Associated American Artists

Holmes Fine Art & the AAA

Holmes Fine Art was founded 1980 in San Jose, California by Ms. Holmes. In 1986, both Roy & Meryle Holmes' were hired by the American Red Cross of Greater New York to implement the sale of over 12,000 prints donated by Associated American Artists (AAA) at that time valued over $5 million. The Holmes' were also creators and executive producers of the 1987-90 weekly television program, "The Art Market Report", which aired on PBS, The Learning Channel, Bravo , FNN (CNBC) and international distribution under the sponsorship of such entities as American Express, New York's Plaza Hotel, TWA, VISA and many Fortune 500 companies. The show secured generated advertising commitments of $1.5 million per calendar quarter, and was nominated for an Ace Award.

In 1993, they opened Holmes Fine Art Gallery in downtown San Jose. In 1996, Holmes founded Art Tech: Silicon Valley Institute of Art & Technology. From 1983-95, Ms. Holmes had been a founding board member of San Jose's Guadalupe River Park and served on the board of directors for San Jose State University's Center of Literary Arts, for which she secured playwright legend Arthur Miller as a guest speaker for the 1999 series and his wife photojournalist Inge Morath as exhibiting artist for Art-Tech.

History & Background

Holmes Fine Art originated in 1980 in San Jose, California originally as Holmes & Associates, a business comprised of founder Meryle Karloff Holmes, and other art professionals whose function was to serve as art-media advisors and consultants to private and public companies, developers, architects, designers, and individual collectors.

Karloff-Holmes created, organized, curated and marketed exhibitions in public and private environments, collaborating with established and recognized curators and non-profit organizations. In 1993, Ms. Karloff-Holmes and her husband, Roy Holmes, established the Holmes Fine Art Gallery as a retail business in downtown San Jose, serving the people of San Jose and Santa Clara County.

Ms. Karloff Holmes recognized that being in Silicon Valley, which is the capital of technology has some of the greatest minds and resources in the world. It seemed logical to create an Institute that would be a resource to the technical world, and inversely, technology would be a resource for the art world. One of the greatest needs in technology today is to enable artists as content providers. Yet, artists do not have adequate access to the tools of technology. This paradox can be resolved. Art Tech: The Silicon Valley Institute of Art & Technology will become a resource for artists developing technical applications in multi-media, education, entertainment, and professional and consumer areas.