HI, How are YOU holding up??
Dear Friends,
06/29/20 Dana and Mark kayaking Pictured Rocks (Michigan’s Upper Peninsula)
What a long, strange year it’s been! We hope that you and your loved ones have been keeping healthy, safe, and finding creative ways to survive, perchance to thrive, in these uncertain times! After over seven months since the COVID pandemic and closures started, through protests against institutionalized racism, the elections, and recent spikes in the spread of the virus, we remain optimistic about the future, and more reflective about what is important.
We are still both safe, healthy and keeping quite busy. Last April we created a catch-up postcard and a personal COVID Update blog to share news of our activities during this unprecedented moment, as well as to invite you to share news about yourselves, offer thoughts and insights, and provide photos, links, writings, and creations which might be relevant. We hope you’ll participate in this 2020 Year End version and leave comments below and/or communicate with us privately via mail / email, or schedule a phone / live video catch up call with us!
How’s YOUR family doing?
Despite the roller coaster ride of the past year, our family ties remain strong. Dana’s sister Sandy, brother-in-law Ted, and their family enjoy life in Portland, Maine, and nearby, our stepmother Nancy Friis-Hansen, is lively, engaged in Red Sox baseball, Patriots Football, current events, and volunteer activities within her retirement community. In August and September we carefully made two trips to visit them, and enjoy quiet time at our 100+ year-old shared family summer cottage on Little Diamond Island in Casco Bay. Although because of the recent spike, we’ve canceled plans to head Downeast at Christmas, we talk regularly by phone.
08/09/20 Mark, Dana, Sandra, and Captain Ted sailing in Casco Bay, Maine
Texas, especially Austin, remains a key part of our lives, and we are equally well-connected to Mark’s family there, with whom we spent time at Thanksgiving. Mark’s father Tom and partner Mary are both in their 90’s and live in a lovely independent living facility in Austin, TX. They maintain a positive outlook despite being forced to set aside their busy travel schedule, social gatherings, concerts, and in-person lifelong learning programs. We had a very nice outdoor Thanksgiving visit observing safe distancing protocols with Tom, Mary, Mark’s brother Jim, sister-in-law Ying-Chao, and nephews Alex and Andrew. Unfortunately, Mark’s sister Ellen, based in Berkeley, California, was understandably unable to attend because of COVID concerns.
11/26/20 The Plant at Kyle near Austin,TX
Mark’s maternal-side family celebrates Italian heritage with the last name of “Cozza”. Current Italian law supports the case that American-born Cozza descendants are Italian dual citizens since birth. Mark is leading the effort to petition the Italian government for recognition of Cozza dual Italian citizenship (which also comes with European Union rights and privileges) on behalf of about fifty Cozza descendants. This petition process involves a lot of coordination and collection of vital records to prove descent for each petitioner. It is expected to take about two or three years and is not 100% certain, so please wish us all luck!
07/15/17 Cozza Family Reunion in Chicago
How’s life in your hometown…or wherever you may be?
In spite the health, political, justice, and environmental challenges which emerged this year, Grand Rapids continues to be a wonderful home for us. We ended 2019 with Christmas in Maine and New Years week in Europe: Roma, Napoli, and London. During January and February 2020, work took Dana to Atlanta for the Art Museum Directors meeting and to Florida to meet with donors. Mark led two tours within Mexico before heading to Austin for the SXSW conference…which was unexpectedly cancelled. He hurriedly made it home to Grand Rapids before major shut downs. Travel—a key part of our joy in life—stopped. Trips to Japan, Jordan, the Netherlands were postponed…indefinitely.
We expected being stuck at home would be much harder to endure... We soon settled into basic routines, including new approaches to exercise due to the closure of our workout room (stair climbing each morning, and walking in local parks in the evenings), more cooking (lots of soups for Dana, inventing new ice cream flavors for Mark), journaling for self-reflection and goal setting, and staying connected through video calls with friends and family around the world. We realize we have much to be grateful for, and to be more flexible with our expectations. While regulations have been reduced, we still continue many of these good habits.
A key part of our pandemic time has been reflecting on what is important to us in life now. Looking ahead, we've decided to downsize our possessions, reduce our footprint, and focus more on meaningful experiences and community impact. The challenges—and opportunities—brought by COVID-19 have inspired us to reflect on how we live, what is important, and what to let go. As part of that process, in October we put our River House penthouse condo on the real estate market. We have no plans to leave Grand Rapids or GRAM, and hope to lease back our unit for a while, or find a smaller condo in this building or elsewhere in downtown GR. And if you are curious, we invite you to take a look at our condo’s info page, with the realtor’s link at the bottom.
