This Friday night, Oct. 9, will be a special one at Quad City Arts, 1715 2nd Ave., Rock Island.
Not only will the regional nonprofit host an opening reception for its new exhibit -- The Monster Under My Bed, with works by 27 regional artists. It will also be a celebration of visual arts director Dawn Wohlford-Metallo’s 25 years with Quad City Arts.
She is the longest-serving staffer ever for the organization. The free reception will be Friday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., and you can meet the exhibiting artists and enjoy complimentary refreshments while exploring the colorful, varied artworks.
The new exhibit (fitting for this month’s spooky season) explores fear, anxiety, and well-being through 38 works of art, with accompanying community conversation. What are the monsters that keep us up at night—and what helps us turn on the light? Twenty-seven regional artists (within a 250-mile radius) answer those questions in art to be on display through Dec. 4, 2026.
Art can give people a way to express experiences and emotions that are difficult to put into words. Exhibitions like The Monster Under My Bed allow artists to share those experiences while giving audiences opportunities to connect, reflect, and begin conversations around mental health and other topics that can be difficult to discuss, according to QC Arts.
By bringing artists, community partners and the public together, Quad City Arts helps create an accessible space where art can open the door to meaningful conversation.
Exhibiting artists are Bill Biagi, Marianne Biagi, Annabelle Bishop, BriEcho Boden, Alan Cassius, Kylie Clements, Johnnie Cluney, Jae Florence Corales, Estevan Cornejo, Jesse Coughlin, Michael Dahl, Emma Duffy, Bradley Ellis, La Della Gallagher, Isabella Guy, Miranda Jordan, Shayla Ray Kent, Lisa Mahar, Jeremy Marquis, Sherry Maurer, Morgan Napier, Atticus Norman, Nicole Ponce, Michelle Ryan, David Zahn, Neal Zahn, and Matthew Terry.
“Art is therapy for a lot of artists, and art can be therapy for people who don't consider themselves artists, and looking at art can be therapy and therapeutic,” Wohlford-Metallo said Tuesday, Oct. 6.
“The title was kind of left open. Some people really went into it and had stories about horrible things that happened to them, and they depicted their feelings about that,” she said. “Other ones are more lighthearted, and are just monstery, Halloween-ish things with eyeballs. There's really a variety of ways that people have dealt with that topic.
"And then we're partnering with The M.A.D. Therapy for an event on October 26th, and they're going to bring in counselors, and some of the artists in the show have offered to speak. It'll be open to people that they work with, M.A.D. Therapy works with, to come and join a conversation about art and how you can use art.”
“I think there's a real need for it in the community, and I think we've seen since COVID a much higher rate of people needing assistance,” she said.
“It's something that we've been having a lot of community conversations around in the last few months, even before this, just about mental health agencies looking to involve arts with the people that they work with,” Quad City Arts executive director Ben Gougeon said Tuesday. “I think a lot of artists use art as therapy, whether intentionally or not, but it's that way to get the feelings out. But also, the benefits to anyone who's going through anything of just exploring that act of creation, you know, I think is really beneficial to people.”
On Oct. 26 at Quad City Arts, the public is invited to join members of The M.A.D. Therapy mental health services to view the exhibition and take part in a conversation about how artists use artmaking to support their own mental health and wellness, as well as how experiencing art can positively affect well-being. Several participating artists will be part of the panel discussion. The event is free; donations are encouraged.
The mission of the Bettendorf-based M.A.D. Therapy (which stands for “Making A Difference”) is to create a safe place to explore difficult topics, lead authentic lives, and make changes to get there by providing culturally competent, quality, and ethical mental health services.
A quarter century of arts service
For a quarter century, Wohlford-Metallo has championed artists, developed exhibitions, created opportunities for creatives, and helped shape the visual arts in the Quad Cities.
The daughter of two very creative parents (Bill and Pat Wohlford, he mainly a woodcarver and furniture maker, and she flower design, gardening, and sewing), Dawn is a graduate of Pleasant Valley High School, Bettendorf. She went on to study at Truman State University in Missouri, and then University of Colorado in Boulder. She specializes in art from paper and mixed media.
