We’re so proud of our friend Stacey Kirby! First, she was selected to represent North Carolina in the eighth ArtPrize, the Grand Rapids-based public art event held each Fall. She was awarded $5000 as the winner of the Pitch Night event hosted by 21C Museum Hotel in Durham. Then, Stacey successfully raised the additional funds needed through a kickstarter campaign. She then traveled to Grand Rapids and hosted her site-specific installation and three ongoing works: The Declaration Project and VALIDnation, along with her newest work, I AM. Her projects rely on human interaction, and as such, were activated both by volunteers from the community who manned the Bureau, as well as through visitor participation.

Stacey represented North Carolina well and helped engage the community in a productive conversation around LGBTQ rights, and specifically, around government process and legislation both in the artist’s home state of NC (HB2), and in Michigan, where ArtPrize takes place (SB993 and HB5717).

We’re happy to announce that the hard work paid off. Stacey WON one of the two top jury awards ($200,000) at ArtPrize! The jury consisted of Michelle Grabner, artist and professor at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Paul Ha, director at the MIT List Visual Arts Center, and Sotheby’s senior vice president Eric Shiner.

Congrats Stacey! And thank you for doing this important work. You make us extra proud to be part of the art community in North Carolina.