How is your work working these days?
Dana’s role as Director/CEO of the Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) changed considerably with the pandemic, protests, and economic shifts. Working mostly from home, his leadership focus shifted to crisis management and moving the institution and its staff into new modes in response to regulations, public safety, and deeply reduced budgets. The “GRAM from Home” website was set up to provide access to virtual tours, artist interviews, behind-the-scenes experiences, and hands-on artmaking to keep our community engaged and entertained.
In the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, May 30 was a very confounding, and painful day for our country, our city, and for GRAM. What started in the early evening as a peaceful silent protest bringing together people of different backgrounds to address racial injustice and inequity in American society ignited into violence, chaos, and destruction. Across the night, protesters attacked GRAM and many other downtown buildings, shattering windows, smashing furniture, and defacing buildings with graffiti. Thankfully, at no time was the Museum ever entered from outside. Dana spent a harrowing “night at the museum,” in the security booth, watching live TV news streams and security video feeds and taking periodic tours to check the damage. The next morning volunteers came to help clean up the glass, board up the windows, and soon artists were painting dramatic murals with messages of social justice.
These experiences are re-shaping how museums serve our audiences. While art alone can’t fight systemic racism, we acknowledge that museums have long privileged white Western narratives while leaving other histories untold. We have an obligation to do better and have made a commitment to listening, and will continue to take action through diversifying GRAM’s permanent collection, exhibitions, and future programming.
05/31/20 Smashed front windows at the Grand Rapids Art Museum
As for Mark’s work, Tiny World Tours (TWT) started in 2015, continues to make the world feel smaller by bringing people together in meaningful ways in dramatic places around the world. By opening doors to an inside track of special people, places, opportunities and transformative ideas, he creates understanding, appreciation, and community. TWT led two successful tours within Mexico in February before international travel shut down, one tour focused on the lively art scene of Mexico City, and a second tour was self-descriptively entitled “Walking Mexico: Surrealist Garden Los Pozas.” In the summer and fall, Mark “pivoted” the business model by creating and leading COVID-aware self-driving tours to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Looking ahead, he has initiated research to develop future TWT tours within the U.S. around themes including African American history and culture, such as the summer colony at Idlewild, MI, The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, Gee’s Bend quilt makers, Muscle Shoals and Sun Records studios, and more. This fall, Mark launched a Tiny World Treasures “Marketplace,” web page e-commerce store to showcase and sell unique global cultural goods, including face masks, napkins, and custom clothing made traditional Bhutanese textile designs and more.
The Plant at Kyle, the historic Lake|Flato Architects-designed landmark property we own in the Texas Hill Country, is a key part of our life’s activities. This year, despite COVID, our wonderful co-hosts/collaborators/next door neighbors Martha and Jamie Kinscherff coordinated multiple significant maintenance projects there including a fresh coat of paint on the steel structures and inside the pool that makes the place sparkle. The Plant is an ideal “distancing” destination with thoughtful COVID protocols in place. Although many guests were unexpectedly forced to cancel or downsize their planned events such as weddings, the canceled calendar dates rebooked quickly. Our beloved Rude Mechs collective theatre company continues to actively run their Rude Mechs Artist Residency at The Plant. Dana and I look forward to continuing our stewardship of this inspiring place as we enter the new decade.
07/11/20 TPAK Butterfly Garden
What are your hopes for next year?
We envision participating in an ever-increasingly collaborative, agreeably interdependent and connected global community. We hope that medical experts are heeded and politics are minimized to decrease death and suffering as the global COVID threat quickly subsides in the year ahead.
In case you don’t have it handy, here’s our contact info:
Mark Holzbach & Dana Friis-Hansen
Mailing address: 335 Bridge St NW, Unit #3301, Grand Rapids, MI 49504
Mark’s personal email: mholzbach@alum.mit.edu
Dana’s personal email: danafh@gmail.com
Mark’s personal cell for voice & text: 512-689-6777
Dana’s personal cell for voice & text: 512-653-8188
Please leave comments below and/or communicate with us privately via mail / email, or schedule a phone / live video catch-up call with us!
WE LOVE YOU!!
Version 2020-12-13-6:30 PM DFH