DAVENPORT, IOWA (September 16, 2019) — The valiant Riverssance Committee is about to launch the 2019 Riverssance weekend with around 90 quality visual artists drawn from a national Call for Entries, live local music, a children’s activity tent, and great food. The event takes place in scenic Lindsay Park in the Village of East Davenport.
This year, thanks to support from the Quad Cities Community Foundation and the Regional Development Authority, Riverssance also will feature demonstrations by local artists and Riverssance exhibitors.
Saturday morning begins with a collaborative sculpture by Steve Banks, Heidi Hernandez, and Terry Rathje. It's a treat to see these creative dynamos interact. That afternoon will have a wheel-thrown ceramics demo by Carolyn Krueger.
On Sunday morning Josh Malone will draw dinosaurs; at 1 p.m. Tim McGuire, Wild Cherry Spoon Company will carve wooden spoons; at 1:30PM, Pamela Brown shows weaving (reed-weaving, wax-linen weaving, and bracelets); and from 2:30-3:30PM, David Schaeffer explains hotwire Styrofoam sculpture.
Riverssance is a fund raiser for MidCoast Fine Arts to support visual art programs through the year for the community. On April 30, when the levee collapsed a half block away, MidCoast’s Bucktown Center for the Arts lost over $18,000 in event supplies stored in the basement. We need to make up the financial hit. MidCoast thanks private donors, the Quad Cities Community Foundation, and Grow Quad Cities for flood-relief funds, and Zimmerman Honda for logistical support for Riverssance.
This year’s Riverssance local music line-up organized by River Music Experience includes: (Saturday) Whoozdads, Barley House Band, and David G. Smith; (Sunday) Lojo Russo, Songbird Quartet, and Lewis Knudsen.
The Children’s Activity Tent is operated by Rivermont Collegiate, sponsored by Green State Credit Union. Adults may enjoy sampling wines from Tabor Home Vineyard and Winery from artist-decorated glasses, many painted by Dee Schricker and Tony Seabolt.
Food vendors on site will include Lagomarcino’s, Pete’s Concessions, Streets of Italy Wood Fired Pizza and Tiffany’s Mexican Food.
At 5:30PM on Saturday, we'll honor this year’s recipient of the Harley Award for outstanding support of the visual arts, Terry Rathje. Back when Terry worked in representational watercolors (maybe that's a surprise), he and I had our paintings featured in an inaugural exhibition at Mississippi Fine Arts. There couldn’t be a nicer person to share an exhibition experience! Much later, I reviewed his solo show at the Figge Art Museum, which was a watershed moment for a local artist to be featured in the museum. His shelters and installations were impressive. The Harley reception is sponsored by Medix Dental.
Speaking of long-time artist associations, my connections with photographer Dick Oberg go back to about when he finished as official photographer for The MARK of the Quad Cities. Do not miss the opportunity to see all the rock legends he shot for A View from the Pit 1993—2005 at Bucktown. Even better, come to the September 27 Final Friday to hear him talk about his work at 7PM.
The new PaperFest event at Bucktown was a success with 56 participants, from toddlers amazed at papermaking to adults folding origami for an origami wedding decoration. It was fun to watch David Smith create a foam core sculpture of a Mississippi River monster attacking Bucktown.
New at Bucktown is the display of a bodice decorated by Tony Seabolt for the GirlpARTs project of the NormaLeah Ovarian Cancer Initiative. Check out their exhibition of bodices around the QCA through October 18.
How do we do it without your support?
MidCoast receives funding from several sources including grants, sponsorships and donations. Our largest source of funding — operating grants — has dried up.
We provide exhibition opportunities for approximately 300 artists per year. In addition, MidCoast runs:
- Three exhibition galleries in Moline, Rock Island and Davenport with no admission charge. Only a $35 entry-fee to the artists, with monthly receptions/programs/local music at Gallery West and Bucktown. Exhibits change every two months.
- ArtWorks Expo High School Pastel Mural competition for area students to feel that being a visual artist matters as they earn cash awards for their art departments.
- Riverssance Festival of Fine Art, a weekend with 90 quality visual artists, live local music, children’s activity tent, and great food in beautiful Lindsay Park, Village of East Davenport.
- Support for every level of artist at Bucktown Center for the Arts, from mentored sales spaces run by a gallery manager to suites for studios/classes/sales.
It's up to YOU to see MidCoast continue. Only a handful of you have responded to our requests asking for financial support. For that, we thank you.
More still needs to be done. Without MidCoast, what would remain of visual arts opportunities in our community?
Support the Visual Arts. Support MidCoast because we can’t continue without your support — really!
2019 MidCoast projects are partially supported by funds contributed from our individual donors and by: the Illinois Arts Council Agency; the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs; Green State Credit Union; Medix Dental; the Quad Cities Community Foundation; Quad City Arts Dollars, provided by the Illinois Arts Council Agency, Hubbell-Waterman Foundation, and John Deere; the Regional Development Authority, the Rock Island Art Guild, and Wells Fargo.
Yes! I want to keep the visual arts alive and donate to MidCoast.
Trivia Night to benefit MidCoast
September 27
MidCoast is honored to have been selected by Modern Woodmen to be a recipient of their charitable fundraising activities for their September 27 Trivia Night, to which we all are invited.
To reserve your seat, email courtney.cox@modern-woodmen.org.
Rock the Arts
Downtown Rock Island
Friday, October 11, 6-9PM.
Saturday, October 12, 12-4PM.
Open houses at The ARTery, Quad City Arts, Desoto Studio, and Quad City Wood Turners.
