This episode of Talking Art looks back on the arts in 2025 with arts journalist Jonathan Turner. The conversation reflects on major moments, trends, and stories that shaped the cultural landscape over the past year, offering insight into how the arts responded to change and continued to connect communities.

The Eldridge City Council voted on Monday, December 15th, to close the facility due to budget constraints. Quad City Rollers Vice President, Melissa Conway, says the team is disappointed to hear the news.

The most wonderful time of the year can also be the most expensive, but there are ways to scale-back spending and give meaningful gifts without going into debt.

In 2024-25, WQPT (the QC PBS station) received $846,207 from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, accounting for 54% of its annual budget. General Manager Dawn Schmitt said cuts will leave the station with just five full-time staff come Jan. 1. WQPT, a public media service of Western Illinois University, Moline, is not considering cutting the number of hours they are on the air, which is 24 hours a day.

This episode of Talking Art features Hallie Weis, an editor at Fresh Films, a nonprofit focused on building strong foundations in filmmaking for youth and young adults. Hallie discusses Fresh Films’ programs that support emerging creators, highlighting hands-on learning, mentorship, and the importance of post-production skills in shaping confident storytellers. The conversation explores how early access to film education helps young artists develop both technical ability and creative voice.

Sonja Strathearn has turned her passion for Jane Austen into an art project, sewing and collecting Regency-era costumes for Austen conventions halfway across the world.

Well, it turns out I lied. Actually, The Lion in Winter was NOT the close of the Quad Cities’ theatre season. The close-out is actually Playcrafter’s Barn Theatre’s production of Christopher Sergel’s adaptation of the 1948 book Cheaper by the Dozen a real-life recounting of growing up in a household of 12 children authored by two of those children: Frank Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey and here directed by Emma Terronez.

In her short life so far, 10-year-old Milan C. Ellis has already moved six times. And she wrote about her new experiences in her debut children’s book, “The Adventures of a Military Kid.”

A local documentary following a musical production by the Penguin Project of the Quad Cities is airing on PBS station WQPT this month.

The old Lodge hotel in Bettendorf was torn down in 2016, but a new Lodge has opened inside the Figge Art Museum, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport.