By Corinne Moore | WOODTV.COM – Ottawa County | April 29, 2023
HOLLAND, Mich. (WOOD) — Tulip Time kicks off May 6, and the Holland Museum is getting ready to celebrate with a new exhibit, artifacts and more.
“We’re doing quite a bit for Tulip Time. It’s a celebration of the whole community and the museum gets involved quite extensively as well,” Ricki Levine, executive director of the Holland Museum, said.
“Cultivating Dutch Traditions in the 21st Century: Jane Jones Hyperrealist Floral Paintings” opens May 5. It includes 25 contemporary oil paintings created by Jones, who lives in Colorado and has a background in biology and art history.
“Her contemporary perspective on floral still-life really combines the history and tradition of 17th-century Dutch still-life painting with a modern twist to it,” Levine said.
Janes Jones, Three Graces, 2018, 32″x66″
Jane Jones, On the Edge, 2020, 34″x40″
The vibrant paintings feature tulips and other flowers while highlighting the fragility of our environment.
“Being a contemporary artist, she’s very much aware of the environment and the environmental concerns, and so there is a lot of reflection and its information that visitors will get as they read the labels in the exhibit to really get a sense of how fragile our environment is,” Levine said.
The exhibit runs through July 3.
“We also have two very special wooden shoes on display,” Levine said.
The shoes were given to Al Kaline, the right-fielder for the Detroit Tigers for 22 seasons. In 1959, he was gifted a pair of wooden shoes during Tulip Time.
Wooden shoes gifted to Al Kaline
Wooden shoes gifted to Al Kaline
During Tulip Time, the Spark!Lab space is being converted into a theater and the museum is showing four different documentaries on a loop.
“(The documentaries highlight) family-owned businesses that still are in existence … they include the Holland Peanut Store, the Holland Bowl Mill, which used to be the same family that owned the wooden shoe factory, the Kykstra Funeral Home and Nelis Dutch Village,” Levine said.
The documentaries start at 10:30 a.m. and are roughly 20 minutes each.
Normally on the first Saturday of every month, the museum runs the Netherlands “Klock.” During Tulip Time, the museum will be running it every day at noon.
“This is a really cool piece that we acquired back when we were still called the ‘Netherlands Museum,’” Levine said.
The “klock” was part of the 1939 New York World’s Fair during the outbreak of World War II.
Netherlands Klok from the 1939 New York World’s Fair during the outbreak of World War II
“Instead of sending some of the artifacts back to the Netherlands because they were afraid that they would be lost at sea, they were actually donated to the Netherlands Museum,” she said.
The “klock” highlights the history of the Netherlands, showcases different parts of the national government and plays the national anthem.
At the museum’s historic homes, the Cappon and Settlers Houses, visitors will be able to explore with extended hours during Tulip Time.
Built in 1874 at the corner of 9th Street and Washington Boulevard, the Cappon House was home to Holland’s first mayor Isaac Cappon and his first and second wife and their 16 children.
“This is a beautiful Italianate architectural … house. It was always in the Cappon family,” Levine said.
Just down the street is the Settlers House, which was built in 1867. This home is one of the only houses to survive the 1871 Holland fire.
“That was a house that was built by an Irish carpenter by the name of Morrissey,” Levine said.
The house was occupied by different families up until the 1970s, then it was restored by the museum.
“We’ve converted it back and restored it so it reflects the same time period as the Cappon House, so the late-1800s. And it gives you a sense of the families that had wealth versus the families that were really the working class,” she said.
Cappon House, Holland Museum historical home
Settlers House, Holland Museum historical home
During Tulip Time, the Holland Museum and historic homes have extended hours. For more information, visit the museum’s event page. Admission is $7 for adults, $5 for senior adults, $3 for students and kids 6 and older, and free for museum members and children under five. On May 8, the museum is holding its “Free Second Mondays” which offers free admission from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. For more information, visit the Holland Museum’s website.
