Ann Loveless of Frankfort has taken the art world's largest cash prize for her 20-foot-long quilt depicting "Sleeping Bear Dune Lakeshore." She collects the $200,000 top prize in the annual ArtPrize competition in Grand Rapids. The top prize is determined by public vote.
The quilt, in four panels, uses mainly cotton and batik fabrics to depict a Lake Michigan sunset amidst birch trees and dune shoreline.
Loveless won the competition even amidst a federal government shutdown that closed her venue at a key point in the competition this week. The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum was among museums and parks across the country that closed, forcing Loveless to move her quilt display.
The only other northern Michigan artist to receive an ArtPrize cash prize is pushpin portrait artist Eric Daigh, who took a $50,000 dollar prize in the first year of the massive arts competition created by Rick DeVos, grandson to one of the founders of the Amway Corporation.