TULIP TIME FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2024 TULIP TIME POSTER WINNER & TULIP TIME NOMINATED FOR USA TODAY’S 10BEST
HOLLAND, Mich. – [February 23, 2024], Tulip Time Festival, Inc. has selected John Cowden’s Dutch Delivery as the official 2024 Tulip Time poster.
Cowden is no stranger to the Top 20 of the competition, but 2024 marks the first time his work has been chosen as the winner.
“When it was announced that the theme for the 2024 Tulip Time Festival would be ‘Bicycles,’ I immediately thought of a photograph I captured at Windmill Island Gardens the previous year. It incorporates so many aspects of Holland and the Tulip Time Festival. I know I needed to base a work of art on that image.” Cowden says of his piece.
Dutch Delivery is a classic oil on canvas painting featuring several Holland icons, including the DeZwaan Windmill, the tulip fields at Windmill Island Gardens, the Dutch flag, and a stunning orange bicycle that incorporates the theme of the 95th festival, bicycles.
For the 2024 artwork competition, artists were asked to incorporate the theme of bicycles into their artwork. All 83 submissions were then juried by Kim Smith, owner of Perception Gallery, who narrowed the choices down to the Top 20. Cowden, who had two pieces in the Top 20, was selected as the winner for his piece Dutch Delivery.
Copies of the winning piece are available for sale at the Tulip Time Festival office at 42 W 8th St., downtown Holland, along with other merchandise and souvenirs based on the Dutch Delivery painting. The artwork will also grace the label of Tulip Time’s custom beer, brewed by Big Lake Brewing.
Cowden is a dedicated oil painter and portrait artist. Born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, he credits his mother, Ann Meador, who is a well-known local portrait artist, with his love of art. He studied Fine Art at The Savannah College of Art and Design and the University of Tennessee.
Cowden and his wife are living in Holland, Michigan and now consider it home. “The Tulip Time Festival is a wonderful event and I always look forward to taking as many photos as I can. I use the best of these photos to create works of art on canvas,” says Cowden.
Tulip Time Nominated for USA Today’s 10Best Reader’s Choice Travel Awards
Tulip Time was nominated for USA Today’s 10Best Reader’s Choice travel awards for Best Flower Festival.
Tulip Time lovers are encouraged to vote for Tulip Time in this category so they can let the whole world know how great Holland’s small-town festival is. Voting is currently open and closes on March 29th, at 12 pm EST.
Gwen Auwerda, Executive Director of Tulip Time, was ecstatic about the news, “We are over the moon to be nominated for this award again. We face some stiff competition from some very worthy festivals, but we’re convinced Tulip Time outshines them all, and would love the community's help to prove that to the world.”
Tulip Time won the award in 2016.