MI Great Artist Competition Voting Opens

Voting in the MI Great Artist competition opened Wednesday and residents from Berkley and Huntington Woods are among 122 artists who are competing.

Katharine McGilsky of Berkley and Jodie Stein of Huntington Woods each have works entered in the contest, which was launched by Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson and Park West Gallery Founder/CEO Albert Scaglione.

The public can visit MIGreatArtist.com to vote through Aug. 17.

“Some great works of art were submitted to the MIGreatArtist website,” Patterson said. “We encourage the artists and their supporters to use their social media to encourage votes not just locally but from around the world.”

From the top 20 public favorites, a five-member panel of judges will select five semi-finalists, and the winner will be determined by a combination of jury score and public vote. 

The top prize is $1,000 and framing by Park West Gallery for the artist's five submitted works. The winner's works will be exhibited at Park West, Lawrence Technological University and McLaren Hospital in Pontiac, and featured on a poster to promote an Oakland County event.

There's also a business connection for the winner, who will receive a scholarship to attend entrepreneurial training offered by Oakland County's One Stop Shop/Business Center.

The top 20 artists will be announced Aug. 18, and the five semi-finalists will be named Aug. 24.

The winner will be announced during a Sept. 14 awards ceremony at Park West Gallery. 

Competition judges are Scaglione; Elliott W. Broom, vice president of museum operations for Detroit Institute of Arts; Dominic Pangborn, founder of Pangborn Design Collection; Kristie Everett Zamora, coordinator of arts, culture and film for Oakland County; and artist Don Tocco, whose works include award-winning photography, paintings sold to high end collectors and portrait sculptures of global leaders.