Work Invoking Diversity Wins the Biggest Award
The ninth edition of ArtPrize, the annual public art exhibition and competition in Grand Rapids, Michigan, came to a close this weekend, but not before handing out $500,000 in prizes. Artists Seitu Jones and Richard Schlatter each took home a $200,000 grand prize, the former selected by a three-judge panel of experts, the latter in a public vote.
On September 23, Jones staged the performance The Heartside Community Meal, seating 250 neighborhood residents at a 300-foot-long table for a locally grown communal dinner. The artist intended for the piece to show how food and art can help foster understanding and appreciation of other cultures, illuminating our similarities to one another and helping to celebrate society’s diversity.
Seitu Jones, The Heartside Community Meal. Courtesy ArtPrize.
“Seitu Jones shows us how artists can have an expanded social and political role,” said Kevin Buist, ArtPrize exhibitions director, in a statement. “Jones crafted this artwork by deftly orchestrating a network of individuals and organizations to create a poetic and fleeting monument to the power of community. For many, it’s a new way to think about what art can be: The artwork is one big, beautiful moment made of the many small moments that happen when strangers and friends share a meal.”
Schlatter’s A Lincoln is an eight-by-12-foot portrait of Abraham Lincoln, crafted entirely from 24,000 pennies, which have featured the 16th president’s visage since 1909. The artist, the top vote-getter among the over 384,000 ballots cast during the 19-day contest, made a point of including at least one coin from every year since.