Using competitive arts events to draw big crowds

An international art and technology competition called The Epoch Project anticipated to draw a quarter-million visitors to downtown Jacksonville, Florida - was announced last week ("Project aims to draw big crowds to Jacksonville"). The program is modeled after ArtPrize, an arts competition that attracted more than 200,000 visitors to downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan last year.
This competition incorporates a number of different strategies, including some of my favorite pieces from other downtown arts projects and events, and combines them into one:

• Winners are picked based on public vote (similar to Uncover Church Avenue, which we posted about a few weeks ago)
• Any space is fair game (as long as the property owner wants to participate) -so art will end up in hotel lobbies, office buildings, storefronts, vacant lots, parking lots - and who knows where else! Every piece of the downtown is eligible to be transformed.
• It's up to property owners and artists to sign on to the database, pick a good partner and work together to create their exhibition - like Make Music NY... or online dating for artists and venues.
• The contest aims to create a "Destination for Innovation" with arts, technology, music and "spontaneous celebrations"

Overall this seems to be a great recipe for successful event marketing with a big impact - I cant wait to follow their process and see how it turns out in April 2013.