The Media Spectacle that is ArtPrize

It is now day three of the official beginning of ArtPrize 2011. However, it is strikingly clear that coverage of this year’s ArtPrize began way before the event kick-off on Wednesday.

For the third year in a row there is no way that one could not know about the downtown art competition. The local news media have been falling over themselves trying to “report” on everything from artist profiles, the marketing techniques, venue locations and public reactions.

The Grand Rapids Press ran their own competition, by inviting people to design a front-page cover that would be used for the opening day. The winning design also now adorns Press boxes throughout downtown GR, enticing readers to get a copy of the only daily paper in town’s take on the art competition.

The local TV stations have also been busy making ArtPrize their main focus. Channel 8 and channel 13 both broadcast live all day at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. WOOD TV 8 has an ArtPrize banner to go along with weather and sports. The local NBC affiliate included the art competition logo onto the station’s web design and their meteorologists will be providing “live ArtPrize forecasts every day from the street side studio.”

WXMI 17 also has an Artprize section, but the ABC affiliate WZZM 13 has what they have called the “conversation couch.” WZZM 13 has partnered with the Grand Rapids Art Museum, by setting up a couch with word bubbles behind it. People can sit down and use other word bubbles to talk about what art and the art competition means to them. Corporate sponsors all graciously provided the couch, TV and signage for WZZM 13’s art competition coverage.

Local radio isn’t doing quite as much as TV, but WOOD radio does have a listing of ArtPrize events.

We also can’t ignore what independent media is doing. The Rapidian has their own ArtPrize section, which has been consistent the three years the event has happened in downtown Grand Rapids.

So what is the big deal, there is lots of local media coverage of ArtPrize. This writer doesn’t really have a big issue with the amount of coverage that the art competition is receiving, rather it is the lack of critical coverage and the frustration from not seeing the same intensity of coverage for other issues.

Imagine if elections got the same amount of coverage, with all day live broadcasts and a couch for people to sit in and talk about the meaning of democracy for them. Imagine the Grand Rapids Press invited people to design a front-page for their paper with the theme of environmental justice or sustainability. What if the local TV stations had a banner for racial justice or fighting poverty? Are these issues of less importance than ArtPrize? Do they not deserve the same kinds of journalistic enthusiasm and creativity?