The Department of Dance at Hope College will present its major annual concert, Dance 51, this Friday and Saturday, and Thursday-Saturday, March 6-8, at 7:30 p.m. in the DeWitt Center main theatre.

The program will feature seven works in styles including authentic jazz/tap, contemporary/modern, commercial jazz, pointe and hip hop. The choreographers are faculty members Kara Madden Brems, Heather Cornell, Lindsey Hanson, Jasmine Mejia, Lianna Norris, Julie Powell and Ray Tadio. Approximately 50 Hope students will perform, with nearly 20 others working on technical and costume crews.

Tickets are $15 for regular admission, $10 for senior citizens and Hope faculty and staff, $5 for children ages 12 to 19, and free for Hope students and children 11 and under.

Tickets are available at the ticket office in the Events and Conferences Office located in the Anderson-Werkman Financial Center, 100 E. Eighth St. Tickets are also available online at hope.edu/ tickets.

The DeWitt Student and Cultural Center is located at 141 E. 12th St., facing Columbia Avenue between 10th and 13th streets.

The Holland Bach Society is looking forward to presenting its fourth season next month, including a performance in Zeeland at Second Reformed Church.

The Holland Bach Society was developed in 2021 to raise an awareness of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and to partner with local congregations in bringing these musically- and theologically-rich compositions to their existing worship services.

This year during the Lenten liturgical season, the Holland Bach Society will be presenting Part 1 of Bach’s well-known cantata “St. John’s Passion,” along with other baroque selections, majestic organ music, and more. Some of the finest musicians from the West Michigan area have teamed up to share these special events with the Holland and Zeeland communities.

Presentations will take place Sunday, March 9 at 4 p.m. at Second Reformed Church in Zeeland; Sunday, March 16 at 10:30 a.m. at Fourteenth Street Christian Reformed Church in Holland; and Sunday, March 16 at 4 p.m. at Hope Church in Holland.

Learn more about the Holland Bach Society and its participants on the society’s website at hollandbachsociety.org.

Tulip Time Festival, Inc. has selected a work by Holland artist Andrew Snyder as the official poster for this year’s festival.

2025 marks Snyder’s first appearance as the official poster artist for the festival.

Snyder never misses an opportunity to make an early morning trip down to the tulip beds during the blooming season.

"I love the blossoms opening to the morning sun's rays," Snyder said. This piece, titled “Blooms on Parade,” is Snyder's manifestation of the fun and energetic spirit of Tulip Time.

Snyder’s use of watercolor and pencil create a texture and realism that captivates the eye of the beholder, while the vibrant blooms play off the dark green leaves in the background. His piece shows the brilliant multi-color pink and white Triumph Tulip, a perennial favorite of locals and guests alike.

Copies of the winning artwork are for sale at the Tulip Time office and online at TulipTime.com, along with other merchandise and souvenirs featuring “Blooms on Parade.” The artwork will also be featured on the limited-edition Tulip Time Beer, brewed by Big Lake Brewing.

 “We are thrilled with Andrew’s piece. It’s been five years since we’ve had a more traditional style of tulip poster grace our walls,” Tulip Time Executive Director Gwen Auwerda said.

Snyder has made Holland his home for nearly 35 years and resides in the area with his wife. He is accomplished in painting, ceramics, and glass. Snyder holds a master of fine arts in painting from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.

Experience Tulip Time at the 96th festival May 2 – 11. Detailed program and event information for Tulip Time Festival 2025 and tickets are available at TulipTime.com.

While housing challenges and scarcity continue to make headlines locally and nationally, the Ottawa County Housing Commission and project partners are pursuing solutions with the Small-Footprint Home Development Concept.

Ideally under 1,000 square feet and situated on appropriately sized lots, these traditionally sized homes would sell for less than half of the median price for an Ottawa County abode, which is well above $400,000. These attainable dwellings could realistically increase housing stock.

"Smaller homes were common a century ago," Department of Strategic Impact (DSI) Director Paul Sachs said. "Although these well-loved residences define the historic sections of communities, they couldn't be built in most local jurisdictions today. If we want to effectively address housing availability, we have to reconsider ordinances, zoning, and the size of the homes we as a community are building. With this project, we're addressing all of these issues."

The goals of this pilot are three-fold:

1) Develop a series of open-source architectural plans and material lists that home builders, developers and citizens can utilize

2) Analyze zoning and policy barriers and work with municipalities to allow for smaller-footprint homes

3) Recruit builders and nonprofits to invest in this type of housing, demonstrating the quality and creating momentum  

To be clear, Ottawa County is not funding actual home construction.

"We're not as a county in the business of building homes," Housing Commission Chair and local realtor Jared Schuitema said. "With this pilot project, we're looking to work with community partners to demonstrate from start to finish how and why small-footprint homes can and should be built."

Since first launching this project last summer, significant progress has been made.

—————

Home Designs Nearly Complete

Recruited by DSI, Holland-based design consultant Nick Rolinski and staff intern Matt Daub have worked with the Housing Commission and partners to develop a series of four unique concepts: In-Town, Lake/Dune, Rural/ Farm and Rural/Forest.

In January, Rolinski and Daub unveiled a new, high-quality rendering of the small-home concepts in a communal design setting.

"The fronts of the houses all face in on this public space. This community has a big outdoor living room that's shared with everyone," Rolinski said. He emphasized this is just one configuration. "There's no reason these homes couldn’t be built individually."

To help the public better visualize the home interiors, the group is collaborating with a local interior designer, Katie Crothers, to develop a series of renderings.

"Interiors have the power to be both captivating and incredibly functional, no matter the scale," Crothers said. "I'm excited to share my skill to bring this important project to life."

First drafts illustrating the interior of the smallest concept — the 400 square-foot home — were presented at the Feb. 13 Commission meeting.

"These initial visualizations ... take this project to the next level," Rolinski said. He went on to say these preliminary interior renderings will help the team further refine their home concepts.

Next on Crothers’ rendering to-do list is the largest design — the 1,000 square-foot home. With renderings representing both sizes paired together, Rolinski believes the public will better see the versatility.

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Fighting Small-Footprint Home Misconceptions

Providing renderings and finding suitable sites will not only show a proof-of concept but fight persistent stigmas and misconceptions about smaller homes.

"Small-footprint homes are often misunderstood by the general public in multiple ways," Sachs said. "They can be erroneously associated with very low-income, generating higher crime, or lowering property values for neighboring areas. Those perceptions are misguided."

Another misconception is equating small-footprint homes with the tiny mobile house trend of the past decade. A tiny home — as defined by International Residential Code — is a dwelling under 400 square feet.

"People think of the tiny house shows on HGTV, where you have movable boxes that are on wheels. That's not our project," Daub said. "Really, only one of our concepts applies to the building code definition of a tiny home."

Additionally, unlike the stereotypical tiny home, the dwellings for this pilot project will be on permanent slab foundations and are being designed to visually fit within the existing fabric of the surrounding neighborhoods in which similar size homes have existed for decades.  

"Proving the concept and benefits of smaller footprint homes will help change attitudes and ultimately help gain momentum in achieving the for-sale housing stock we need, without the use of tax subsidies," Sachs said.

The work group is actively seeking out local building partners to get shovels in the ground this year.

The Housing Commission meets the first Thursday of every month at the County Administrative Building in West Olive. For more information on the County’s Small Footprint Homes Development Concept, visit miottawa.org/DSI.

Image courtesy Katie Crothers

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