SuperStorm 2021 (or at least the latest one) is over, but winter’s cold and dreariness continues on. But don’t despair, there are things in the Quad-Cities to smile about! Every month, we at QuadCities.com, in conjunction with our media partners at KWQC-TV6’s “Paula Sands Live,” present What’s The Good News? A look at some of the positive things going on in and around the Quad-Cities. So, what’s the good news for February? Here ya go… Rock Island Teen Is Headed To ‘The Voice!’ Charlotte Boyer, a 17-year-old junior at Rock Island High School,... Read More

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! For the past 10 years, Molly Durnin has worked as a full-time touring musician, but 2020’s Covid pandemic put a stop to that – as it’s decimated the careers of so many artists nationwide. “It was the worst year of my life,” the 32-year-old Moliner said Friday, noting her gigs were shot for most of the year, between mid-March and the fall. “It left me completely... Read More

Remember Valentine’s Day 2020, when life was still normal, before the world as we knew it ended? Well, the Midwest Writing Center (MWC) and River Music Experience (RME) are here to help you celebrate the holiday of love, 2021 pandemic-style. MWC is partnering with some of the best poets and writers in the community to offer bespoke poems this month, written for anyone you’d like to gift a poem. By participating in this limited-time program, “you’re not only giving unique poems to people you care about, but you’re also supporting local writers and writing/literacy programs in the Quad-Cities,”... Read More

Wednesday was a day not only for national celebration, with the inauguration, but for the Quad Cities Cultural Trust. The organization gathered its six funded partners in person for the first time since the pandemic started, to mark exceeding its 2021 fundraising goal; record-breaking allocations in 2020 for the partners, and a new Quad City Arts mural that bursts with color and purpose on the west side of the River Music Experience building at 2nd and Main streets, Davenport. Over the last 13 years, QCCT has provided annual unrestricted funds (over $11 million total) to the Figge Art Museum, Putnam... Read More

Saturday In The Arts is a comprehensive weekly feature looking at a trend, personality, or major subject involving the Quad-Cities arts and entertainment scene. This past week was an historic one for the nation, as well as for Davenport-based River Music Experience. Five Americans died as a result of the massive Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, as pro-Trump insurrectionists disrupted the certification of the Electoral College presidential results. That same Wednesday, RME postponed the planned celebration of the online Music Lab’s 200th episode that afternoon. The half-hour weekday... Read More

While the live-music industry has been decimated by coronavirus, including Davenport’s River Music Experience, it was the massive insurrection 843 miles away in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday that postponed the planned online 200th episode of RME’s Music Lab. Wednesday, RME posted on Facebook they were postponing the episode until Thursday due to the chaos in Washington, D.C., at the Capitol building. “This is a historic moment in our nation’s history. As we witness a violent assault on our capitol and attempted coup on our democracy, we believe every American should be following these... Read More

Though long-awaited funding for live-music venues is part of the federal Covid stimulus bill recently signed into law, several Quad-Cities entertainment spaces are taking a “wait and see” attitude regarding the reality. Scott Mullen, executive director of Moline’s TaxSlayer Center, said the $15-billion “Save Our Stages” act that was approved had included language noting some venue owners and arenas like his “don’t qualify due to a requirement they put in that says that 70% of the venue’s events must be artist performances, so buildings with sports tenants are excluded due to the... Read More

Two days left in 2020, and so, today and the past two days, it’s been time for our look back at the year that was in arts and entertainment, 2020. Every day between now and New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31, we’ll be posting stories painting the big picture on the year, a couple months each day. We hope you enjoy the look back, and let’s all hope for a happy new year and a much, much, much, much better 2021! Sunday we looked at January and February; Monday we hit March; Tuesday was April. Today, we have two installments. This morning, we showcase May and June, and later on this afternoon we’ll... Read More

It’s time for our look back at the year that was in arts and entertainment, 2020. Every day between now and New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31, we’ll be posting a story painting the big picture on the year. Some days will have multiple stories, some days there was so much going on in one month we just stuck to that one. We hope you enjoy the look back, and let’s all hope for a happy new year and a much, much, much, much better 2021! Here’s today’s installment, months January and February, the two most normal months of the year. During this time, coronavirus was just a news story for the... Read More

As the weather has turned colder, the River Music Experience is working to warm some hearts, building on the success of its 2020 Curbside Concerts by launching holiday Curbside Carols for December. Executive director Tyson Danner said Friday there have been nearly 200 curbside concerts since the spring, where local musicians went out to private homes and neighborhoods in the area (within a 10-mile radius of RME in downtown Davenport) and played for about a half hour, for a suggested donation of $60. That will return next spring, because they don’t want to do any indoor performances yet, he said.... Read More