Guide
Featured
ArtPrize: A Visitor's Guide
An open competition with no entry jury, hundreds of venues that are mostly not galleries, and a public vote worth a hundred thousand dollars. Here is how to see it without wasting a day.
5 min read
Ilse Hoekstra
Arts & Design Editor
Beat: Art & Galleries, Things to Do, Free Things to Do
Ilse writes the city's making: the furniture houses that took awards at the 1876 Centennial, the Prairie house Steelcase put back together, the Calder that gave a plaza its name, and the competition that turns 160 downtown venues into galleries each autumn. She has catalogued for a design archive and prefers a maker's mark to a plaque.
3 guides · 3 news posts
Last updatedIlse's most recent update to this site was .
Long-form
Guides by Ilse Hoekstra
Reported guides to Grand Rapids, each with its own publication and last-updated date.
Guide
Free Things to Do in Grand Rapids
A restored Frank Lloyd Wright house, an art museum one day a week, the first artwork the NEA ever helped pay for, and a Maya Lin park you can skate on. None of it costs anything.
5 min read
Guide
FeaturedFrederik Meijer Gardens: A Visitor's Guide
A grocery fortune bought 158 acres, a five-storey glasshouse and a 24-foot bronze horse built from Leonardo's unfinished commission. The calendar decides whether you enjoy it.
5 min read
News desk
News under Ilse Hoekstra's byline
Shorter, dated pieces about what is changing in Grand Rapids.
How this was written. News published under Ilse Hoekstra's byline was drafted by machine from primary sources — operator notices, government and municipal releases, published schedules — and every factual claim in it was matched to one of those sources before it published. A Grand Rapids Guide editor can change or pull any of it. Our editorial standards.
Festival
FeaturedWhat ArtPrize Actually Does to Downtown, and How to Vote
An open competition with no entry jury, installed in bars, churches and hotel lobbies, decided partly by anyone over thirteen who turns up.
September 18 – October 3
Reopening
The Ford Museum Reopened in June, and Old Reviews No Longer Apply
Nine months closed, thirteen million dollars spent, and a new learning centre. Anyone working from a 2024 review is describing a building that no longer exists.
Festival
FeaturedThe City's Answer to January Is a Hundred Artworks and a Free Ice Rink
Two months of free outdoor art, performance and skating, programmed for the weeks when West Michigan is at its coldest and greyest.
January 9 – March 1