Each year, ArtPrize awards two grand prize winners, one by a public vote and the other by a jury of art experts. The top two winners were announced on Oct. 9 at Civic Theatre along with the eight other winning entries from the public and jury categories, as well as an award for Outstanding Venue. The awards given to the winners totaled $500,000. Voting ended at midnight on Thursday, Oct. 8, with more than 422,000 votes.

This year’s public vote winner was “Northwood Awakening” by Ann Loveless, a textile artist, and Steven Loveless, a landscape photographer. Ann Loveless also won the public vote grand prize in 2010, becoming the very first second-time Grand Prize winner of ArtPrize. The pair is also the first artist team to win the public grand prize vote. This mixed media, two-dimensional piece was displayed in the Gerald R. Ford Museum,

representing the return of the flora in the Northwood forests after the winter season. According to the official ArtPrize description, this piece took over 1,000 hours to complete.

The winner of the art jury vote, judged as winner by the three person jury panel, was “Higher Ground” by Kate Gilmore, who prior to this win has taken part in exhibitions in Los Angeles and Berlin. This entry was one of a series of installations on the 300 block of Rumsey Street SE project for SiTE:LAB, which also won the Outstanding Venue prize. Gilmore’s work was a time-based performance shown throughout the duration of ArtPrize, showcasing women in white dresses and red shoes who swung on swings mounted from the ceiling and in front of open windows. The windows were lit from within to allow viewers to see the

performances. Through this piece, the Washington D.C. artist claims to explore ideas of femininity and domesticity, using performance to enhance this.

Both winners were awarded $200,000 prizes for their artwork.

For more information on this year’s ArtPrize winners and other entries, visit http://www.artprize.org.