“It's all natural materials. I recycle cotton clothing, denim jeans, plant fibers. It's very clean. There's no toxic— like some art processes are toxic, and it's very clean,” Wohlford-Metallo said.
“There's so much, I've incorporated paper with photography. I've incorporated it with sewing, weaving, sculpture. It's like any idea I have, I can create it with paper.”
She started at QC Arts in 2001 as gallery manager, and later as visual arts director, she oversees the public sculpture program, the rotating exhibits and annual High School Invitational in the spring.
Rotating public art exhibits (currently 34 leased sculptures in the area) began in the Quad Cities in downtown Davenport in 2002, with an eight-piece exhibit, sponsored by the Riverboat Development Authority. With plans to establish a cultural corridor along the Mississippi River on 2nd Street, Davenport saw public art as a way to draw attention to the developing cultural scene.
Several area cities now contribute to the cost of facilitating it because “one of the things that I do is keep a roster of artists who are creating sculptures that are available to rent, and then I have a rapport with them, and I contact them in the spring, and they let me know what sculptures they have available for the coming year,” Wohlford-Metallo said, noting each artist gets $1,500 to display work for a year, starting each June.
“I find the sculptors. I take their information, present it to the cities, and then they each have their own committee. Sometimes, like Rock Island has an Arts and Beautification Committee. And so they select,” she said. “And Rock Island focuses on the parks, where Bettendorf's focusing on businesses, business areas. Davenport focuses on 2nd Street.
So each city has its own idea of what they want to use it for. And then once they select them, then I do all the contracting with the artists, the cities, making sure everyone gets paid, making sure the installations are— I coordinate the installations.”
“The ultimate goal for the artist is to sell it. And probably every year I could say that somebody buys one, one city or another,” Wohlford-Metallo said. “I know with one in Rock Island, it was just is really popular and they got a lot of positive feedback, so they decided to purchase it and keep it. And sometimes a local business will buy it and then leave it in the city for the— for everybody to enjoy, but it really is owned by that business.”
Over her 25 years, public art has grown in popularity locally and nationally.
“People are more accepting and people are starting to get used to seeing art everywhere now, from sculpture to murals. The mural trend has really taken off in the last five years,” Wohlford-Metallo said. “People are more willing to spend money on it because they see it feeds to tourism. We work with Visit Quad Cities — they do a public art trail and we provide all the information for that because people can plan a trip around it.
"You know, they might come here for a sporting event or a concert as well, but they're also here to see the art.”
“I don't think it's a trend that's gonna end. It just makes the whole city more vibrant and more appealing,” she said. “When you start looking around for a blank wall to paint on, there's a lot of them, and it doesn't— it just doesn't hurt to put something nice on that wall.”
Honoring and displaying student art
She loves coordinating the annual High School Art Invitational, which can be life-changing for the student artists.
“I contact the teachers, I get all this— almost all the sponsors I get because most of the sponsors— that's a very unique show. Most of the sponsors are local artists, and it's a really easy way for them to give back,” Wohlford-Metallo said. “We have a local sculptor, and he's— this is probably his 25th year of doing this, at least. He wants to give an award. He particularly likes kind of quirky sculptures, and he feels that a lot of times those kind of sculptures get overlooked.
"So he wanted to give an award to bring attention to things that people might not see, where he sees the spark of genius or creativity or he sees something in it, and it might not be what other people perceive as this great piece of art. But there's something there that he wants to highlight.”
“I get kind of emotional talking about that show because there are kids who, they don't do sports, they might not get great grades, but art saves them,” she said. “And when they get called out and said, this piece of art you did is just outstanding, they just get very emotional, and it can change their life. It can change their career goals, it can change their self-esteem. It's just big.”
She was picked for the invitational when she was at PVHS, and this past April 2, Quad City Arts announced the winners of the 49th Annual High School Art Invitational and presented $9,500 in cash prizes to area high school students and teachers for excellence in fine art.
