Diana, ArtPrize draw crowds to GRAM

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - The opening of 'Diana - A Celebration' at the Grand Rapids Art Museum comes right on the heels of ArtPrize, a three-week event that drew some of the largest crowds ever at the GRAM.

Museum officials hope the Princess Diana exhibit will continue to bring people in the doors.

Grand Rapids is the final stop on a world wide exhibition tour. It is only the tenth city in the world to see the exhibit.

Already, the GRAM has pre-sold more than 10,000 tickets to people in 17 states and Canada.

"It's just breathtaking," said Betty Hattendorf, one of the eightWest guests invited to the exhibit's sneak peak. "I have lived the dream of the princess -- to see her through her years."

Hattendorf drove in from Chicago to see the princess' artifacts.

Museum officials are counting on people like her. In the past 90 days, the GRAM has seen more traffic than it received in all of 2009. Diana's exhibit has attracted between 90,000 and 140,000 visitors per stop on tour, and the timing of this event has been carefully planned.

"We pushed this back a little bit, so that it would be right after ArtPrize, so that as an institution, we would be able to wrap up and have a great centennial year," said Randy Van Antwerp, the interim director at the GRAM.

Diana's exhibit landed in Grand Rapids after Pamella DeVos met the curator at an opening in Philadelphia.

John Norman is the man in charge of the collection and he said he has no qualms about Grand Rapids.

"This is a fantastic, spectacular art museum and felt right -- felt like this would be the right place for it, and actually, Diana the exhibition has done extremely well in smaller markets," said Norman, the president of Arts and Exhibitions International.

The exhibition will stay at the GRAM until February 2011.