To our friends,

We wanted to take a minute and thank you for your support of the Holland Project. As is our tradition, every year we put together a wrap letter to highlight some of our accomplishments over the past twelve months, and to thank you for making it possible to do what we do.

As every media outlet in the country compiles their “top ten” lists to close the decade, we decided to do our own list to share with you and thank you for your support and dedication to Reno’s all-ages movement and our project. It’s kinda like those other top ten lists, except ours goes to 11.

Here we go: Holland Top Eleven of 2-0-0-9!

11. Hot Happenings at the Holland Headquarters
The Holland HQ was a veritable hive of activity this year with six gallery exhibits (including Paper Thin, Secret Show, Andrei Hill BFA, Eclectic, and the Installation Exhibit), nine workshop events (Silkscreening, Cute Craft, Printmaking, Papermaking, Clothing Modification, and more), the ever-popular and cozy Punk Rock Storytellers series, new Listening Parties, and Get Stuff Done Night. And adding to the excitement of it all, we received two new lovely neighbors this year—The Hub Coffee Co. and Bootleg Courier.

10. 3-Minute Film Competition
Over 30 submissions came in for Holland’s first-ever 3-minute film competition that debuted at the NMA during Teen Art Night. Each submission wowed the heck out of us, from horror zombie flicks to romance to mockumentary to art films to music video. The competition proved that there’s some real cinematic promise in our town. Stay tuned for Round 2, taking place in Spring 2010.

9. Dance, Dance, Dance!
With performances from Culture Shock, Artfullsouls, Allison Prater, Dead Bird Movement, and Four Rooms Dance Collective, Holland continued to spotlight emerging dancers and dance collectives, celebrating movement in its grassroots, underground, and independent forms.

8. <21songs!: A Holland Compilation CD
<21 (Songs!) gathered 20 tracks of local and national artists that have played the Holland Project and have supported all-ages music—providing an excellent follow-up to Holland’s first compilation: 19 Bands, 1 Community, released in the winter of 2006. Local artists on <21 (songs!) include My Flag is on Fire, Manacle, Apprentice, Deepen the Wound, Guardrails, Xenophobes, Hopscotch Whisky, Swahili, Short Hair, Emic, Buster Blue, Always Fierce, and Over Vert—spanning musical genres that include folk, punk, singer/songwriter, hip hop, hard core, rock, and more. Special guest touring artists include Sonny Smith, Love Songs, Pterodactyl, Hair Envelope, Ferocious Eagle, Planets, and New Thrill Parade. It’s an exceptional snapshot of Reno's music community (alongside our musical friends from out of town), and it’s still available for those that want a copy. 7. Double Dutch Battle, now new and improved and warmer!
After a wintertime revolt in 2008, Holland Project moved its annual Double Dutch Street Battle to springtime and to a new venue—Barbara Bennett Park. With a giant crowd and a panel of judges all named Tim, team Tight Ropes reigned supreme (for the third straight year), with team Girl Squad coming in a very close second. You can re-live the magic HERE.

6. Special Events
From Air Guitar to renegade fort-building at Wingfield Park, Holland maintained great partnerships that enabled us to produce some pretty awesome events including the nine-week Art+Music Night at West Street Market, Fortified Artistry at Wingfield Park (Holland’s Artown Event), Teen Art Night at the Nevada Museum of Art, concerts at Laxalt Theatre with Wolf Pack Radio, and Double Dutch Street Battle with Reno River Festival.

5. Radical Shows!
Holland produced more than 30 shows featuring more than 70 acts—both local and touring. Visitors included stateside folks from Seattle, NYC, Oakland & SF, Austin, North Carolina, Omaha, Portland, Santa Cruz, Las Vegas, Brooklyn, and Olympia, as well as some international folks from Ireland, Argentina, Canada, and the UK. Now with our new show space (see #1!), we hope to double these numbers in the new year and book more local bands and bring in more national acts. Can’t wait!

4. Spoken Views
Spoken Views continued to rally in 2009, becoming Reno’s longest running poetry open mic, showcasing some of Reno’s best writers, poets, and performers. Now housed at West Street Market on the third Wednesday of every month, Spoken Views is the place to go to celebrate verbal expression and poetic performance.

3. 6:01AM: A Working Class Opera
Debuting at the Pioneer Center in May to a packed house, 6:01AM, Reno’s first spoken word opera event, was truly an original production. Based on the words and music of local artist, Apprentice (Richie Panelli), directed by playwright Pan Pantoja, and performed by members of Reno’s spoken word and hip hop community, as well as the Nevada Opera Orchestra, 6:01 AM shared the struggles and triumphs of the modern working class in a theatrical personification of hope, determination, and endurance in the face of adversity. The production was a smashing success, and truly brought light to some of Reno’s best young performers, poets, writers, and musicians.

2. 300 Campaign
When the economy took a serious turn for the worse and funding to arts, youth programs, and non-profits declined drastically, Holland turned to our community with a question—can we get just 300 people to donate $100 to make up for the loss in funds? The answer? A loud, resounding YES. Donations from small businesses, bands, neighbors, community leaders, students, parents, artists, and friends from near and far poured in, and then those pledges were matched by an incredible donation from Kristin and Klaus Grimm and the Draper Family Foundation, making the Holland 300 Campaign a big success. We’ve never been so proud to be a part of such an awesome and supportive community. For the list of Holland 300 Members, click here!

1. Rainshadow & the NEW SHOW SPACE!!
You read correctly, a new show space. After closing the location on Keystone Avenue in 2007, Holland has been virtually homeless, utilizing venues city-wide, but without a base of our own. In an exciting partnership with Rainshadow Community Charter High School, Holland is opening a show and performance space inside their new school at 121 Vesta Street (formerly Bella Sera Restaurant and Midtown Market). We couldn’t be happier, nor could we ask for a better partner. It really is a dream come true and we can’t wait to transform the space into an incredible all-ages hangout with a stellar line-up of programming.

As you can see, 2009 was a tremendous year for Holland. Holland hosted more than 60 shows, gallery exhibits, special events, and workshops—remaining strong this year, even as the economy was not. With immense support from our volunteers and members, as well as from Reno’s arts and music community, we’re proud to say Holland is sounder than ever, and we look forward to bringing in the new year with an awesome slate of new programming, superb workshops, unique gallery exhibits, and fantastic special events.

And please check out our Thank You / Year-in-Review video below with footage and stills from the past twelve months.

Thanks again for your support this year, and for helping make Holland happen.

Britt Curtis, Van Pham, Clint Neuerburg, and Joe Ferguson.