“We let the teachers choose the work. So each teacher gets to pick five,” Wohlford-Metallo said of participating students. “We set out the criteria, they bring the work, and then we bring in the sponsors. And each, almost every sponsor, not only do they give their money, they choose the award, the recipient. So we have two days of judging because they're coming in all day long and they want to pick.
"Like, the Rock Island Art Guild has a group, they’ll send different people each year and they support it with money. So they pick out their own winners. And then everybody has their own opinion. So sometimes one student will win more than one award if something really stands out.”
After a quarter century, Wohlford-Metallo most appreciates the impact she can have through art.
“That's why I'm here. The high school show is just to see the impact that giving a student a chance to show their art in public and what that does to them,” she said. “Seeing the Metro Arts kids come together. My own son was in the comedy part of Metro Arts, and to see his development in those six weeks, he went from being like very introverted to being — he got the biggest laugh when they did their performance. He just came out of his shell, and it's just seeing that impact over and over, every summer with Metro, every high school show, our Festival of Trees show. Festival of Trees itself, if you've ever been there on the day when special needs people come.
“People that just spend their days in institutions, and they come and they see the lights, or they see the therapy dogs, or they see Santa Claus, and they just light up,” Wohlford-Metallo said. “It's incredible. And we did that. We created that.”
She arranges for about 16 artists at the Festival of Trees gallery at RiverCenter in Davenport, this year Nov. 21-29.
“I'm giving local artists an opportunity to show their work in front of more people. I wish more people would come here, but it's just not the perfect location,” Wohlford-Metallo said of the Rock Island gallery. “We need more businesses that are vibrant around this area to make that happen. So with Festival of Trees, we've got this built-in audience of over 1,000 people a day, and they're running through the gallery and they're seeing things that they've never seen, and they're buying art, more art in those two weeks than we do the whole rest of the year. So that's my goal.”
Working with committee
Group shows like the next “Monsters” one are chosen by the QC Arts visual arts committee, which is comprised of some board members, art teachers, an art collector and an artist.
“This was a little different when we do a group show. When we do a group show, we present everything to the committee and they discuss the art, and it's kind of a yes, no, or maybe sort of decision,” Wohlford-Metallo said. “With the rotating exhibits, it's much more competitive because we have about 100 people apply and we can only give 35 people shows,” she said of six exhibits a year at the QC airport gallery and seven a year at the QC Arts gallery.
“So the committee scores everybody in that case. And then I can take the highest-scoring artists and put them together, pair them with another artist, and then determine whether we think their art will look— show the best here in Rock Island or show better at the airport.”
“Here we obviously have more room, so bigger pieces of art show better here,” Wohlford-Metallo said of the downtown gallery. “There's a lot of different considerations.”
Since 2020, the Second Avenue Window display focuses on more emerging, newer artists, she noted.
“So that's when we started inviting people to apply, or people that we knew that just needed it. They just really need a shot,” Wohlford-Metallo said. “They haven't done a show before, and it teaches them like, how do you frame your work? You've gotta write an artist statement, you've gotta price it, you know, and we're spending a lot of time more time working with each person with those things because if they've never priced their work before, they don't know how to do that. If they've never put a frame on, so it's more of a really helping develop new artists.”
“Sometimes we have artists who they have always loved art. They might have gone to school for art, but then they had to have a career and make money, and they did something completely different,” she said. “When they finally retire, they can go back to the art. So we've got this group of people that are older, but they're just getting into art, as you know, commercially, like to show it and sell it.”
QC Arts also provides services to artists, which they’ll do more of, she added.
“Workshops on how to frame your art, how to write an artist statement, how to create a website, how to approach an art gallery,” she said. “All these business-type things that they don't get in college. They don't learn that. Even if they go to art school, a lot of them don't learn these things. So we are also very educational. We're not just like, bring us your art, we'll put it up. We teach them the steps of being an artist.”
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