Beulah's own Ann Loveless joined our Club today to share with us her experience with Art Prize and the impact that winning the 2013 Grand Prize of $200,000 has made on her life.
 
After enduring 12 hour days during the 19 day Art Prize competition in Grand Rapids last fall, and shaking hands with the majority of the 238,000 people filing through the Gerald Ford Museum, Ann's Sleeping Bear Dune Lakeshore artistic quilt came out on top, shattering the previous record for prize money won by a quilt artist.  Spending roughly 400 hours creating her masterpiece, and using 18,000 yards of thread and 50 yards of fabric in the process, Ann's winning quilt is now on display at the Grand Rapids Art Museum and is scheduled to be on exhibit at the museum until October 2014.
 
In 2013, Art Prize, which awarded $560,000 in prize money to the top artists, drew roughly 400,000 people from all over the world to Grand Rapids to view and vote on over 1500 pieces of artwork created by artists from 47 countries.  The artwork was displayed throughout the city.  In the two days following her win, roughly 30,000 people filed by Ann's quilt display, while Ann was busy doing interviews and signing autographs.  As a result of the publicity she received from her Art Prize experience, Ann has not only seen an exponential increase in visitors to her store in Beulah, she also is in the process of writing a book about her quilting technique and has been asking to participate in quilting workshops throughout the country.
 
Congratulations Ann!  We're so very proud of you and your tremendous accomplishment!