The Biola University Art Department would like to invite you to a screening of “More Art Upstairs”, a film directed and produced by Jody Hassett Sanchez. The free event is on Tuesday, February 19th from 7:30–9:30 pm. You are welcome to invite friends and family!
For three weeks in September, beer-fueled debates in the bars of one Michigan town aren’t about sports and politics but art. Hundreds of thousands of people come to Grand Rapids to engage with blue-chip artists in ways that rarely happen at Art Basel or other established art events, unless you’re a major collector or critic.
More Art Upstairs follows four accomplished artists as they compete at ArtPrize, a populist experiment that’s challenging the art world’s hierarchy by giving the public the power to decide which art will win almost half the $500,000 in prize money.
What attracts our artists is the chance to win this public vote, but also to gain exposure to some of the country’s top art critics, who dash into town to select which art will win the rest of the prize money. Local bistros, bars, and abandoned buildings showcase the work – more than 1500 creations – and our artists are compelled to be outgoing. They stand next to their art all day, talking to people who are often experiencing contemporary art for the first time.
Sanchez says, “I wondered whether the artists would tire of having to explain their art to hundreds of visitors each day. I wanted to know how the art world experts would react to the scene – would they dismiss it as spectacle or take note of the crowds spending an entire day looking at and talking about art? Were there any lessons here for the capital “A” art world when it comes to making art more accessible…without dumbing it down?”
With unmatched access to artists, organizers, jurors, and visitors, our film captures the entire wild ride of this competition. The result – a thoughtful yet exuberant experience about this curious confluence of paintings, populism and the notion that art can express something important about what it means to be human.
Jody Hassett Sanchez, the film’s director, is president of Pointy Shoe Productions, a documentary and long-form TV production company. Her film SOLD Fighting the New Global Slavery has been broadcast in more than 60 countries, screened on more than a thousand campuses and included in the State Department’s international cultural affairs program.
Before becoming a filmmaker, Jody covered religion, culture, and education for ABC’s World News Tonight, filed stories for Nightline, and was a senior producer of CNN’s Cold War Postscript, a 24-part series that examined legacies of the Cold War. She was also part of the CNN team that won a national Emmy award for breaking news coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing and the ABC team that won a national Emmy for 9/11 coverage.
Jody is the founder and director of the Africa Film Project, a documentary boot camp that disrupts the traditional model of Western journalists and filmmakers telling Africa’s stories. AFP equips African filmmaker-journalists with the technical resources and editorial skills to create their own short documentary films.
Click here to RSVP for the free screening event of More Art Upstairs.
Source: Biola University | More Art Upstairs