GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Part of a three-dimensional ArtPrize entry was damaged Tuesday, Sept. 24, when a child sat next to two ceramic figures on a bench at DeVos Place, causing them to fall and shatter.

The broken ceramic figures were two of seven in Laura VanCamp's entry Disciples of the Spectacle. The voluptuous figures, which were placed on four wooden benches, are meant to evoke subtle elements of the human body, according to VanCamp's artist statement.

A mother stopped to take a photo of the display adjacent to VanCamp's entry late Tuesday morning, said Eddie Tadlock, DeVos Place assistant general manager and the convention center's ArtPrize curator. Her child wandered over and sat on a bench with the two figures and put her feet up, causing them to topple.

"The little kid was mortified and knew that 'Uh-oh, I did something wrong,' and the mother was just completely flabbergasted and apologetic," Tadlock said.

The woman contacted VanCamp, who was at her home in Adrian on Tuesday and hadn't heard her piece was damaged.

"The mother of the child had contacted me via the ArtPrize inquiry for prices and so at first I was like, 'Oh yeah, someone wants to buy my work. She immediately explained ... how sorry she was," VanCamp said. "She offered to pay."

The entry was cordoned off following the crash.

DeVos Place officials, as a preventative measure, barricaded three other entries prior to Tuesday's incident. Though all but one of the convention center's 80-plus ArtPrize entries are accompanied by a "do not touch" sign, "some people just don't get it," Tadlock said.

"The kids are telling the parents, 'Hey, you can't touch this. Can't you see the sign?'" he said. "They'll stop and see the sign ... and they look to the left and look to the right and they proceed to touch it."

DeVos Place this year ventured into housing more three-dimensional pieces with the goal of showcasing diverse art and "not just huge installations," Tadlock said. Staff are looking into investing in equipment, such as glass cases, to keep future three-dimensional entries safe.

For the most part, the majority of the thousands of people who funnel through DeVos Place daily during ArtPrize refrain from touching the entries, Tadlock said.

"I'm always amazed, because of the volume of people coming through, that there isn’t more interaction with the art from a physical standpoint," he said. "The audience is becoming more sophisticated each year of ArtPrize."

By seating her ceramic figures facing the viewer, VanCamp wanted "the viewer to become the viewed." She used museum wax to help the figures and benches stay in place.

"I wanted it to be interactive a little bit, but I didn't want anyone sitting on it," she said.

VanCamp said she's "a little saddened," but this hasn't discouraged her from considering a future ArtPrize entry.

"I just think I probably would do something else maybe next time," she said.

Angie Jackson covers public safety and breaking news for MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. Email her at ajackso3@mlive.com, and follow her on Twitter.