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! This past week has been another major one for the Putnam Museum & Science Center, 1717 W. 12th St., Davenport. On Jan. 17 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day), Putnam CEO Rachael Mullins attended an exciting announcement from the Friends of MLK, Inc. The Quad Cities non-profit announced Monday that a new $1-million park will be built to honor Dr. King, outside its building... Read More

In an age of complex environmental challenges, why not look to the ingenuity of nature for solutions? The forms, patterns, and processes found in the natural world—refined by 3.8 billion years of evolution—can inspire our design of everything from clothing to skyscrapers. This approach to innovation, called biomimicry, is becoming increasingly popular. Nature’s Blueprints: Biomimicry in Art and Design opens Wednesday, Sept. 1 at the Putnam Museum and Science Center (1717 W. 12th St., Davenport), a Smithsonian affiliate. “The Putnam is the first stop on this exhibit’s national... Read More

In an age of complex environmental challenges, why not look to the ingenuity of nature for solutions? The forms, patterns, and processes found in the natural world—refined by 3.8 billion years of evolution—can inspire our design of everything from clothing to skyscrapers. This approach to innovation, called biomimicry, is becoming increasingly popular. Nature’s Blueprints: Biomimicry in Art and Design opens Wednesday, Sept. 1 at the Putnam Museum and Science Center (1717 W. 12th St., Davenport), a Smithsonian affiliate. “The Putnam is the first stop on this exhibit’s national tour... Read More

There was an overpowering feeling of celebration, joy and pride Friday in the former Grand Lobby of the Putnam Museum & Science Center, 1717 W. 12th St., Davenport. Rachael Mullins, Putnam president/CEO, welcomed about 100 guests, supporters and donors of the Quad-Cities institution for a ribbon-cutting and open house preview of the new World Culture Gallery. “We are so appreciative of this moment after the year we’ve all shared together in our community, to have a moment of true celebration here at the Putnam,” she said. Funded by Bechtel Trusts, Scott County Regional Authority, the... Read More

The Putnam Giant Screen Theater – 60 feet tall by 70 feet wide – will finally reopen Saturday, May 15, featuring a spectacular 40-minute documentary, “Into America’s Wild,” that was supposed to open in March 2020, when the pandemic shut down life as we knew it. “So it’s one of those wonderful, soaring 3D American landscapes,” Rachael Mullins, president/CEO of the Putnam Museum & Science Center, said Tuesday. “It’s so wonderful — kind of through the eyes of an explorer and adventurer and through the eyes of an astronaut. So it’s a wonderful film that we think... Read More

Let’s face it — Saturday, Feb. 20 will be a big day for museum lovers in the Quad-Cities, as two long-time Davenport institutions open new exhibits. A new original exhibit at the Putnam (1717 W. 12th St.), “Faces of the Past,”  explores portraiture around the world and across time as a reflection of self-identity, popular culture, mythology, and ritual. The exhibit will be included with general admission and remain open through mid-2021 at the Putnam, a Smithsonian Affiliate museum. Throughout the world, people see themselves in different ways. Cultures demonstrate how they view themselves... Read More

The Putnam’s next featured exhibit is for the birds. It explores bird species through themes of extinction and the role of citizen science to preserve these important members of the animal kingdom. Birds and You is an original exhibit at the Putnam Museum & Science Center (1717 W. 12th St., Davenport), set to open Saturday, Feb. 6. The exhibit will be included with general admission and remain open through mid-2021 at the Putnam, a Smithsonian Affiliate museum. The exhibit was inspired by the extraordinary decline of the bird population in North America – a 29% decline, or a loss of... Read More

Eleven cultural organizations and three artists in the Quad-Cities were among those to receive a share of $7 million in new grants announced Tuesday by the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs. A total of 267 cultural organizations and 152 artists serving 118 Iowa communities will get funding, made possible by the Coronavirus, Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, on Dec. 2. The department launched the Iowa Arts & Culture Recovery Program the same day and received more than 550 requests totaling more than $36 million by the Dec. 11 deadline. The list of recipients includes some of Iowa’s... 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. The traveling exhibit “Race: Are We So Different?,” in 2019 at Davenport’s Putnam Museum, had a profound impact on visitors, staff and those who took part in many related discussions. Building on that success and a Quad-Cities-wide effort to improve racial equity this year – amidst national reckonings regarding racial injustice – Putnam president/CEO Rachael Mullins has... Read More

The Putnam Museum (1717 W. 12th St., Davenport) is playing around in its newest exhibit, as it explores the role of play and toys through culture and time in society. From antiquity and from around the world, guests will see toys that reflect societal norms and other sociological trends. “Play: The Story of Toys” is an original Putnam exhibit, set to open Saturday, Nov. 21, on the main west gallery upstairs. The exhibit will be included with general admission and remain open through August 2021 at the Putnam, a Smithsonian Affiliate museum. “Our latest exhibit features items from the Putnam’s... Read More