Dozens of musicians entering songs in Grand Rapids’ ArtPrize competition took their music to the streets in hopes of snagging votes for their tunes. Others were, well, just busking for dollars. (Photos)
Saxophone Serenade: During ArtPrize, some musicians are busking for votes, some for dollars. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
Buskers are everywhere in downtown Grand Rapids these days, the official and the unofficial.
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Chances are, thousands of folks wandering ArtPrize the past two years never even knew what the term “busking” was until St. Cecilia Music Center and organizers of songs as entries in the international art competition decided to formalize the practice in various locations for ArtPrize musicians.
ArtPrize Entrant: Rene Meave performed at Rosa Parks Circle. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
Officially, these buskers – aka musicians playing on the street for donations – aren’t playing for handouts and spare change (though those would certainly be welcome). They’re stumping for votes for the songs they’ve entered into the competition, with the top vote-getters in five different genres winning $2,000 from St. Cecilia and getting a chance to snag the big kahuna in the overall ArtPrize competition.
Over the past two days, dozens of these buskers have set up shop in several designated locations – from the Blue Bridge to Van Andel Arena to Rosa Parks Circle – enticing visitors with their ArtPrize songs and other tunes from their catalogs, and creating a colorful soundscape for visual art that dominates the event. (Read more about the music competition in this Local Spins story, and see a complete schedule and lineup online here.)
Of course, with hundreds of thousands of ArtPrize visitors descending on downtown Grand Rapids the next two weeks, plenty of “unofficial” buskers are out there serenading passersby with hats and open guitar cases in hopes of a “payday,” too.
Much of the action — including performances by Jennifer Versluis, Michael Crittenden, Serita Crowley, Joe Guerra, Rene Meave, Coldville, Jake Down, Mid-Life Crisis, The Kent County Sting Band and many others — was captured in photos by Local Spins photographers Anthony Norkus, Tori Thomas and Anna Sink, providing a musical slant on a two-day snapshot of ArtPrize. Keep returning to this post for more photos later this weekend.
Photos by Tori Thomas, Anthony Norkus and Anna Sink
Copyright 2014, Spins on Music
