From April 1-7, 2008, SMart, Grand Rapids' Multimedia Art Festival, will take center stage as an international festival of creativity. SMart is a collaborative new media art festival, founded by Open Concept Gallery, that will attract hundreds of participants to its events around Grand Rapids' most important cultural institutions. Other contributors to this year's SMart Festival /arranged alphabetically/ include: Arts Council of Greater Grand Rapids, Avenue for the Arts, Grand Rapids Community Media Center, Grand Valley State University (GVSU), Kendall College of Art and Design (KCAD) and Ferris State University (FSU), Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts (UICA), and WMCAT.
SMart Festival began in 2006 as a big idea, an outlet for Grand Rapids to realize its potential as one of the most creative cities in the Midwest. It was conceived out of our city's unique vibrancy and cultural diversity, and designed to showcase Grand Rapids' truly livable downtown core and the cultural renaissance transforming our renowned galleries, educational institutions, exhibit spaces, and theaters. The purpose of the Festival is to invite students of local colleges and universities to participate in the creation of Michigan's first contemporary new media festival. SMart coordinators consider the festival an innovative opportunity for artists, and a necessary event to build Grand Rapids’ contemporary art scene.
Mission and Vision:
SMart's three touchstones - collaboration, diversity, and accessibility - continue to set Grand Rapids’ Multimedia Art Festival apart on the world stage. Founded to explore and celebrate the creative spirit, SMart is an annual multi-genre series of events that feature highly acclaimed innovative new art work by international, national and local artists.
Free, widely accessible openings, performances and "accidental encounters with art" are important hallmarks of SMart. At every turn, festival-goers are invited to participate, explore and celebrate their own creative spirit while enjoying everything SMart has to offer.
SMart’s aspiration is for Grand Rapids to realize its potential as one of the most creative cities in the Midwest. Conceived out of our city's unique vibrancy and status as the culturally diverse city, and designed to showcase a truly livable downtown core and the 'cultural renaissance' transforming our renowned galleries, art and educational institutions, and museum collections, SMart was created to show Grand Rapids' best face to the world, to showcase the best local contemporary art, and to bring the best available contemporary art projects to Grand Rapids.
