DeVos recipe: Make openness and few rules and see ArtPrize and creativity fly
Wandering around Grand Rapids during Art Prize feels a bit like being transported to a country where the currency is creativity and art. Yes, there are a number of counterfeiters operating there – some crassly commercial pieces that seem to be more about promoting a company than creative expression. But there’s also some stunningly beautiful and inventive art installations.
Rick DeVos, the founder of ArtPrize, acknowledges that some of its sculpture and paintings are “goofy and poorly made” and a few may offend some residents in a town once known for the number of Christian radio stations. Yet he believes that is the price one pays for a “radically open” art competition – and DeVos sees openness as critical to bringing higher quality and more variety of artforms.
“It’s that belief that people can create much more value when they can create their own ideas,” he said. I interviewed DeVos for Fortune.com - my piece appeared last week.
“By weaving the rules as minimal as possible, you can get a maximum sort of diversity in participation. Over time, it creates a more interesting and diverse ecosystems,” said DeVos, whether for art or Android mobile phone apps.
This resonates for me – as a way of managing a team, my teams. Set the basic rules in place and leave plenty of room for improvisation, for individuality. Believe that the best will come forth, even if not in the way you imagined.
“It’s impossible to forecast where things will take you. Have somewhat of a lunatic faith – let things happen,” he told me. I love that term – “a lunatic faith” in our creativity, in our collaboration, in our problem-solving abilities.
That lunatic faith has brought Grand Rapids hundreds of artists, working in borrowed ladders, nails, stained glass, Rubik’s Cubes, and red threads among many other media. They come in hoping to claim prizes that total $474,000 last year. They come hoping to be inspired, or to meet collectors. Among the pieces were a 12-ton steam pig, a sea monster lying in the river and a variety of murals and sculptures that still are visible around Grand Rapids. (You can see many photos on the official ArtPrize Flikr stream and I am hoping a few of my photos from 2009 will be posted here too.)
I’d also like to share one question and answer that didn’t make the Fortune.com piece.
Q Elmer: Why do business people need to think more like artists, or do they?
A DeVos: ” Innovation is a way overused word, but in a way that’s what it comes down to. What are the ways that we’re going to create value. It’s not necessarily technology. It could be 200 year old things that you bring together in a new way. You need to embrace the chaos at the beginning … let the thing happen. Find new models, new methods, new products. Create value for your firm.”
“People come up with crazy ideas and some of them become wildly successful. Some are weird little projects that people just want to do for fun.”
ArtPrize seems on its way to success today – it’s growing and inspiring others and may be self sufficient before too long. Yet it could have been something more mundane. DeVos told me a couple of years ago that originally he wanted it to be a film festival. That was a well-worn idea, and so he threw it out and tried again. He threw away the maps and the blueprints on art events, and used that family money, some openness and his “lunatic faith” to open many eyes.
