GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — ArtPrize is changing up how the $250,000 in prize money will be awarded this year.

Visitors will award cash prizes from a $150,000 prize pool throughout the 18-day competition, ArtPrize said in a Tuesday release.

“We are taking $150,000 and putting it in the hands of visitors to award to the artists of their choosing,” ArtPrize Executive Director Craig Searer told News 8. “More artists will have a much higher chance of receiving a portion of this prize money.”

Specific details about how the public will get to choose which artists get part of the $150,000 prize pool will be announced later.

The rest of the prize purse will be split between $50,000 in juried awards and the $50,000 public grand prize.

“A lot of what we are doing this year has to do with the feedback we have received from visitors and artists and creating this flywheel effect,” Searer said. “It was important to us to keep the spirit of ArtPrize and then create this new and exciting experience for artists and visitors to be engaged with one another on a much deeper and richer level.”

Artists still have until Thursday to register. So far, more than 1,500 artists have signed up.

ArtPrize has also reopened venue registration through Thursday because of the recent changes to COVID-19 mandates, it said.

The event is scheduled to take place from Sept. 16 to Oct. 3.