James-Allan Holmes

As a business entrepreneur with a background in the real estate and finance industries James A. Holmes
has emerged as a leader in arts advocacy, and as CEO & Executive Director of Cherokee Ranch & Castle
Foundation, and he has also become a successful visual artist of vibrant abstract expressionist paintings.
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James has given back to the community by fostering strong business and the arts connections, by taking
on challenging fundraising assignments, and by nurturing others to find their artistic path. He has
accomplished these things through his engagement in leadership projects across the cultural community
for nearly three decades.
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James leadership includes reoccurring themes of connecting business, government, and other sectors,
such as health care and housing to the arts, while striving for arts access for all people through personal
and exemplary goals for diversity, equity and inclusion, and, in a very personal way, he shares the
themes of the healing power of the arts, and of having gratitude for all opportunities, which resonate
through his creativity as a visual artist, and into nearly all of the activities he dedicates himself to.

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A great source of pride was his work as Chairman on the MLK I Have a Dream Monument which ensured
its installation by acclaimed artist, Ed Dwight, in Denver’s City Park and is an example of a project whose
legacy will resonate as a treasured landmark to positively influence many generations to come.

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His accomplishments over the last 9 years at Cherokee Ranch & Castle Foundation have repositioned the
previously lesser-known SCFD Tier III cultural venue as a high-profile successful institution serving
thousands each year with arts, cultural heritage, and science programming.