Carolyn Martin

The inaugural Quad Cities’ Environmental Film Series begins on Sunday, Jan 19, 2020 with the showing of The Biggest Little Farm.  In a partnership between The Joyce & Tony Singh Foundation, the Sierra Club Eagle View Group, River Action, and Nahant Marsh, six films will be brought to the Figge Art Museum auditorium through May 17, 2020 which address climate change and the destruction of our natural spaces.

The EVAC Project (Experiencing Veterans and Artists Collaboration) exhibit is on display through February 15, 2020 at the Rock Island Arsenal Museum.  This compelling and thought-provoking show pairs veterans’ stories with prints created by artists, with the intended purpose to bridge the gap between military and civilian life and to increase our understanding and connection with each other. In total, fifteen stories are told by veterans from all five branches of the military, who served in conflicts ranging from WWII to present-day Iraq and Afghanistan. 

An exhibit featuring photographs by Chris Rayburn, watercolors by Tim Schiffer, and glass works by John Miller will be displayed Dec 13, 2019 through Jan 24, 2020 at the Quad City Arts’ Rock Island Gallery.

The hilariously irreverent holiday play Santaland Diaries, based on the essay by David Sedaris and adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello, will be performed Dec 12-15, 2019 at the Brunner Theatre Center on the Augustana College campus.  Starring Keenan Odenkirk, this Mississippi Bend Players’ production is certain to entertain as he recounts his experience working at Macy’s in New York City during the busy holiday season dressed as Crumpet the elf.

The photographic artist Randy Richmond has two concurrent exhibits on display now in the Quad Cities:  Verisimilitude in the Lewis Gallery at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, and The Set Table:  Forks on the Left, Metaphors on the Right at the Quad City Arts’ gallery in Rock Island.

The mixed media artist Sarah Rehmer’s solo exhibition A Tenuous Space is currently on display at the ArtSpace Gallery on the Black Hawk College campus in Moline.  Using vintage book paper, rusted paper, encaustic, oil paint, and eco-dyed fabric and paper, she explores the elusive aspects of memory, thought, and communication in ethereal works created over the past five years.

The widely acclaimed Harlem Quartet is in residence from October 21-25, 2019 as part of Quad City Arts’ Visiting Artist Series.  Founded in 2006 by the Sphinx Organization, their mission is to build diversity in classical music, and to engage new and young audiences through the discovery of a varied musical repertoire that includes works by minority composers. This Grammy Award winning quartet performs jazz, Latin, and contemporary music in addition to their classical work.

The vintage 1946 film noir movie Deception will be played at the Figge Art Museum on Wednesday, October 2, 2019.  Prior to the film, Hannah Holman, Principal Cellist for the Quad City Symphony Orchestra, will talk about Eleanor Aller Slatkin, the female cellist who played the Korngold Cello Concerto for the film.  Erich Wolfgang Korngold composed his Concerto specifically for this movie.

Canadian artist Mia Feuer’s solo exhibition Totems of the Anthropocene will be shown Sept 21 through Dec 29, 2019 at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, IA.  Described as a “research driven interdisciplinary sculptor,” her work asks us to ponder the destruction of our natural world through our exploitation of petroleum and by climate change.

The soprano Lily Arbisser and pianist Dr. Marian Lee will be performing a free benefit concert on Friday, August 30, 2019 at 7:30 PM at the Asbury United Methodist Church in Bettendorf.  Donations made that evening will benefit local flood victims, following the catastrophic flooding experienced in the Quad Cities earlier this year.