There are typically over 160 venues such as museums, galleries, bars, restaurants, hotels, public parks, bridges, laundromats, auto body shops, and more.

ArtPrize lasts for 19 days beginning in late September, and during each festival $500,000 in cash prizes are awarded based on public voting and a jury of art experts.

[4] In 2017, the festival's connection to the DeVos family's wealth and their conservative politics was criticized by artist Eric Millikin in his “Made of Money” installation, placed within ArtPrize.

[5] In 2014, The Art Newspaper listed ArtPrize as one of the most-attended "big ticket" art events (those where visitors are often counted more than once), with ArtPrize's attendance of 440,000 being roughly one quarter of the 1.6 million who attended the Russian Imperial Costume exhibition at the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg.

[6] ArtPrize was highlighted along with Slows Bar BQ and the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park as one of the reasons to visit Grand Rapids in The New York Times’ "52 Places To Go in 2016.

The 2022 event ran from September 15 to October 2, 2022, with many visitors criticizing the smaller scale of works present.

[10] ArtPrize was conceived by Rick DeVos as an untraditional art contest with its goals being: any artist in the world could compete; anyone with property in downtown Grand Rapids could turn their space into a venue; and any visitor could vote for their favorite artwork.

The updated award structure includes two Grand Prizes of $200,000, one chosen by public vote and one selected by a panel of three arts experts.

Each artist is assigned a 5-digit vote code which is posted near their entry during the event, and available both online and in the mobile app.

[22] The event introduced "Exhibition Centers," local cultural institutions featuring professional curation.

[24] Event organizers noted that, depending on sponsor availability, more juried awards might be added to the program.

[27] ArtPrize 2011 official participation numbers: The 2011 prizes, which were decided by public vote, totaled $449,000, were: On September 30, the 2010 Top 10 entries were announced, and their rankings were revealed during the Winners Announcement on October 6: In addition to awards distributed as a result of a public vote, the organization distributed seven juried awards for ArtPrize 2011.

[33][34] [33][34] David Dodde's Fleurs et riviere was an entry that placed magnetic flowers on the Alexander Calder sculpture La Grande Vitesse.

This is also the first time the opinions of both the voting public and the jury of art experts converged, awarding a top prize to one piece – Intersections by Anila Quayyum Agha.

While ArtPrize organizers described Project 1 as a success, crowds were much smaller and visitors criticized the event as being less festive.

[8] As Project 1 was concluding, the executive director of ArtPrize, Jori Bennett, announced that she would step down.