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

A Free Virtual Program From Illinois Roads Scholars will be held Sunday, October 18th at 2pm at the German American Heritage Center in Davenport. The program is titled THE JOURNEY TO MOLLIE’S WAR: WACS AND WWII by Cyndee Schaffer. Members of the Women’s Army Corps (WACs) were the first women other than nurses to serve overseas in World War II. Cyndee Schaffer’s mother, Mollie Weinstein Schaffer, was one of them. Drawing upon excerpts from Mollie’s letters written home during the war, this presentation provides a romantic, yet frightful, glimpse into the life of a woman in uniform during... 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

This weekend, YouTube and the National Independent Venue Association are doing an awesome thing for local music venues nationwide, and I’m sure many of you have heard about the star-studded Save Our Stages Fest. It’s the kind of huge, publicity-grabbing event that gets a ton of attention with people in markets across the country. Which is a good thing, because it’s for a good cause, and it needs to get in front of a large group of people to make that positive impact. I do not begrudge that at all, and I wholeheartedly encourage people to check it out, and any other event of that... 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

Got a perfect pupper? A great good boi? A darn awesome doggo? QuadCities.com wants to feature your dog in our new Pupper Of The Week feature! Just send a picture of your pet with their name, your name, and a sentence or two about them and we’ll post their pic and story on QuadCities.com. Message your doggo pics and info to Sean@QuadCities.com. And get ready to check out some cool doggos on your site for fun, free, local entertainment and features, QuadCities.com! This week’s pupper is Senor Squeaks, the doggo of Jackson Leary! Senor Squeaks also goes by the names Senor, Squeeko, Cheeko, and... 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