Raku ceramic-firing, body-painting, and woodworking demos! Ticket discounts from Ballet Quad Cities for Dracula Unleashed! and promotions from Daiquiri Factory, Huckleberry's, The Big Swing, and more!
Key locations are: 1629 2nd Avenue, 1715 2nd Avenue, and 2324 3rd Avenue.
Supported by Community and Economic Development, City of Rock Island.
CALLING ALL ARTISTS!!
Check out these amazing opportunities to showcase your work.
Rock the Arts
Submission deadline: October 1
October 11-12
Downtown Rock Island
We can accept participation of up to three artists at Desoto as guests of the Quad City Wood Turners. The Wood Turners have tables. You would need your own support systems and lights.
If interested, contact info@midcoast.org by October 1.
Show your colors!
Submission deadline: November 1-2 or 6-7
Exhibition: November 16, 2019-January 11, 2020
Bucktown second floor casement
In support of QC Pride, show your pride in a unified community! Open to original art or crafts work in any medium except video, suitable for a public exhibition forum. Limit two entries per person.
Drop off: November 1-2 or 6-7, from 11:30AM-5:30PM
Pick up: January 15-18, from 11:30AM-5:30PM.
Interested? Contact Sherry at info@midoast.org for details.
Rock Island Fine Arts Exhibition
Submission deadline: November 23
In light of financial support of MidCoast from the Rock Island Art Guild, we're sharing their Call for Entries. The 41st Fine Arts Exhibition will be at the Figge Art Museum from January 18-April 19, 2020.
Artists within a 150-mile radius of Rock Island are encouraged to enter up to two original works of art created in the last five years.
Click here for more information and Call for Entries.
MidCoast Honors Artist Terry Rathje with 2019 Harley Award
MidCoast Fine Arts takes great pleasure in announcing that Terry Rathje is the recipient of the 2019 Harley Award, which honors those who've positively affected the visual arts and artists in the Quad Cities during their lifetime. An original member of the MidCoast Board of Directors, he contributed to many of its art programs and was involved in the development of Bucktown Center for the Arts as a unique nexus for artists’ galleries/classrooms/ studios. He designed the building’s exterior graphics.
As a sign of his esteem in the Quad Cities visual art community, Rathje was one of the first local artists to have a solo show at the Figge Art Museum (2013). He's known for having a collaborative spirit in working on creations with others, even in far-off locations such as Suriname.
Rathje notes he “grew up in a small town in Eastern Iowa and to fight off boredom, found promise in art making at an early age.” He proceeded to serious exploration of drawing, then painting, leather-smithing, darkroom and digital photography, print-making, animation, sculpture, and assemblage. Rathje attended high school in DeWitt, followed by the University of Iowa, Marycrest International University (for a BA), and returned to The University of Iowa (for an MA and an MFA).
He ran a graphic-design and sign-painting business for 15 years, and then shot and edited video, and designed graphics for video for another six years in the corporate world. He retired from Western Illinois University where he taught for 18 years, reaching the level of associate professor of graphic design. Now his time is spent living along the Wapsipinicon River and making wood sculpture.
The current work by Rathje falls into four categories: assemblage, sculpture, furniture, and nomadic architecture- structures that can be assembled in one location, then disassembled and moved to another. His explorations include use of industrial, recycled, and sustainable materials, 3D modeling, and developing new techniques of construction using digital technology, while tying these methods to traditional ones. He has exhibited in this country and abroad in several countries — including Brazil, England, Portugal, Turkey, and Suriname.
Rathje states, “The eye is the place where the outside world meets the inside world. It is the interaction between the two, influenced by experience, genetic propensities, and imagination that generates work that hopefully ignites and unites those who are paying attention… and we all should be.”
The annual award was first presented in 1988 to John Bloom. The award ceremony will take place during Riverssance at 5:30PM on Saturday, September 21, in Lindsay Park, the Village of East Davenport. The award ceremony is free to the public.
SPACE AVAILABLE at Bucktown
First floor
As of October 15: Five-month lease on suite 107, 150 square feet, is available. It can be split between two artists. Rate $9 per square foot.
Two wall spaces in the Artists' Market are available. Contact Tony at tony@midcoast.org.
Second floor suites
Suite 203 is available to rent for a meeting or reception through February 2020.
If interested, please contact Sherry at info@midcoast.org or 563-424-1210.
MidCoast Gallery West/The ARTery
1629 2nd Avenue, Rock Island
Open: Wed-Sat, 11:30AM-5:30PM
Photography of Annie Oldenburg and David Genac through September
Carolyn Krueger and Susan Sharp
October-November 15
Friday, October 11, 6-9PM, opening reception
Step into a rainbow of color with Carolyn’s low-fire ceramics and the stitched and assembled works of Susan Sharp.
(Hand in Hand by Barbara Noble)
Moline Centre Station
1200 River Drive, Moline
Open: Mon-Fri, 6AM-7:30PM;
Sat, 8AM-5:30PM; Sun, 9AM-5PM
The art gallery that's open every day of the week!
Peggy Gratton through September
Barbara Noble
October-November
Barbara Noble acknowledges she creates pieces with varied styles. “My work style varies greatly with decidedly different energy. Why shouldn’t it? I’m not a two-dimensional person, no one is. All my works can be described as realistic insofar as you can "tell what it is’ (usually). There is always meaning and they speak for me. Even as my work has something to say you may see more...I hope that you do.”
Noble teaches art, graphic design, and photography at Louisa-Muscatine High School. She holds a BA in Art, MA Ed Leadership and MA Interdisciplinary Studies.
