Saturday In The Arts is a weekly look at a personality, place, trend or topic of interest to the Quad-Cities. It runs every Saturday morning on your site for fun, free, local entertainment and features, QuadCities.com. I know it’s faintly ridiculous to watch so much film and TV on my iPhone, but life in pandemic-plagued 2020 has glued me to the really small screen to an unprecedented degree. It’s pretty much my lone companion before falling asleep every night, and due to the seemingly inexhaustible smorgasbord of content on Netflix (my go-to app), I’ve been binge-watching a lot. It’s provided... Read More

2020 has certainly been a life-altering, challenging year, but Freddy Allen is getting by with a little help from his friends. The 50-year-old Davenport jazz pianist and singer has been a professional musician for 37 years, performing all over the globe. Spending most of his career in Chicago, Allen moved to Davenport three years ago to be close to family and become a part of the vibrant music scene in the Quad-Cities. He hopes to travel and tour with his music again as soon as the pandemic is over. On Saturday at 7 p.m., Allen is launching a series of online concerts, “Freddy and Friends,”... Read More

Two short films made by Quad-Cities youth will be shown online tonight at 6:30 p.m., through the Urban Exposure Independent Film Program. Jonathan Burnett, founder and creative director for the program, completed his sixth year programming and premiering short films by young adults. However, this year things were a little different. Because of the pandemic, Urban Exposure moved everything to the video conferencing platform, ZOOM. Instructors taught all the lessons through ZOOM, which allowed them to bring in guest speakers who work in the film industry to advise participants, Burnett said Thursday. This... Read More

Given that 2020 is certainly a year for the history books, it’s no surprise that the 23rd annual Frieze Lecture Series for the Rock Island Public Library takes a deeper look at our reaction to global pandemics, past and present. The free, two-part series will be presented by Augustana College professors with expertise in history and public health. The following lectures will be offered online at 2 p.m. on two Tuesdays, Oct. 20 and 27 – Tuesday, Oct 20: Why We Forgot the 1918 Flu: A Historian Looks at a Century of Pandemics. Dr. Lendol Calder, professor of history at Augustana College,... Read More

The Quad-Cities ranks number 79 among the top 150 best places to live in the nation, and the sixth most affordable, according to U.S. News & World Report. The report, released this week, represents a pretty good win in economic development. U.S. News analyzed 150 metro areas in the U.S. to find the best places to live, based on quality of life and the job market in each metro area, as well as the value of living there and people’s desire to live there. The report used 2019 figures, showing the Q-C with a 4.2% unemployment rate (it was twice that as of August 2020), metro population of... Read More

Josh Duffee and Carol Schaefer are two Davenport men who are passionate about one of Davenport’s most famous natives. They are the newest winners of the Bix Lives award, given each year since 2007 to people who exemplify what it means to keep Bix Beiderbecke’s legacy alive. Leon “Bix” Beiderbecke (1903-1931) is a legendary Davenport native, cornetist and pianist for whom an annual jazz festival and three-year-old museum in Davenport are named. The Bix Beiderbecke Museum and World Archives (at the lower level of River Music Experience, 2nd and Main streets) announced Duffee and Schaefer... Read More

The legacy of an influential early Quad City Arts leader lives on in countless local artists, art supporters, and a huge sculpture in one of the area’s most beautiful parks. The regional nonprofit (based in Rock Island and serving six counties) is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Lloyd Schoeneman began working for Quad City Arts in 1978 as a resident artist, teaching art to many groups including children, the elderly, the disabled and the incarcerated. He worked for Quad City Arts for 22 years, including as executive director of the Quad City Arts Council when the organization, along... Read More

The Iowa Women’s Foundation (IWF) has announced 2021 Core Grant awards to United Way of the Quad Cities and Lead(h)er, for programs that help young girls and women. The grants are among $100,000 to 13 organizations across the state – raising the total granted to over $1.1 million since the program began in 1997. IWF works to improve the lives of Iowa’s women and girls. Grants are awarded to projects that focus primarily on serving the needs and aspirations of women and girls. Six specific areas have been identified as the most critical barriers for Iowa women and girls: employment, child... Read More

Many public places throughout the Quad-Cities are more beautiful and colorful because of Quad City Arts, which marks its 50th anniversary this year. The late executive director Lloyd Schoeneman (who died at 49 in 2001 from cancer) was the driving force behind our public sculpture program. In the 1990s, Lloyd introduced the concept of community-built art to the Quad-Cities, organizing design charrettes which resulted in the Navigation Steps at Leach Park (Bettendorf) the Nature Spiral at Illiniwek Park (Hampton) and the Lindsay Park Architectural Sculpture Park (Village of East Davenport). He also... Read More

Royal Neighbors of America boasts a long, impressive legacy of doing good. And as it celebrates its 125th anniversary this year, the Rock Island-based, women-led life insurer and fraternal organization is continuing that history in a special way. To celebrate all the ways we can continue to make a difference in our own neighborhoods, Royal Neighbors has launched a 125 Random Acts of Kindness campaign. During October, November, and December, the company is encouraging its 215,000-plus members (and the general public) to do one purposeful, kind thing for someone else. “It won’t cost you much,... Read More