Josh Holliday of Midland Center for the Arts
The Show Must Go On
After a stint in Nashville, born-and-raised Michigander Josh Holliday is back in the Great Lakes Bay region and embracing the future of art and science programming as Midland Center for the Arts’ vice president of marketing, communications and sales
For Josh Holliday, living in Michigan has always meant a sense of connection and community. He says growing up in Charlotte showed him the power of getting involved and giving back. A lifelong Spartan, Josh fulfilled his dream of going to Michigan State University, where he studied advertising and graduated in 2015.
“During that time, I was really focused on going into entertainment marketing. Selling experiences to people was something I was passionate about,” he says. Josh completed several internships in the Lansing area during college – including the MSU Athletics department, the Lansing Lugnuts and three years with Wharton Center for the Performing Arts – and spent two summers in Nashville, Tennessee, at the famed Grand Ole Opry. Each helped set the stage for his future career path.
“Even before graduation, my involvement and passion for the arts and the community in Lansing kind of stuck. I started as the program manager at the Arts Council of Greater Lansing right after college. This gave me a wide breadth of experience in advocating for the arts, but through the lens of community and economic development.”
In late 2019, Josh’s former Wharton Center boss and mentor Diane Willcox reached out about an opportunity to work with her at Midland Center for the Arts and bring new energy to the cultural institution. He started as communications and public relations manager, and while the career opportunity was ideal, the timing was not.
“I came to Midland Center for the Arts about six months before the pandemic,” he says. “The pandemic was a huge, unprecedented event that hindered our ability to come together in ways that cultural organizations always have, but we also had a museum and a historical society that were under two feet of water during the historic flooding at the exact same time. We had no power in our buildings, so even in the ways we originally thought we would bring people together, we couldn’t. Adaptability was the most important thing that I learned during that time. It became about bringing patrons back and finding new, meaningful ways to bring people together.”
Josh’s previous experiences in Nashville and a job opportunity with Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC) took him back south to further build on his career, but he always found connections back to Michigan.
“Like many Michiganders, we’re very proud of the place where we grew up,” he says. “Every time I bumped into a fellow Michigander, it became a whole conversation of, ‘Oh, where are you from?’ and we’d put our hands up like a map. This is a state that has always been passionate about new ideas. No matter what community I’ve lived in, from Charlotte to Lansing to Midland, if I had an idea, the community said, ‘Go for it’ and rose to the occasion.”
After three years at TPAC, Josh was presented with an unexpected opportunity at a familiar place: the chance to return to Midland Center for the Arts as its new vice president of marketing, communications and sales in March 2025. In his new leadership role, Josh is excited for what’s to come – and knows he’s up for the challenge.
“Midland Center for the Arts is a leading cultural organization here in the state, and it is on a trajectory of transformation that is only going to set us up for greater success in the years to come,” he says. “I helped launch the capital campaign when I was here previously, and to come back in a full-circle moment and establish the road ahead to creating an epicenter for art, science and history with our brand new, renovated museum in a little over a year, it is a challenge and an opportunity that I couldn't resist.”
Announced in 2022, Midland Center for the Arts’ $47 million transformational renovation includes a restored, refreshed version of the Alden B. Dow Museum. When complete, this cutting-edge arts and STEM museum will invite the Great Lakes Bay region and beyond to experience hands-on, high-tech exhibits and encourage immersive exploration of the arts, history and sciences.
“Reopening a museum after it has been closed for almost a whole generation of kids and also being a beloved museum for many generations before... that is going to be a challenge and an opportunity,” he says. “What I think is so special about Midland is we have an incredibly strong private sector, and through that, we have philanthropic donors, companies, and foundations that want to ensure that what's here in Midland keeps people here and enriches their lives.”
It's that sense of togetherness and community that Josh says is a part of the Midwest spirit, and makes him proud to be a part of Midland Center for the Arts’ mission. Outside of work, Josh says he enjoys the access he has to everything Pure Michigan has to offer living in the Great Lakes Bay region.
“The people outside of Michigan don't even comprehend the beauty of the Great Lakes and our beautiful inland lakes throughout the state; the access to those is incredible,” he says. “I'm so grateful to be living here in Bay City, right on the river that goes up to the Saginaw Bay. I’m so excited about exploring that this summer. I’m also a foodie, so finding great food places and supporting entrepreneurs is something I’m passionate about. I found them in Nashville, but we have them right here in the Great Lakes Bay region. We have access to all the things you want.”
“If you are here in Midland or the region, you can come to our organization to be enriched with cultural experiences. You can be part of a choir. You can take an art class. You can go to see a show. You can bring your kids to interact with science in a way that's fun and educational. The community really relies on us to bring them joy and fulfillment and a sense of belonging. Beyond presenting art that is meaningful, we're truly creating a sense of community with friends and neighbors under one roof, and that's something that we're really proud of.”