What you need to know about getting to and parking at ArtPrize

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — ArtPrize is just two days away and that means thousands of people will be heading into downtown Grand Rapids in the coming weeks.

With so many people downtown and construction still underway on some streets, the city has simple advice for ArtPrizegoers:

“Plan ahead, give yourself plenty of time,” Jennifer Kasper, assistant director for Mobile GR, said.

“In addition to the construction, there are also two festivals that will be going on the first opening weekend of ArtPrize so there will be a lot of additional folks downtown,” she added.

The easiest way to get to the ArtPrize area is probably catching a ride or hailing a rideshare. The Dash city buses are free again this year.

“Our Dash bus is still operating seven days a week with late night service on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, so please check out our websites or use the Transit app or the MyStop app for the bus route as well as on-time arrival,” Kasper said.

If you’re driving, the Mobile GR website has a list of all the parking facilities and associated rates.

“We have lots that are flat rate (and) some that are by the half-hour, so it’s important to know where you park and what the rates are going to be,” Kasper said. “Enforcement on the street is now until 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. That is a change from last year, so it is important that folks are paying attention to signage to make sure that they don’t get a ticket.”

The best route to get into downtown Grand Rapids will depend on where you’re coming from — but no matter what way you go, you’ll probably see some orange barrels.

Once you’re downtown, you can pay for an electronic bike or e-scooter to zip around to check out the installations. The most important thing, of course, is the people and the art.

“For folks driving downtown that aren’t as familiar with driving downtown in the one-ways (streets), just be mindful again there is going to be lots of pedestrians, and the pedestrians might be looking up at the art and may not be paying attention entirely to crosswalks, so it’s making sure you are keeping an eye out for that. And it is the law in Grand Rapids to stop for pedestrians at crosswalks and not just yield. And so we want to make sure we are sharing the roadway safely,” Kasper said.

To help plan your trip, you ca go to the Mobile GR webpage or the ArtPrize website.

Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled Jennifer Kasper’s name. We regret the error, which has since been corrected.

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