Go (mid) West!

So I'm heading off to the fair city of Grand Rapids, MI where I will be visiting the fam as well as looking at a bunch of art and...voting on my mother's entry in ArtPrize! (ATTENTION GReeps: My madre's fabulous painting above is on display at Bethlehem Lutheran Church downtown, mere blocks away from some of the other big art viewing and voting destinations!)

What is ArtPrize you ask? Why it's "a radically open competition. Open to any artist in the world who can find space. Open to anybody in Grand Rapids, Michigan who wants to create a venue. Open to a vote from anyone who attends - Part arts festival, part social experiment--this international contest is decided solely by public vote." (By the way, that orange squiggly thing in the ArtPrize logo is a graphic depiction of the most iconic piece of sculptural art in Grand Rapids by Alexander Calder, just turned on it's side.)

I'm also planning to check out the über-recently opened restaurant, Reserve, the latest to join the ranks of wine bars serving small plates and locally sourced menu items like Lake Superior whitefish, smoked steelhead roe, and Evergreen Lane Farm Chevre to name a few (according to the website). The wine list looks pretty straightforward but the draw will be the over 100 wines available by the glass as they have employed ye olde tap...well, more or less. I'm thinking it will be like this but I'll be sure to visit and report back!