downtown Grand Rapids, but I chose to start here since it was on my way to work, I wanted to see the Chihuly exhibit that has been here all summer as well.

Arrived at about 10 a.m., and started browsing all the art prize exhibits. Most were sculpture pieces located outdoors, though there were a few inside as well. I decided to pay the admission fee so that I could walk around the sculpture park and also see the Chihuly pieces. For those that might not know, Dale Chihuly does wonderful artwork in glass - in all sizes. Once inside, I toured the conservatory - different to be there without the butterflies! Wonderful little Chihuly pieces were around every corner, what a treat!

Then I went outdoors and walked around the sculpture park, had never toured the entire park since it had been opened (it's been a few years since I've been to FMG for anything other than the butterflies.) I saw old favorites such as the DaVinci horse, and lots of other interesting and not-so-interesting pieces as well. Sometimes ya gotta wonder what the artist was thinking....but most were interesting. Interspersed with the regular sculpture were more Chihuly pieces. My favorite is in the picture above, the blue globe that looks like a flower gone to seed. Came around a corner and found a pond and there it was! Awesome. The rest of the pond had many smaller pieces that looked like glass candy kisses.

I also was able to explore the children's garden, wish I had a little one to take there as it looks like a wonderful place to play and explore.

Finished by going to the gift shop and purchasing a guide book for Art Prize which came with a wristband and map so that I could park at the nearby Meijer store and take the bus downtown, which will save the hassle of parking.

I just finished voting for the artists/pieces at FMG online - that is part of the intrigue of Art Prize, that the public can vote for their favorites/non favorites. Up or down. You can text your vote but since my tracfone is still in the dark ages, I was able to vote online, a pretty easy process. Once the first week is finished, then the top ten up vote receivers will be in the running for the grand prize (you get to vote again for your favorite overall.)

There are, I think, around 1500 pieces of art on display in all. I don't expect to get to see them all, but hope to see quite a few. Looking forward to tomorrow when I plan to spend most of the day downtown looking at more art.