GRAND RAPIDS, MI – As locals and visitors wander Grand Rapids streets for unique ArtPrize entries, one West Michigan university displays student art on a different type of canvas right above them.
This month, Ferris State University launched a city-wide billboard campaign to accompany ArtPrize. The international art competition takes over downtown Grand Rapids and nearby areas for two weeks each year.
The billboard campaign, titled “Make it Here,” will highlight the talents of Ferris State students by displaying their artwork on 20 billboards across the city during the festival.
Dave Murray, Ferris State’s associate vice president of marketing and communications, said “Grand Rapids is the center of the creative world during ArtPrize, so we’re proud to highlight our creative students on billboards throughout the city.
“These aren’t along the highways, but instead in the neighborhoods, often not far from ArtPrize venues,” he said. “People who appreciate creativity – and who might be considering a career in creative fields – will be excited to see the next generations of our region’s rising artistic stars.”
The campaign features 13 original student artworks and designs from Ferris State and Kendall College of Art and Design (KCAD), the university’s Grand-Rapids based art and design college.
The selected work ranges from fine art to technical design and even welding.
ArtPrize runs from Sept. 18 through Oct. 4, and the 16-day competition features entries from 930 artists at 155 venues throughout Grand Rapids.
That includes more than 50 Ferris State alumni, faculty and students submitting 53 entries, according to a Ferris State website.
The billboard campaign will give an additional venue for students like Erin Russell, a junior in KCAD’s illustration program.
Russell’s work, featured on Leonard St. just west of US-131, is an illustration of Ferris’ mascot Brutus the Bulldog.
Colored in bold yellow, pink and teal, three iterations of Brutus clutch a paintbrush, paint palette and dripping paint bucket in their mouths. Standing out against a pink checkered background, they’re surrounded by stars.
“Last semester, I was designing mock billboards for class, and now I have one of my own. It feels amazing,” Russell said. “KCAD has changed me. The people I’ve met, the community I’ve built, the connections I’ve made – they’re impacting me and helping me become better than I am today.”
The campaign extends beyond KCAD to also include students from Ferris State’s main campus in Big Rapids.
Austin Nesbitt, a senior in the Product Design Engineering Technology program, was selected for a mixed-media piece that blends photography and illustration.
Nesbitt’s billboard is a black-and-white self-portrait, split in two to showcase a colorful skeleton. Music, film, flowers and birds pour out.
“My program is more on the technical side, but it’s cool that Ferris State gives us opportunities to express ourselves,” Nesbitt said.
A map of billboard locations, according to Ferris State, can be found below.
Information on the exact location of the 20 billboards, and the artists featured, can be found online.
Ferris State has a long record of ArtPrize participation. Last year, five winners of juried and public awards were KCAD alumni, including the $125,000 Public Grand Prize winner John Katerberg, a 2015 graduate with a bachelor’s of fine arts in painting.
This year, six Ferris State students make up the team of interns who have been working to bring ArtPrize to life since the spring, working along full-time staff on fundraising development, coordinating venue and artist connections and providing marketing and communications support.
Stephen Halko, KCAD’s interim dean, said “creativity and making are at the heart of so much of what we do, not just at KCAD but throughout the University.
“It’s incredible to see this many Ferris community members involved in ArtPrize,” he said. “We prepare our graduates to shape things that shape our world, and one of the world’s largest and most radically open art competitions is no exception.”
ArtPrize is organized through a community partnership between the city of Grand Rapids, Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. and Ferris State University’s Kendall College of Art and Design.
Apart from exploring the entries and voting for their favorites, visitors to the 2025 competition will have a chance to experience special events.
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