Galva Arts Council to Announce 2021 Summer Lineup at Saturday Event

The Galva Arts Council is holding a public event in Wiley Park in Galva, Ill., Saturday, May 1, to announce the lineup for the 2021 Levitt AMP Galva Music Series.

Beth Bombara and her band will perform in Wiley Park in Galva this Saturday at 6 p.m.

At 6 p.m., Americana singer/songwriter Beth Bombara and her band will perform, followed by a viewing of a video which showcases the 20 acts which will perform in Galva this summer as part of the concert series.

This free event is open to the public and family friendly. Guests are strongly encouraged to adhere to current Covid-19 guidelines. Food and beverage vendors will not be onsite for this event, but will be for future events and guests are invited to bring a picnic dinner.

A year after what would have been the third-annual Levitt AMP Galva Music Series was canceled due to Covid, the new series is set to begin May 30^th and run every Sunday through Aug. 8, except for July 4^th. Each of the 10 free concerts in this series will be held at Wiley Park in Galva, run from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and feature two acts.

Last year, to support musicians during this critical time, Heartland Connections, through non-profit support of the Galva Arts Council, launched the “Play it Forward” campaign. This program distributed 20 grants, starting at a minimum of $500, to musicians facing financial emergencies due to Covid, with a live stream of a performance by the artist, recorded at Bishop Hill Creative Commons (in late May) without an audience, where additional tips were collected online for the performer.

Twenty percent of the artists were from the QCA; Peoria had about the same representation, three of the artists were from the Chicago area, two from Nebraska, and the remainder were from other areas in Illinois.

The mission of the Galva Arts Council is to enrich the quality of life in our town through the advancement and promotion of the arts, the encouragement of the appreciation of the arts through participation and attendance of art events, the provision of membership services, and

The Levitt AMP Galva Music Series will return in Wiley Park starting on May 30.

advocacy for the arts.

For the third year in a row, in December 2019, the Galva Arts Council won a $25,000 matching grant to bring a free live-music series to Wiley Park. Sponsored by the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation, dedicated to strengthening the social fabric of America through free live music, Galva earned the grant through becoming a finalist and public online voting. The funds are for towns and cities with populations of less than 400,000.

Each 2020 grant winner was automatically rolled over to 2021.

The Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation is a private foundation that exists to strengthen the social fabric of America. Through its support of creative placemaking, the Levitt Foundation empowers communities to transform underused public spaces into welcoming destinations where the power of free, live music brings people together and invigorates community life.

During the past decade, the foundation has awarded more than $20 million in grants to support access to free, high-caliber live music experiences while bringing new life to public spaces.

Learn more about the Levitt AMP Galva Music Series at galvamusic.com.

Jonathan Turner

Jonathan Turner has been covering the Quad-Cities arts scene for 25 years, first as a reporter with the Dispatch and Rock Island Argus, and then as a reporter with the Quad City Times. Jonathan is also an accomplished actor and musician who has been seen frequently on local theater stages, including the Bucktown Revue and Black Box Theatre.

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