RedBall Rolls into Grand Rapids
Sue Voyle reminds the Grand Rapid community about RedBall’s presence in the city just before Top Ten. [Click here for full article]

Interlochen Public Radio

Kurt Perschke is interviewed on RedBall Project’s travel throughout Grand Rapids before the Top Ten announcement. [Click here to hear broadcast].

ArtPrize 2009’s installation day: Hundreds of artists scramble to complete their works by Wednesday’s opening day
By John Sinkevics | The Grand Rapids Press

GRAND RAPIDS — From dozens of workers and volunteers submerging Nessie the monster in the Grand River to a New York artist squeezing a giant rubber ball into the entrance of the Gerald R. Ford Museum, Tuesday has been “installation day” in Grand Rapids for hundreds participating in ArtPrize 2009…[Click here for full article]

Ready for ArtPrize? Grand Rapids contest begins today
The Grand Rapids Press

The public gets to choose the winner of the $250,000 grand prize while pondering the question: “What is art?”
[Click here for full article]

Kurt Perschke’s ‘RedBall Project’ rolls into Grand Rapids for ArtPrize
The Grand Rapids Press

GRAND RAPIDS — Kurt Perschke hopes President Gerald R. Ford would have approved. The Chicago-born, New York-based artist specifically chose his Presidential Museum as the first location to squish into position his ArtPrize entry, “The RedBall Project,” created in 2001…[Click here for full article]

19 DAYS. 12 SITES. 1 REDBALL.

Press photos available at http://redballproject.com/redballpages/press_images/index.html

September 16, 2009—Artist Kurt Perschke brings his highly acclaimed RedBall Project to Grand Rapids, Michigan as part of ArtPrize. The RedBall Project is an ongoing site-specific installation that has traveled the world’s cities from Sydney to St. Louis, Barcelona to Toronto, Chicago to Korea. Typically commissioned by cities themselves, RedBall offers a unique contribution to this grassroots event by actively and organically engaging the values put forth by the ArtPrize competition: to create an environment where public can engage artist and artist can engage public in a fresh way.

RedBall is a 15-foot high inflatable that gets squished into alleyways and pinned beneath bridges to offer city dwellers a unique glimpse into everyday spaces suddenly made special. Perschke’s chosen sites for RedBall: Grand Rapids include: The Gerald Ford Museum, Rosa Parks Circle, The B.O.B., City Hall, Kent Courthouse, Grand Valley State University, DeVos Place, and the Grand Rapids Ballet Company, with more sites to follow if RedBall becomes a finalist.

The RedBall Project has generated enormous public, critical and media attention worldwide throughout its travels, issuing passersby an irresistible invitation to imagine where they might put it. RedBall’s latest appearance as part of Luminato Festival in Toronto, Ontario was a favorite event among locals and visitors alike. The Artistic Director of Luminato, Chris Lorway, echoes the high opinion of the public: “We were thrilled by the way the RedBall’s presence in the city ignited people’s imagination and creative impulses.”

“..(Perschke) draws upon the already rich and full context of the city in which the ball is sited, not remolding it, but rather interacting and playing with it. In our experience of this work we find the spaces of the city and, in the tradition of Duchamp, we play a role.” “Art Outside In, Inside Out”, Mary Jane Jacob

RedBall Sites in Grand Rapids:

Tuesday, Sept. 22 | Gerald R. Ford Museum
Wednesday, Sept. 23 | UICA – Opening night
Thursday, Sept. 24 | Rosa Parks Circle
Friday, Sept. 25 | GR Community College Ford Field House
Saturday, Sept. 26 | The B.O.B.
Sunday, Sept. 27 | Grand Rapids Ballet Company
Monday, Sept. 28 | Grand Rapids City Hall
Tuesday, Sept. 29 | Grand Valley State University Art Gallery
Wednesday, Sept. 30 | Kent County Courthouse
Thursday, Oct. 1 | UICA – Top 10 announced

If RedBall is selected as a finalist:

Friday, Oct. 2 | UICA
Saturday, Oct. 3 | DeVos Place
Sunday, Oct. 4 | TBA
Monday, Oct. 5 | TBA
Tuesday, Oct. 6 | Grand Rapids Community College Student Center
Wednesday, Oct. 7 | TBA
Thursday, Oct. 8 | Rosa Parks Circle
Friday, Oct. 9 | The B.O.B.
Saturday, Oct. 10 | UICA – Final placements announced

About the artist

Kurt Perschke’s public projects have earned him a national award from the Americans for the Arts Public Art Network. Perschke has worked with Contemporary Art Museums in Barcelona and St. Louis and participated in the Busan Biennale. His work is in institutional and private collections throughout the United States. Having lived in St. Louis, Vienna, Egypt, the Virgin Islands and his native city Chicago, he is based in New York City.

About ArtPrize

ArtPrize exists to reboot the conversation between artists and audiences on a grand scale. ArtPrize is not anti-jury, anti-curator, anti-establishment or anti-anything else. [They] do not believe that [they] have contrived the “best” way to discover the “best” art. The prize money, the public vote, the open venue system simply creates an environment where public can engage artist and artist can engage public in a fresh way. It’s an irresistible social experiment.

Grand Rapids ArtPrize has signed more than 100 artists — and a giant red ball
Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk | The Grand Rapids Press

GRAND RAPIDS — In June, that giant red ball seemed to be everywhere in Toronto — sitting in front of stately banks, tucked into small alleys and stuffed into the entrance of Old City Hall…[Click here for full article]