I recently returned to my hometown to revisit the Rochester Art Center. I was astonished by the incredible metamorphosis of that organization. I was also saddened by the realization that I am the sole remaining person present the night the art center was born in November of 1946. It has been amazing for me to watch the dream of my father, Newt Holland, transformed into stunning reality.
Sometimes I wonder whether others realize the Rochester Art Center has remade the cultural landscape of America. Because an art center succeeded in Rochester, small towns throughout America now have art centers that enrich the daily lives of millions of Americans.
It might have been sufficient for the Rochester Art Center to rest upon its past laurels, but, instead, it now provides one of the most significant examples of the limitless possibilities of creativity anywhere in the country.
If you have not visited the Rochester Art Center recently, you owe it to yourself to go there to experience firsthand the power of human imagination. I suspect you will become a changed person.
As you tour the galleries, remember that, with the help of countless others, the Rochester Art Center has succeeded in fulfilling my father's vision of "making Rochester a cultural center worthy of its scientific achievement."
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Daniel O. Holland
Plover, Wis.
