When you walked into the Arts Fund board meeting, you never quite knew what to expect — except that Joanne would have turned the small gallery room into a mini-event. She arrived early, arms laden with tablecloths, fresh flowers, printed packets, and little dishes of candy and snacks. At first glance, you might have thought, “What a sweet touch — and what a warm, grandmotherly presence.” But then she’d look up, survey the room with a spark in her eye, and dive into the agenda with zero fuss and total authority. That was Joanne: gracious in presentation, relentless in purpose, and a powerhouse in the community.
Born Joanne Cooper in Chicago on July 1, 1935, and raised in Butler, Missouri, Joanne carried her Midwestern work ethic wherever she went. After earning her BA from the University of Missouri in 1953 and marrying Navy flight surgeon Henry Lee Holderman in 1957, she and her husband traveled from coast to coast before planting roots in Santa Barbara in 1963. Here, she found a community she would transform through more than half a century of arts leadership.
Joanne never considered herself a creative person, but many childhood scrapbooks and teenage journals proved otherwise. At 10 years old, she created a mini screenplay complete with Life magazine cutouts of her life as a dynamic woman in Hollywood. In her teenage years, she wrote in her journals of finding true love and living in a community of artists and writers. Maybe she didn’t put brush to canvas, but she certainly built a life that supported others to do so.
Joanne’s launch into the Santa Barbara arts community started in 1977, when she became the inaugural chair of the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission. She turned a volunteer advisory panel with no budget into a nationally recognized regranting agency. Six years later, alongside her friend Shirley Dettmann, she cofounded the County of Santa Barbara Arts Fund — what we now simply call The Arts Fund. Over the next 35 years, she wore every hat imaginable: president, vice president, board member, strategist, mentor — and relentless fundraiser.
Joanne didn’t just dream up programs; she made them real. Under her leadership, The Arts Fund launched signature initiatives that gave artists room to experiment through the Individual Artist Awards, addressed arts education by pairing teens with master working artists in the Teen Arts Mentorship Program, amplified young voices in the community with the East Side/West Side poetry and photography projects, and wove creativity directly into elementary classrooms through robust artsinschools initiatives.
She forged rural regranting partnerships with the Irvine Foundation, helped establish El Zoco livework housing for artists, and was part of the opening of The Arts Fund’s Community Gallery Program — a launchpad for countless emerging talents.
Her influence reached well beyond our walls. Joanne served as first vice president of Community Arts Music Association, chaired La Patera Elementary’s HELP (Holderman Endowment for La Patera) initiative to build an artsandscience endowment, and held leadership roles in the Junior League of Santa Barbara, P.E.O. (Philanthropic Educational Organization), the UCSB Chancellor’s Council, the California Confederation of the Arts, and the Music Academy of the West. She helped launch Photo Futures at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, securing critical acquisitions that still enrich our region’s cultural landscape.
Joanne was a devoted supporter of arts-focused foundations both in Santa Barbara and beyond. She championed the philanthropic and creative passions of her children, including her son William and his wife Lisa’s work with the Seattle-based Photographic Center Northwest and her daughter Caroline’s annual involvement with the Los Angeles Sober Drag Pageant, a vibrant event benefiting the LGBTQ+ community. Joanne often asked her children, “How can I contribute to your passions?”
Yet for all her accomplishments, Joanne’s greatest gift was the way she made people feel. She remembered your name, your project, even the shade of blue in a painting you once showed — and she’d follow up with a handwritten note or a quick phone call that made you feel personally valued. She didn’t see supporters as transactions but as partners in a shared vision.
At home, her passion for art was an everyday celebration: walls adorned with pieces by Hank Pitcher, Channing Peake, Phoebe Brunner, Paul Caponigro, and many more. Outside, her rose garden — her lovingly tended “third child” — bore witness to her belief that beauty grows with care.
Joanne passed away peacefully on May 27, 2025, at age 89, with her children — Caroline Calvin and Dr. William Holderman — by her side. She is also survived by soninlaw Peter Calvin; daughterinlaw Lisa FrankeHolderman; grandchildren Grace and Lauren; sisters Gayle Quisenberry and Tricia Niederauer; and a wide circle of artists, advocates, and friends who count themselves fortunate to have known her.
She taught us that leadership means showing up early, setting the table, and inviting everyone to pull up a chair. She was warm, but never soft; determined, but never daunting. She believed art isn’t a luxury but the engine of community, and she built institutions to prove it.
We miss her fierce generosity every day, and we carry her spirit forward — together, with gratitude, determination, and just a little sparkle of candy at every meeting.
