In Grand Rapids, Michigan, groups can meet while artists take over the streets.
On a recent visit, Meetings Today got a chance to experience ArtPrize, the largest public art competition in the U.S., which took over the city for 16 days. A decentralized exhibit sprawling across five square miles and including 1,100 artists from 18 countries in 155 venues, ArtPrize has become a major dimension of the city’s identity, making the festival a lively time for groups to visit Grand Rapids.
As soon as we walked into our room at the JW Marriott Grand Rapids, the hotel’s TV channel was in the middle of a segment about street artist Cita Sadeli, aka Miss Chelove: “What I love about public art is, it’s in the streets, it’s in your face and it knows no limits,” she said. The segment had nothing to do with Grand Rapids, but as a serendipitous moment, it primed us for the rest of our visit.
Amway Grand: The Most Iconic Hotel in Western Michigan
Across the street at the Amway Grand Plaza, the most iconic hotel in western Michigan, General Manager Ross Bartlett gave us a tour of the sleeping rooms and the restaurants, amid dozens and dozens of visitors filling up the lobby to look at sculptures and visual art—all part of ArtPrize.
“Grand Rapids just thrives on community and togetherness,” Bartlett said, as meeting attendees and wedding participants began to filter in, adding even more dynamism. “ArtPrize really brings people out from the local community, and it mixes with those who drive in to be here.”
Originally opened in 1913 as the Pantlind Hotel, the Grand Plaza now includes an additional tower Amway built after it bought the property in 1981, making the complete package 656 guest rooms, 40,000 square feet of meeting space, nine dining outlets and a rooftop pickleball court.
People drove in from all over the Midwest to attend ArtPrize, said Bartlett, who also curated the works on display throughout the lobby. As a member of Historic Hotels of America, the Grand Plaza didn’t let contemporary art distract from the hotel’s classic character.
“We’re going through a lovely renovation right now of all the guest room bathrooms,” Bartlett said of the original tower. “And it’s really interesting when you peel back some of the drywall, the plaster layer, some of the old architecture that we’re seeing behind the walls. We’re finding signatures from the 1900s on the brick, from masons, when all this stuff was built.”
Back at the JW Marriott, where ArtPrize exhibits likewise played a significant role in the lobby experience, we perused the artwork—everything from framed pencil drawings and paintings to other mediums. A group of 70 elementary school kids was touring the lobby on a field trip, just for the art. At certain time slots, the artists even sat next to their work and fielded questions from anyone who asked.
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A Total Takeover: Grand Rapids Is Primed for Citywides and Large-Scale Activations
Throughout our visit, downtown Grand Rapids was vibrant and electric. It seemed like every other storefront—coffee shops, bank lobbies, clothing boutiques, restaurants and whatever else—all doubled as venues for ArtPrize.
DeVos Place, the city’s convention center set along the Grand River, functioned as one of the biggest ArtPrize venues. As we walked around, visitors jammed the second-level corridors and skyways to look at paintings, installations and other visual works by more than 40 artists, all while conventions and groups still utilized the facility.
Just a few blocks away, ArtPrize Executive Director Catlin Whitington, formerly a planner at SXSW in Austin, took us around a new space, BioPhilia Gallery (biophilia is the innate human tendency to seek connections with nature and other forms of life), a warehouse converted into a gigantic exhibit hall with 24 artists participating. BioPhilia was just one of the 155 venues.
Every year, ArtPrize doles out about $200,000 in grants and about $400,000 in prizes.
“The very unique thing about our prize structure, as a competition, is half of our prize money is selected by public vote and the other half is done by a professional jury,” Whitington explained, while pointing out various exhibits at BioPhilia as we walked around. “It really is meant to drive a conversation between aesthetics of the private, and the general public, and the arts professional.”
Rattling off the numbers, Whitington said 750,000 people came to ArtPrize in 2024, bringing in $71 million in economic impact. Just over half of the visitors came from outside the area.
“We have a small team of about 12 that works year-round to produce this, which is a feat in and of itself,” he added.
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A Visit to Grand Rapids’ Meijer Gardens
While ArtPrize was mostly an urban downtown affair, the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park was located a few miles down the freeway in a more remote location. Effectively a walking art history lesson, the Meijer Gardens featured numerous outdoor spaces for groups, complemented by sculptures running the gamut from Auguste Rodin to Keith Haring. The elaborate complex made for a great getaway.
Back downtown, Kelly Van Dyke, the Amway Grand Plaza’s director of events, and Kristen Burnett, the property’s director of catering, led us through gorgeous meeting spaces with 24 karat gold-leaf ceilings, all while wedding attendees and art patrons continued to flow through the lobby, creating a spirited atmosphere.
Indeed, Grand Rapids knew no limits.
