GRAND RAPIDS, MI — After winning ArtPrize’s grand prize, mother and son team Christian Reichle and Monica Pritchard said Friday night they were filled with “love and humbling happiness,”
“You pour your heart into something … and you don’t know how it’s going to go,” said Reichle, whose entry, “Before You Go,” is a repurposed phone booth on the Blue Bridge where users can listen to advice and reflections on life recorded by residents from Grand Rapids and beyond.
“To have the reception that we had, and then to win, is huge.”
They take home a $50,000 prize.
The idea for Before You Go had been “brewing for two years,” before the two began working to make the concept a reality after receiving a curatorial grant from ArtPrize to help finance the project.
At the time, Pritchard, who lives in Grand Rapids, was working as the chief operating officer for a law firm, and his mother was assisting elderly clients with estate planning. She became friends with many of those clients, and ‘She was like, how do we tell their stories,’” recalled Reichle, a graphic designer who moved from Cincinnati to Grand Rapids in April to work on the project.
That idea, of sharing the stories of common people, eventually blossomed into Before You Go.
ArtPrize attendees who step inside the exhibit can pick up a telephone and choose, by pressing a button on the phone, to listen to recordings of people offering advice, and discussing their legacy, helping others, wishes and regrets, family, travel, beliefs, their relationship with death and more. The phone line where those messages are recorded can be accessed remotely by calling 1 (888) 665-2036.
“I’ve just had a passion for telling peoples stories in terms of business, and I’ve been sharing that with my son,” said Pritchard, who now works as an executive sales coach. “Christian helped me make it come alive.”
Before You Go features snippets from over 100 interviews Reichle and Pritchard conduced with residents “from all walks of life” from throughout the U.S. but primarily West Michigan.
Participants ranged in age from 35 to 103 and included the homeless as well as residents of an assisted living home in Rockford, Reichle said.
Questions included: “What is something you would like to share with a future generation before you go?” and “What do you wish more people knew about you now.”
“I think people are thirsty for community and need people and have to have conversations with people before it’s too late,” Pritchard says in a recording, describing her exhibit, that can be played inside her ArtPrize entry. “I think maybe having listened to a few of these stories that we have collected will prompt them to go and start having conversations that they may have been reluctant to have had.”
Looking forward, the two were hopeful there will be a life for Before You Go beyond ArtPrize 2021, which wraps up Sunday, Oct. 3.
“There’s a phone line that people can call into and hear selections from it, so I think right now we’re going to keep that up and see what life this brings,” Reichle said. “I think wining Art Prize certainly adds some credentials to the project and some attention to it.”
They were thankful for the opportunity to bring their vision to ArtPrize and to see residents from throughout the region engage with their art.
“We didn’t initially enter into this competition to win it or win anything,” Pritchard said. “We just wanted to share a story.”
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Mother-son team filled with ‘love and humbling happiness’ after winning top ArtPrize 2021 award - MLive.com
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