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Quad Cities USA - Guide to Davenport & Bettendorf Iowa and Rock Island & Moline Illinois
 

EXCLUSIVE: New Quad Cities Cultural Trust Fund Named for Beloved Ascentra CEO

February 22nd, 2021
EXCLUSIVE: New Quad Cities Cultural Trust Fund Named for Beloved Ascentra CEO

EXCLUSIVE: The beloved former president/CEO of Ascentra Credit Union, Dale Owen, died in November 2020 at 52, but his wide-ranging generosity and large legacy will live on in a new fund established by the Quad Cities Cultural Trust. While battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer, Owen in 10 months worked to raise $500,000 from 11 local lending and banking institutions, including Bettendorf-based Ascentra. Together, those participants agreed to rename this project The Dale Owen Art and Culture Match. It will match every $1 given up to $500,000 to support art and culture programs in the Quad-Cities through... Read More

Augie’s “Speaking in Tongues” Rescheduled for Friday, Feb. 19

February 15th, 2021
Augie’s “Speaking in Tongues” Rescheduled for Friday, Feb. 19

The brave new world of streaming theater seems to be cursed for Rock Island’s Augustana College. First last August, they had a derecho sweep through the area, forcing postponement of a Zoom reading of “For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday.” In the fall, the college had a transformer next to Centennial Hall catch on fire, knocking out power and internet moments before “Doctor Faustus” was supposed to start streaming. And now, on Feb. 12, a nationwide technical glitch caused the online Showtix4U platform to stop working for tens of thousands of customers — including all of Augustana... Read More

New Filmed Augustana Production to be Shown Once, Friday, Feb. 12

February 10th, 2021
New Filmed Augustana Production to be Shown Once, Friday, Feb. 12

Just 15 lucky audience members were able to see a new Augustana College theater production, per performance, late last month. That suspenseful, dramatic play – Andrew Bovell’s “Speaking in Tongues” – was filmed and will be shown online one night only, Friday, Feb. 12 at 7:30 p.m. A summary of the four-actor play (in which each plays more than one role) says: “Nine parallel lives, four interlocked infidelities, one missing person, and a mysterious stiletto are all woven together in this electrifying psychological thriller.” Directed by Augie senior James Wheeler (in his directorial... Read More

Augustana President Steven Bahls to Retire July 1, 2022

January 25th, 2021
Augustana President Steven Bahls to Retire July 1, 2022

Steven Bahls will retire as president of Augustana College effective July 1, 2022, after a notable 19-year career leading the private Rock Island school. Originally planning to retire in July 2021, Bahls, 66, delayed his retirement in order to lead the college through the challenging years of the pandemic. “It has been the highlight of my professional life to serve Augustana College, and I look forward to my next great adventure,” he said in a Monday announcement. The eighth president of the college, Bahls started his tenure at Augustana in the summer of 2003. Previously, he was dean at Capital... Read More

Augustana College Raises Over $133 Million, Exceeding Goal By $8M

January 1st, 2021
Augustana College Raises Over $133 Million, Exceeding Goal By $8M

Augustana College in Rock Island had extra special reason to celebrate on New Year’s Eve, as the blue lights on the Old Main dome turned gold to mark the private school exceeding its $125-million fundraising goal. For its ambitious “AUGUSTANA NOW” campaign, Augie raised a total of $133,662,743. “We set an audacious goal, and it took the hard work and shared vision of literally thousands of people to surpass that goal by millions of dollars,” said Kent Barnds, executive vice president for external relations and the leader for philanthropy at Augustana. The public phase of the campaign... Read More

Moline’s Curt Roseman Made Quad-Cities Come Alive for Many

December 20th, 2020
Moline’s Curt Roseman Made Quad-Cities Come Alive for Many

Curt Roseman loved history and made history in the Quad-Cities. More importantly, the 79-year-old Moliner, who died Dec. 13, made history come alive for so many others. A prolific writer, historian and university professor who taught around the world, Roseman died at UnityPoint Health – Trinity Rock Island, with his loving wife Elizabeth by his side. There will be a gathering of friends and family to celebrate his life at Moline’s CityView Celebrations at Trimble Pointe in the future, when we are able to do so safely. Cremation will take place at Trimble Crematory, Moline, under the direction... Read More

Quad-Cities Piano Students Awarded in 37th-Annual Classical Competition

December 14th, 2020
Quad-Cities Piano Students Awarded in 37th-Annual Classical Competition

The Federated Music Teachers Association of the Quad-Cities recently held its 37th Annual Classical Piano Competition, with submissions turned in by video and instead of judged in person. The Federated Music Teachers Association (FMTA) – part of the 122-year-old National Federation of Music Clubs — is a group of local music teachers that runs a Classical Festival one year, alternating with a Baroque Festival the following year. In the Classical Piano Festival, entrants needed to perform one sonata or sonatina from the Classical period (1750-1820) and depending on their level, a second piece... Read More

Beethoven’s 250th Celebrated in Quad-Cities and Worldwide

December 12th, 2020
Beethoven’s 250th Celebrated in Quad-Cities and Worldwide

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. Ludwig van Beethoven was not an easy person to like in real life, but 250 years after his birth, the monumental musical genius is easy to love and admire with a jaw-dropping sense of awe. He’s a protean superhero who had to overcome so much adversity, and is being justly celebrated in the Quad-Cities and around the world. The Quad City Symphony Orchestra titled this 2020-21 season... Read More

Pleasant Valley Theater Alums Share Experiences Before and Since Pandemic

December 5th, 2020
Pleasant Valley Theater Alums Share Experiences Before and Since Pandemic

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. Samantha Pauly, a 2008 graduate of Pleasant Valley High School in Bettendorf, was set to co-star in one of this year’s most anticipated new musicals on Broadway, “Six.” A flashy, feminist retelling of the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII (as a high-tech pop concert), the show played a month of previews in New York City and was to open March 12 at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.... Read More

Landscapes, Orchids, Fossils and Minerals on Display at New Quad City Airport Exhibit

November 4th, 2020
Landscapes, Orchids, Fossils and Minerals on Display at New Quad City Airport Exhibit

The new Quad City Arts Art at the Airport exhibit (Nov. 4 to Jan. 4, 2021) presents Nancy Lindsay’s landscape paintings, Marcia Whitmore’s botanical watercolors and a selection of fossils and minerals from Augustana College’s Fryxell Geology Museum. Nancy Lindsay, of Stone City, Iowa, discovered the beauty of the Iowa landscape when she moved to Iowa in 1998, when her husband introduced her to all the scenic areas. “Palisades, Pleasant Creek, Pinicon, Wapsipinicon and Backbone Parks are some of my favorite places to paint,” Lindsay said in a Quad City Arts release. “As a landscape... Read More