Our StoryFifty years ago a group of arts advocates saw an opportunity in Holland. The community was growing and the arts were beginning to take their hold in West Michigan, but local artists and designers were missing a support system. This group of artists – painters, musicians, dancers and designers -- met to create an organization that would meet that need. From that beginning in 1967, the Holland Area Arts Council has supported local arts initiatives, organized exhibitions and provided arts education for the Lakeshore area residents and visitors.
Visit the Holland Area Arts Council today and you will be surrounded by art: paintings and sculptures lining the gallery walls, rehearsal rooms echoing with the sound of music, and dance and art studios bursting with creativity you can feel. You’ll also find staff and volunteers working to further the Arts Council’s mission “to educate, engage and challenge the community through the arts.” The Arts Council is a building where kids, grownups, families and artists of all ages come to experience art. It’s also a group of people who are constantly working to spark imagination in our community: always-changing exhibitions, a variety of classes, camps and workshops for all ages, arts and music events, public art projects and arts resources. Stop in to say hi and see what we’re all about! Our Staff
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Our Board of Directors
Shani Rotem Padnos
President Graduating from Haifa University with a law degree, Shani was an accomplished litigator practicing Corporate Law in Tel Aviv until moving to Holland, Michigan in 2011. She sits on the board of the Holland Area Arts Council to continue a family tradition proud in growing the arts and acceptance of the creative force within us all. 
Scott Essenburgh
Vice President Retired, Bradford White Corporation; Volunteer for Community Action House 
Jeremy Brieve
Treasurer Counsel, Priority Health. State Bar of Michign, Chairman of the Substantive Law Committee of the Health Care Law Section (6/15 – Present). Board of Directors Treasurer Mercy Air, Inc.(02/13 – Present) 
Rich Evenhouse
Secretary President/Digital Director, Next Creative Co. Board member, Co-owner Caribou Services, Inc, 
Leslie Brigham
Pre-School Instructor, Board of Directors at Cherry Lane Preschool, Arts Council Board |
Gordon Julius
Julius Group Architecture LLC – Principal; Commodore of the Lake Michigan Sail Racing Federation 
Heidi Kraus
Dr. Heidi Kraus is Associate Professor of Art and Art History and the Direcot of The De Pree Galley at Hope College, specializing in art from the Early Modern through Contempoary periods. Her current teaching and research focuses on eighteenth-and nineteenth-century iconography in contempoary French visual culture 
Anne Gaskin Nemschoff
Communications Strategist and owner, GaskinPR. Board Member, Holland Area Arts Council, Volunteer Center For Women In Transition, Kid's Food Basket 
Reynaldo D. Rivera, D.D.S., M.D., F.A.C.S.
Clinical Instructor Department of Surgery Michigan State University College of Human Medicine Chief, Division of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Spectrum Health System 
Amy Kraal
Human Resources Consultant Owner of HR Solutions Group of West Michigan, LLC & Know My HR, LLC Talent2025 CEO Council member Mentor for Women’s Leadership at West Coast Chamber of Commerce |
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Photography by Mike Lozon.