Saturday in the Arts is a weekly feature covering a trend, subject, event or personality of local interest. It runs every Saturday morning on your site for the best entertainment and arts coverage in the area, QuadCities.com! The intertwined arts of photography, painting and filmmaking can produce a tide of emotion and giving in ways that simple words often cannot. That trio of talents are behind the latest exhibit at Bereskin Gallery & Art Academy, 2967 State St., Bettendorf. Pat Herath, executive director and founder of Moline-based Wells 4 Wellness, met this spring with Pat Beréskin, the... Read More

It’s been two years since Bettendorf High School staged its last musical. A year after it was forced to cancel the planned “Shrek,” on Thursday night (April 15) it opens the Quad-Cities premiere of “Bright Star,” a musical by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell. The show will be performed in person, with limited capacity at the BHS Performing Arts Center, 3333 18th St., and it will be livestreamed online — 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and 1 p.m. Sunday. All tickets must be purchased at bhspac.booktix.com, $10 for the in-person show and $20 per device for online. With a cast... Read More

Bettendorf’s Emily Tinsman, in her second year as Miss Iowa and first teaching at a Des Moines middle school, is part of a new Miss America Organization program where state title holders speak with teens in their area to discuss the dangers of substance use and addiction. The new partnership with Advanced Recovery Systems’ Real Talk program has served the Florida community since 2016 (led by Miss Florida) and has impacted over 15,000 students since its founding. This partnership with Miss America Organization will expand the educational ambassador program nationwide. There are currently 20... Read More

Thirteen months after Bettendorf native Emily Tinsman competed in Miss America, the 24-year-old is in the unprecedented position being Miss Iowa for a second year. Like everything else around the world, the Covid-19 pandemic upended Tinsman’s touring schedule in 2020, and since there was no Miss America competition held last month, the 2021 Miss Iowa is expected to be named this June at the Adler Theatre in Davenport, and a new Miss America at the end of the year – the 100th anniversary of what is no longer considered a beauty pageant. “I was on a roll,” Tinsman said recently of returning... Read More

Friends and family in the Quad-Cities are mourning the sudden, shocking loss of Keith Bonnstetter, a beloved Bettendorf Spanish teacher and master of intricate paper cutting. He died Sunday morning at 52 after collapsing during a run. Bonnstetter was a Spanish teacher at Bettendorf High School since 2001, said principal Joy Kelly in a Sunday post on the school’s website. “He loved his students, he loved his colleagues and he loved teaching,” she wrote. “Keith was a positive, compassionate and talented presence on our campus and he will be missed dearly by all of us. “On behalf of our... Read More

Saturday in the Arts is a comprehensive, in-depth look at a personality, issue, or trend in the Quad-Cities arts and entertainment scene, running every Saturday morning on your site for fun, free, local entertainment and features, QuadCities.com. For many high schools and colleges throughout the Quad-Cities, the show must go on – even during a crippling global pandemic that’s turned education upside down. With schools taking differing approaches to in-person and online instruction, each also is taking individual, thoughtfully considered approaches to continuing with their music and theater... Read More