A unique cross-border art project that brought Michigan State University students together with students from Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCAD U) to explore identity, connection, and the boundaries that separate us is now part of ArtPrize 2026, an international art competition and cultural festival that welcomes more than 900,000 visitors to Grand Rapids, Michigan, each year to experience work from thousands of artists from around the world.
“Faces and Traces: A Cross-Border Portrait Project” is on display at the Holiday Inn Grand Rapids Downtown as part of ArtPrize 2026, which runs Sept. 18-Oct. 3, with Preview Week taking place Sept. 12-17. The selection marks the latest stop for “Faces and Traces,” which began as an international classroom collaboration during the Spring 2025 Semester and has since been exhibited in Toronto and East Lansing. Its selection for ArtPrize 2026 will now introduce the collaborative project and the work of its student artists to an even larger audience.
“Being able to exhibit ‘Faces and Traces’ at ArtPrize is a wonderful opportunity for all the students involved,” said Candice Chovanec, Assistant Professor in MSU’s Department of Art, Art History, and Design. “ArtPrize is known for showcasing artwork that is geared toward building strong community connections, both locally and globally. Especially during this period of strained economic and political relations with Canada, it is more important than ever that we find ways to see each other as friends, neighbors, and allies.”
“Being able to exhibit ‘Faces and Traces’ at ArtPrize is a wonderful opportunity for all the students involved. ArtPrize is known for showcasing artwork that is geared toward building strong community connections, both locally and globally.”
Candice Chovanec, Assistant Professor
For the project, students from Michigan State University’s Department of Art, Art History, and Design were paired with students from OCAD U. The students spent weeks getting to know their partners without meeting in person. They shared messages, video conversations, and written reflections and exchanged personal objects, including photographs, notes, and other meaningful items.
Drawing from those exchanges, each artist created a portrait of their cross-border partner, translating what they had learned about someone hundreds of miles away into a work of art.
Museum Studies students from State University of New York (SUNY) Geneseo also contributed to the project by writing exhibition text and creating a digital augmented-reality version of the exhibition, adding another layer of interpretation that considers how portraiture functions as both an artistic practice and a form of storytelling.
The project was designed to encourage students to think about portraiture as more than physical likeness and to consider how identity can be understood through conversation, personal history, objects, place, and perception.
“The project really showed me that across the border our lives aren’t so different in the grand scheme of things. There are borders created by people separating us because of one reason or another, but that doesn’t define who we are.”
Emma Sambaer, Art Education major at MSU
“The project really showed me that across the border our lives aren’t so different in the grand scheme of things,” said Emma Sambaer, an Art Education major at MSU. “There are borders created by people separating us because of one reason or another, but that doesn’t define who we are.”
The project was part of a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) course sponsored by MSU’s Department of Art, Art History, and Design in partnership with OCAD U.
The initial project partnership was established by d’Ann de Simone, Professor of Studio Art in MSU’s Department of Art, Art History, and Design, who received funding under the auspices of an International Strategic Partnership Grant from MSU’s Canadian Studies Center and invaluable assistance from its Director, Dr. Rebecca Malouin. The initiative grew from a shared vision of the importance of cultural exchange and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
“Art is a universal language that crosses borders faster than any headlines,” de Simone said. “The results of the project went far beyond what I originally imagined when I set up the project; students spent time learning about someone they’ve never met from another country and learned about another kind of art college experience – an art school. Throughout the experience they had to use empathy, collaboration, and trust – skills that will serve them well all their professional lives. In addition, for our students, having work exhibited in a venue like ArtPrize is a real professional milestone — the kind of experience that stands out on any resume.”
The resulting works also took on added significance as the project unfolded amid heightened political and economic tensions between the United States and Canada. Against that backdrop, the students’ individual relationships offered another perspective on what it means to live on opposite sides of an international border.
“At a moment when the relationship between Canada and the U.S. is strained, projects like this remind us that the ties between our communities are built person by person, not headline by headline,” de Simone said, “and that kind of person-to-person connection matters more than ever.”
“At a moment when the relationship between Canada and the U.S. is strained, projects like this remind us that the ties between our communities are built person by person, not headline by headline, and that kind of person-to-person connection matters more than ever.”
d’Ann de Simone, Professor of Studio Art
Those person-to-person connections also reinforce the broader relationship between Michigan and Canada, Malouin said.
“Canada is arguably Michigan’s most important international partner based on geography and trade,” Malouin said. “The Canadian Studies Center is honored to help support projects such as ‘Faces and Traces’ to ensure the next generation of leaders understands and values the importance of this relationship.”
The COIL course was designed and taught during Spring 2025 by Chovanec; Morgan Reneé Hill, a recent MFA graduate from MSU; Ilene Sova, Associate Professor at OCAD U; and Alla Myzelev, Professor and Chair of the Department of Art History at SUNY Geneseo, with support from OCAD U International Programs and Collaborations Office, the Faculty of Art Office at OCAD U, the Canadian Studies Centre at MSU, and the Art History Department at SUNY Geneseo.
“It’s more important than ever for students to engage with and learn about their nation’s neighbors,” Sova said. “The project was a valuable opportunity to build unique, personal, and positive relationships across borders while presenting an artistic challenge for the artists to translate a stranger’s presence into a work of art.”
“Faces and Traces” made its public debut in April 2025 at Stackt Market in Toronto near OCAD U’s campus. It later crossed the border for an exhibition from Nov. 7-Dec. 7, 2025, at MSU’s (SCENE) Metrospace in East Lansing.
ArtPrize 2026 marks the 16th year of the event. Each year, the international art competition transforms Grand Rapids into a living canvas, with artwork from around the world filling museums, galleries, businesses, hotels, and other public spaces throughout the city. More than $400,000 is awarded to artists through both popular and juried voting.
Learn more about the “Faces and Traces: A Cross-Border Portrait Project,” including a listing of all the students involved, by visiting the “Faces and Traces” ArtPrize entry page.
By Kim Popiolek
