ArtPrize 2012 – overhead shot of the exhibition in Grand Rapids, Mich. last fall. Photo: Brian Kelly Photography

In my experience, local artists are pretty savvy about tapping Minnesota-based resources for funding, creating and showing work. And that’s for good reason: thanks to our taxpayer-funded Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and a bevy of independent foundations and arts-focused philanthropic programs with roots here, artists have relatively abundant opportunities for institutional and state-sponsored support. (On a related note: I just noticed the Minnesota State Arts Board is currently taking applications from individual artists and nonprofit organizations for a number of community-impact, accessibility-driven Arts Access grants.)

But I wonder if the side effect of such proximate plenty is that Minnesota artists too often overlook plum opportunities outside our state’s borders. Consider ArtPrize: it’s an annual cultural festival-cum-big ticket international art competition based not far from here, in Michigan. Every September, 2,000 artists descend on Grand Rapids to show work and compete for prizes. Their sculptures, paintings and installations fill the city for two-and-a-half weeks — spilling out from museums and galleries into area restaurants and shops, adorning city parks, bridges and other urban landmarks. The ArtPrize exhibition has become massive affair which annually draws some 400,000 visitors to the city. At stake is the largest total purse for any art competition, anywhere – $560,000 will be awarded by both popular and jury vote to winning artists this year; a $200,000 prize will go to the popularly selected Grand Prize-winner, alone.

That’s not to say ArtPrize doesn’t have critics – it does. But the annual contest is a relatively low-risk, big reward proposition for an enterprising artist with a flair for public engagement and an appetite for spectacle. And I don’t know any Minnesotans who routinely participate.

That’s about to change, I suspect: for 2013, ArtPrize has partnered with Walker Art Center to offer a special incentive for local artists to throw a hat in the ring. This month, Minnesota-based artists are invited to create proposals for a $5,000 grant to create and install work for this year’s ArtPrize exhibition on Grand Rapids’ Gillett Bridge, a pedestrian bridge in the center of the ArtPrize exhibition area. Submissions for this grant are open to any artist living in the state and over the age of 18; there is no entry fee. The deadline for submissions is coming up very soon, though: May 22.

Gillett Bridge, the site earmarked for an installation by this year’s grant-winning Minnesota artist, is a historic pedestrian bridge crossing the Grand River in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids and at the center of the ArtPrize exhibition area. Photo courtesy of ArtPrize

I’m hoping lots of folks from the Minnesota arts community will turn out for the “Pitch Night” event following soon after at the Walker, where the five selected finalists will each make a pitch for their project proposals, followed by a Q&A session with the audience and jurors. At the end of the night, a panel of local artists and curators will select one Minnesota artist from among them to receive a $5,000 grant to realize their proposal. The artist’s finished, installed work on the pedestrian bridge will then be in the running for awards given during the main ArtPrize 2013 competition and exhibition this fall.

Minnesota artists are invited to submit proposals for installations on Gillett Bridge for this year’s ArtPrize exhibition through May 22. “Pitch Night: Take it to the Bridge” will take place May 30 at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minn. The ArtPrize exhibition and competition will run September 18 through October 6 in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Find details on the $5,000 grant opportunity specifically for Minnesota artists, offered jointly by the Walker Art Center and ArtPrize: http://www.artprize.org/news/artprize-pitch-night-take-it-to-the-bridge/. Find general information for artists anywhere who’d like to participate in the ArtPrize international art competition and exhibition this fall: http://www.artprize.org/get-involved/artists.