UICA's "Collaboration" invites audience to collaborate with artists

The UICA’s theme for this year's Artprize exhibit is "Collaboration." The exhibit will officially kick off September 13, after their yearly Oddball fundraising event. 

"Artprize is when a lot of the city comes and views the institution and we want to put our best foot forward and show off what we do, which is creative community by collaboration. We chose the collaboration theme right from our mission statement, and are just working to expand on that theme and really push the boundaries of our artists and audience,” says AJ Paschka, Exhibitions Curator.

In the spirit of this year’s theme, the UICA has partnered with other Grand Rapids organizations. The Grand Rapids Symphony, GR Makers Group, Actors Theatre and the Community Media Center will all be collaborating with the UICA for some creative endeavors.

Paschka says that this year will be a balance of both accessibility and complexity. There will be a mix of local, national and international artists included in the exhibit, which opens September 13 and closes October 26

The art reflects the collaborative theme, with one piece even engaging the audience to sing.

“This piece that we will have by artist Aaron Nemec titled, ‘Hey YouTube, It's Me,’ and in our new media gallery we will be hosting a karaoke room where the audience will be able to participate by creating karaoke videos and uploading those videos to YouTube, and the audience that comes here is able to go in and sing with people they don’t know,” says Paschka.

Allowing people to collaborate with others in work such as Nemec's piece, Paschka says, will create a story.

Normal hours for UICA are Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 9 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. Admission is $5 for non-members. During ArtPrize from September 24 through October 12, the UICA will also be open on Monday from noon to 8:00 p.m., and admission during the competition dates is free.