James-Allan Holmes

As a business entrepreneur with a background in the real estate and finance industries, James-Allan Holmes has emerged as a leader in arts advocacy, and as CEO & Executive Director of Cherokee Ranch & Castle Foundation. He has also become a successful visual artist of vibrant abstract expressionist paintings. James-Allan has given back to the community by fostering strong business and arts connections, taking on challenging fundraising assignments, and 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.

James-Allan’s 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. In a very personal way, he also shares the themes of the healing power of the arts and 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.

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 stands as a project whose legacy will resonate as a treasured landmark, positively influencing many generations to come.

His accomplishments over the last twelve 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.

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