The Hot Springs National Park Sister City Foundation has selected Erin Holliday to participate in the first Sister City Artist Exchange between Hot Springs and Hanamaki, Japan. Holliday will spend one month in Hot Springs’ sister city following a month-long visit to Hot Springs by a Hanamaki artist next spring during the Arts & the Park celebration.
Holliday’s exchange visit is funded by the Sister City Foundation. Her homestay with a family in Hanamaki City is an integral part of the overall exchange experience.
Erin Holliday is a native of Hot Springs, an experience which fostered an early love of the arts and community. She was an active participant in the arts as a teen, volunteering for arts organizations and frequenting gallery exhibits and poetry readings downtown. Her family was also one of the early participants in the Sister City Program, hosting their first Japanese exchange student in 1994.
After graduating from Lakeside High School, Holliday relocated to Kansas City, Missouri, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Kansas City Art Institute. When pursuing a major in sculpture, she also studied modern Japan and Japanese literature as her interest in Japanese culture continued to grow. She is still an avid reader of Japanese literature, and the influence of the Japanese aesthetic can be seen in her artwork.
Professionally, Holliday has worked in many different capacities within the arts community including professional curatorial art handling and installation, commercial and community gallery management, art consulting and historic restoration. Throughout Arkansas, she has been responsible for curating nearly 100 gallery exhibits, primarily composed of local community artists.