Quad City Arts launched its new collection of online educational materials for the 47th-annual Visiting Artist Series on Wednesday, Oct. 28. The site, https://www.quadcityarts.com/vas-educational-resources.html, offers exclusive content from a wide variety professional artists and ensembles, such as ballet fusion company Hiplet, pianist Barron Ryan, steel pan artist John Patti, Mexican folk/rock quartet Jarabe Mexicano, and National Players theatre company. Their contributions include brief demonstration videos, study guides, workshop-style videos, and more. This collection of resources replaces... Read More

Quad City Arts will launch its collection of online educational materials, called the Visiting Artist Series Educational Resources, this Wednesday. The website, found at https://www.quadcityarts.com/vas-educational-resources.html, offers exclusive content from professional artists and ensembles, such as ballet fusion company Hiplet, pianist Barron Ryan, steel pan artist John Patti, Mexican folk/rock quartet Jarabe Mexicano, and National Players theatre company. Their contributions include brief demonstration videos, study guides, workshop-style videos, and more. This collection of resources stands... Read More

MACOMB/MOLINE, IL – Show off your #WIUPride this Halloween by carving your jack-o’-lanterns using Western Illinois University stencils. The designs available include: Rocky paw print Rocky body Rocky head Block “W” Send your finished WIU pumpkins to socialmedia@wiu.edu.  Read More

Are you a local artist looking for a spot to exhibit? Would you like to exhibit in one of the most popular gallery spots in the area? Get your submission ready for Quad City Arts! Quad City Arts invites artists residing within a 250-mile radius of Rock Island, IL to submit a proposal for a gallery exhibition during 2021-22. Selected artists will be paired with one or two additional artists for a 2-month long exhibition between July 2021 through August 2022 in one of our two large exhibit spaces. Cohesive bodies of work are highly desired. All media will be considered. To enter, go to QuadCityArts.com... Read More

Brandon Nees’ vibrant new mural at Moline’s Spiegel Building has been drawing raves from art fans around the Quad-Cities! QuadCities.com Arts Reporter Jonathan Turner was there for the unveiling of the artwork, and has provided us with a fantastic video showing the creation of the mural. You can check it out here, on the QuadCities.com YouTube channel.  Read More

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. Already, 2020 has been an American horror story like no other, but apparently some people still long to be scared some more – during a haunted house season like no other. The Covid-19 crisis also has upended many other traditional Halloween activities. Coronavirus – which has caused 9,663 deaths in Illinois and 1,617 in Iowa (as of Oct. 23) — has led Illinois to become... Read More

MOLINE – Brandon Nees squinted into the sun Wednesday morning at the dilapidated, vacant Spiegel building, and all he saw was bright, boundless possibility. That’s partly because the 25-year-old Davenport artist, who graduated from Moline High School, painted the word “possibility” in big turquoise block letters across seven plywood panels – among nine colorful 7.6-foot-by-6.75 feet panels he created for a $10,000 public mural on the boarded-up ground floor of the city-owned Spiegel building off River Drive (200 20th St.) in downtown Moline. “It’s amazing,” Nees said of the finished... Read More

A new exhibit at Quad City Arts’ Rock Island Gallery through Dec. 11, is called “Extraordinary Women,” large-scale paintings by Jaclyn Garlock. Garlock’s paintings depict life-sized women engaging in non-salaried work — from cooking to laundry to volunteering — and enjoying themselves as they do it. The titles of her paintings are borrowed from song lyrics, which is appropriate since she lives in Clear Lake, Iowa, home of the Surf Ballroom, where some say, “the music died.” That line (from Don McLean’s immortal “American Pie”) memorializes the 22-year-old rock pioneer... Read More

Western Illinois University alumna Tyanna J. Buie, of Detroit, MI, is one of five artists chosen to collaborate on a 7,400-square-foot mural in downtown Milwaukee, called “Voting Rights are Human Rights.” Buie received her bachelor’s degree from WIU in art in 2006, and is now an assistant professor and printmaking section chair for the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. The mural, by internationally-acclaimed artist Shepard Fairey and his Obey Giant team, was started on the north side of the Colby Abbott building last week. The central image is of an African American man... Read More

We’re all hungry for some peace, calm and normalcy. The recent announcement of the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize rang true to regional artist Cecile Houel, who is passionate about diversity and justice. Her portraits of Nobel Peace Prize laureates have been extended at the Beréskin Art Gallery & Academy, 2967 State St., Bettendorf, through the end of the month. She will offer a free tour of her exhibit Friday, Oct. 23 at 2 p.m. Houel – who is based in Fort Madison, Iowa – will speak about her work on this collection, covering the following topics: Alfred Nobel and the Nobel Society, researches... Read More