A video history of Holland's Tulip Time Festival produced by the Joint Archives of Holland and the Hope College Communication Department will air on local PBS station WGVU on Tuesday, May 13 at 6 p.m.
A video history of Holland's Tulip Time Festival produced by the Joint Archives of Holland and the Hope College Communication Department will air on local PBS station WGVU on Tuesday, May 13 at 6 p.m.
The video 26 minute video, Tulip Time in Holland, takes the viewer from the beginning of the tulip's creation in Turkey to the yearly blooming here in Holland. It is the latest in the video series produced by the Joint Archives of Holland concerning the local history of the Holland area and its residents. Other titles include History of Hope College (2001) and The Story of Holland (2002).
Future projects will include the history of the Latino experience in West Michigan and the history of the pleasure boat building history in the Holland area.
The creation of Tulip Time in Holland came about because of the need to join the history of the Tulip Time Festival with the many stories and faces associated with it since 1927. Long thought to be just a Dutch event the creators of the video, Joint Archives of Holland Director Geoffrey Reynolds and Communication Professor Dr. David Schock decided it was time to interview the many leaders of Holland and discover the real face of Tulip Time through video interviews last spring.
After selecting the persons that would be interviewed for the new video Dr. Schock and Reynolds spent many Saturdays asking questions and listening to the many and varied responses from such personalities as Holland Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Chris Byrnes, Dr. Elton Bruins, Barb Appledorn, Becky Areanas, councilman Victor Orozco, Michael Viola-Vu, Mayor Al McGeehan, town crier John Karsten, Ruth Coleman, Tony Castillo, the late Margaret Van Vyven, Don Postma, and Tulip Time chair Larry Van Leire.
With their memories, captured so well by local videographer Phil Blouw, the video was then assembled around Schock's beautifully written script and narration. Two Hope College students, Jason Kehrer and Dan Morrison, were then charged with putting video footage with a script to form the final product. And a what final a product it turned out to be as was seen in the faces of last year's audiences as they laughed and contemplated the Tulip Time Festival's great effect on visitors and local residents alike. Since then the video has been nominated by Tulip Time, Inc. for a Historical Society of Michigan Award of Merit in the Media Division.