环球英语 — 461：Art Prize
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Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Adam Navis.
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And I'm Liz Waid. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
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It is August, 2009, in the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the United States. Children of all ages have come from across the city. They gather in the Grand Rapids Children's Museum and at a nearby art center. They paint pictures on many small hard round tiles. They paint flowers, words, colors or anything they can imagine.
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Afterwards, an artist, Tracy VanDuinen, and his team, attached these tiles, and other colorful materials, to the side of the Grand Rapids Children's Museum. The tiles were part of a mural. The mural used many small pieces of material to make a large picture. The finished piece showed three children, each a different age, race and sex. Around them were many colors, words and interesting pictures to discover. It celebrated the creativity and imagination of children. Tracy called it, "Imagine That!"
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"Imagine That!" was created as part of Grand Rapids' biggest art competition. It is the biggest art prize in the world! And it is called, simply, ArtPrize. Today's Spotlight is on ArtPrize. This competition included artists from places all over the world. It asked some interesting questions about art. And it had a very big influence on the city of Grand Rapids, where it was held.
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Grand Rapids is a city in Michigan. Many years ago, this city received many of the great results of Michigan's car industry. But as the American car industry failed, many people in Grand Rapids lost jobs. Currently Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the United States. Young people are not staying in the area. Downtown Grand Rapids seemed empty, and many stores were permanently closed. Grand Rapids needed something big to happen.
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The idea for ArtPrize came from Rick DeVos. He lives in Grand Rapids. But he has travelled around the world. He has visited art events and film festivals in many places. He saw the good influence of these events for their home cities. He wanted those same good results for Grand Rapids. So in April of 2009, Rick announced his idea. Rick described his hopes for ArtPrize to Rapid Growth Media, in Grand Rapids.
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"ArtPrize will gather people from all over the world. It will gather anyone who has art they want to show, or they want people to talk about. ArtPrize is totally multimedia, multidisciplinary - we are not putting any limits on the form of the art. It is really just about creative expression and reaction to that creative expression. You will see art everywhere - from the riverside to the sides of buildings, from empty warehouses to office rooms. The idea is to change the idea of a traditional gallery where people can show art. The CITY is the gallery!"
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ArtPrize was different than other art competitions. Any person over eighteen years old could enter a piece of art in the new art competition. And the art could be anything! Artists only had to find venues - places to show their work. Any place in the center of Grand Rapids could be a venue and show art. All the venues were in a five kilometer area.
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People had to visit downtown Grand Rapids to see the pieces of art. Then each person could vote on what pieces of art they liked best. After two weeks, ArtPrize would add up the votes. And the winner of ArtPrize would receive 250,000 dollars.
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In all, 1,262 artists found venues and showed their art in ArtPrize. Most of the artists were from the United States. But artists did come from all over the world, from fifteen different countries. These included Mexico, Italy, and Romania.
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As September came closer, many people were excited for this competition. Art began to fill the streets and stores of downtown Grand Rapids. Some were performance pieces - people danced or played music. Some pieces were paintings or large statues.
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Art was everywhere - even in the river! A group of artists carved a large sea monster and set it in the river as if it were swimming. It was over 33 meters long. At night its eyes were red lights. It was based on the Loch Ness monster - a water creature from a popular story in Scotland. They called it "Nessie."
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On September 23 Rick announced the beginning of ArtPrize. People could now officially see all of the pieces and start voting. He encouraged people to visit and enjoy places all over Grand Rapids and to look at the art everywhere. He encouraged them to talk to each other about the art and discuss it. And most of all, he encouraged people to VOTE!
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The voting process was simple, but it had two parts. Any person over the age of eighteen, and in Grand Rapids, could vote. Many people visited the city just so they could vote on the art.
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For one week, people voted on ALL the art in ArtPrize. People could vote by visiting the ArtPrize website or by texting a vote using their mobile telephones. A person could vote an art piece "up" or "down." They could only vote once for each art piece. But, they could vote on as many art pieces as they wanted - one, ten, or a thousand!
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At the end of the first week, ArtPrize added up all the votes. The ten art pieces with the most votes went on to the second half of the competition. For the second week of the competition voters could vote only ONCE for ONE of the top ten pieces.
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At midnight on October 10, ArtPrize ended. More than 32,000 people had registered to vote. There had been more than 334,000 votes! And ... there was a winner!
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Remember the mural, "Imagine That!," we told about in the beginning of this program? It did not win first place. But it did win second place! And it will permanently stay on the side of the Grand Rapids Children's Museum.
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So, who won first place? It was a very large painting by Ran Ortner. The painting was of waves of water. It looked so real that many people even believed it was a photograph!
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Rick DeVos hopes that ArtPrize will happen again next year. And he hopes it continues even after that. ArtPrize encouraged many people to look at and like art. It encouraged them to see what art can do for a community. Writer Michael Kaiser visited Grand Rapids and ArtPrize. He wrote:
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"To the people who believe that art has the power to inspire our communities and give life to them, this was a beautiful example."
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