Announcing Top 20 for 2024 Annual Poster Art Contest

HOLLAND, Mich. – October 24, 2023

Tulip Time Festival, Inc. announces the Top 20 finalists for the annual First Bloem Festival Artwork Competition, through which a work of art will be selected as the official 2024 Tulip Time Festival poster.

Artwork for the 2024 festival is unique in comparison to other festival years in that all submitted works must adhere to the selected theme for the 95th Tulip Time Festival of “Bikes and Bloems.”

This year, 65 works were submitted by 41 artists. The Top 20 pieces were selected by juror Kim Smith. The pieces selected for the Top 20, in alphabetical order, are:

“Abstract Blooms” by Tricia Baker

“Tulip Time Cycles” by Mary Benedict

“Lake. Bikes. Tulips” by Elizabeth Bombara

“I Scream, You Scream for Tulip Time” by Elizabeth Bombara

“In the Park” by Karl Burdak

“Dutch Delivery” by John Cowden

“Classic Beauties” by John Cowden

“Lace Up, Pedal Through: Old Traditions Made New” by Jenny deFouw Geuder

“Tulip Delivery” by Agnes Fisher

“Tulips and Grasses” by Judy Giles

“Pedal Petal” by Toni Houtman

“Holland!” by Karen Johnson

“Come Together” by Karen Johnson

“Spring Race” by Erin Mullis

“Springtime” by Anne Rivers

“The Colors of Spring” by Nancy Sackrison

“Tour Rondttet Windmole Iland” by Sri Soekarmoen McCarthy

“Gears and Cheers” by Carolyn Stitch

“Blooms and Bicycles in the City” by Tracey Venema

“Tour de Tulip” by Kyle Susan Vohlken

Kim Smith, the juror who selected the Top 20, is the owner of Perception Gallery in Grand Rapids, MI. Smith began his career in fine art in 1976 with Hefner’s Art Gallery in Grand Rapids. In 1989, Smith became the owner and manager of the Perception Gallery. Perception Gallery offers works of art by listed 19th and 20th-century American & European painters, printmakers, and sculptors, period, period reproduction, and conceptual framing services, conservation, and appraisals. Smith has specialized in procuring the works of West Michigan artist, Mathias Alten. He served as curator for the Mathias Alten showing at the 2023 Tulip Time Fine Arts Exhibit.

The First Bloem Festival Artwork Competition began in 2011 for local West Michigan artists. Residents of Ottawa, Allegan, Kent, Muskegon, and Kalamazoo counties are invited to enter. The theme of the artwork must represent Tulip Time’s mission to celebrate Holland’s tulips, Dutch heritage, and the ever-growing diversity of our community. This year, artists were also asked to incorporate bicycles into their art.

Recent winners of the competition include Kristen Doversberger (2023), Kate Moynihan (2022), and Aron Lowe (2020).

The official 2024 Tulip Time poster will be selected from these Top 20 and announced in late February of 2024.

Experience Tulip Time’s Bikes & Blooms at the 95th Festival, May 4 – 12, 2024. Detailed program and event information for Tulip Time Festival 2024 and tickets are available at www.TulipTime.com

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