ArtPrize 10 is underway and this year the global competition features the artwork of students from three Kent ISD school districts. Schools New Network reporters Erin Albanese and Charles Honey tracked them down discover what drove them to create.
In her eighth-grade art class at Byron Center High, Marie painted and sketched little portraits inside bottle caps. She came up with the idea to portray diversity, making each face unique and interesting. Her art teacher was so impressed she used Marie’s work as inspiration for a collaborative ArtPrize entry.
Some 4,000 students, staff and community members decorated caps with smiling, frowning, silly and serious faces including and all kinds of physical characteristics. The entry, “Reflecting Differences,” is on display at the Downtown Market.
In Grand Rapids, students from three schools inspired by the colorful glass artwork of Dale Chihuly created an ArtPrize entry called “Spot of Color”. It features coffee filters colored with crayons, markers and paint starched over cups, to mimic Chihuly-like shapes. The 7-foot-high colorful culmination of their work hangs in the Grand Rapids Police Department.
A group of Rockford High students and graduates designed and painted Care for the Earth which they’ve titled in Latin. The three-panel piece highlights Earth’s pristine beauty and humanity’s degradation of it. Soaring hawks, swimming sea life and lush forests contrast with glimpses of barren waste in the 16-by-8-foot artwork displayed at Fountain Street Church. Their works are entered in the Youth Collaboration Award.
Up for grabs are prizes of $2,500 from public voters and a jury of experts. The public can vote on student entries during ArtPrize until Oct. 7.