[Crowbob]

There is an annual gigantic Art Festival in Grand Rapids every fall (ArtPrize). The entire town is bedecked by thousands of pieces of all kinds of art from all over the world. Serious art, i.e., marble sculpture, paintings of all kinds of media, fabrics, various installations of fantastic variety, and of course political art. There is a grand prize which used to be something like $500,000. People vote for their fave. A couple years ago, a quilt one the prize, not once but twice!

Not trying to be elitist or condescending but there were pieces of fine art worthy of the greatest galleries in the world over which the artists had toiled for YEARS. Also, the winning quilts were stunning and nothing like I had ever imagined a quilt could be.

The outrage pretty much forced the organizers to compose a very, very highly regarded jury committee to screen for and then dictate a list of finalists from which the people voted.