Following many years of work in historic preservation, Rock Island leaders made history again Monday, July 6, as the downtown officially became part of the National Register of Historic Places. Led by the city’s Community and Economic Development Department, the effort was announced by the city of Rock Island and the Development Association of Rock Island (DARI) on the Great River Plaza downtown. “Rock Island is a historically significant community. Establishing this designation offers many benefits to property owners and the community,” Mayor Mike Thoms said. “Projects will be easier to... Read More

The hotly-anticipated film version of the groundbreaking musical “Hamilton” literally could not have come at a better time. Directed by its original Broadway helmer Thomas Kail, over three days in June 2016 (with and without audiences), the 160-minute film dropped in the early morning Friday on Disney Plus, just in time for the Independence Day weekend. After four months of deeply isolating quarantine, a horrifying pandemic that’s killed 130,000 Americans, over a month of protests regarding racial injustice, millions unemployed and confused, and a divisive, often hurtful president, this brilliant,... Read More

Rock Island-based Quad City Arts was the only organization in the immediate Q-C to earn funding Wednesday from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act grant. Like most of the 855 organizations funded nationwide, the regional nonprofit will get $50,000, on top of a previously approved $30,000 NEA grant last month that was unrelated to Covid-19 relief. Quad City Arts this spring did get Covid-19 relief funding through the federal Paycheck Protection Program, executive director Kevin Maynard said Thursday. Part of the criteria for new funding... Read More

Creating art is typically a solitary activity. For Black Hawk College students this spring, it was more isolating than usual, as they worked together – while physically apart – to produce a 36-page art magazine. ArtFusion magazine is produced every other year by and for BHC visual communications students. It features essays, digital drawing, photography, painting and other student works. When the college’s Art 248 – Production and Prepress class (about 14 students) went completely online in mid-March – because of Covid-19 — creating the collaborative, full-color publication became... Read More

In this unreal time of global pandemic, civil unrest, economic depression and a president who views the press (and apparently not Russia) as the enemy, U.S. journalists could certainly use a collective hug. As pointed out in a perceptive, poignant New York Times column Monday, a staggering 7,800 journalists lost their jobs in 2019, according to Business Insider. Once the pandemic hit, another 36,000 media-company employees got the pink slip. And all these disasters came on top of losses that collectively cost American newsrooms half their journalists between 2008 and 2019. After I was laid... Read More

Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse, 1828 3rd Ave., Rock Island, will remain closed until this fall, since it can’t financially absorb losses due to the latest Illinois reopening guidelines, owner/producer Denny Hitchcock announced Wednesday. On Friday, June 26, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced the new guidelines for indoor theaters would allow for reopening at a 50-percent capacity, or 50 guests, whichever is lesser. “In working with several state officials over the previous weeks, we had been very optimistic that the Phase 4 guidelines for the state of Illinois would put our dinner theatre in the same... Read More

During this unprecedented, scary time of Covid-19, it seems apropos that the first indoor live theater in the Quad-Cities since the shutdown will be the spooky ghost story, “The Turn of the Screw,” next month at Moline’s Black Box Theatre. The 60-seat theater (1623 5th Ave.) will open at half capacity on July 16 and close the 19th. “It is a short run,” said director Lora Adams, “but the set was almost completed and the actors’ schedules have changed since March, so we are only able to do the four-day weekend.” Actor Matt Walsh and Kayla Jo Pulliam will bring the creepy tale to life... Read More

Eight months after its stirring premiere at the Putnam Museum Giant Screen Theater in Davenport, “A Bridge Too Far From Hero Street” – a new film that tells the true story of one local soldier’s involvement in the largest air assault in history – will be shown in two free online screenings over the July 4th weekend. Moline-based Fourth Wall Films and the Putnam Museum will screen the documentary at 2 p.m. Sunday, July 5, followed by a Q&A with filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle. An encore presentation will stream at 7 p.m. Monday, July 6. Viewers are invited to visit Facebook.com/HeroStreetMovie... Read More

The cultural life of the Quad-Cities is lifted in part by public art that is on permanent and temporary display throughout Davenport, Bettendorf, and Rock Island, thanks to Quad City Arts’ public sculpture program. In June, six public sculptures in Bettendorf and four in Rock Island were replaced with new ones, featuring colorful, creative and whimsical work from artists throughout the Midwest. Each city chose to keep one sculpture from last year’s selection for another year. Quad City Arts has facilitated the leasing and installation of public sculpture in the area since 2002, starting with... Read More

Davenport is ranked 29 out of 100 small cities in the latest America’s Best Small Cities Report. The top five small cities as ranked by the consulting firm Resonance were Reno, Nev.; Naples, Fla.; Santa Fe, N.M., Savannah, Ga., and Asheville, N.C.. Earlier this month, Resonance completed a master tourism plan for the Quad-Cities, with Visit Quad Cities, which will work to implement its recommendations. Dave Herrell, president and CEO of Visit Quad Cities, is thrilled that Davenport made the list for the first time – in the first year the report measured 100 metro areas between 100,000 and 500,000... Read More