Eden Myers, a 2025 Rockridge High graduate, was among nine student apprentices who worked on the new Metro Arts mural in downtown Milan (photo by Missy Myers, Capturing Fireflies Photography).
Clare Phares was shy and withdrawn as an Alleman High School student in Rock Island. She found her voice, calling, and purpose by expressing herself through art.
“The Metro Arts program changed the trajectory of my life,” the 2023 high school alum said recently at the 25th-anniversary Metro Arts Showcase (held on July 15) at Davenport's Figge Art Museum.
Run by Quad City Arts and open to youth ages 15 to 21, Metro Arts is a paid, five-week summer apprenticeship in which participants work side by side with professional artists on real, public-facing projects. From murals and mosaics to poetry, live performances, and digital storytelling, apprentices shape and improve the creative landscape of the Quad Cities while gaining invaluable professional experience.
Phares is among 1,500 apprentices served by the program (which actually began in 1999), noting she joined as a shy, insecure teenager the summer after her freshman year, working on a mural at Rock Island's Friendship Manor. “Art was my sanctuary; my safe space.”
At first, Phares was intimidated to share her ideas. But people liked what she made, and her art sparked joy in others.
“One moment I’ll never forget was at Friendship Manor,” she recalled. “A woman whose bedroom window was directly across from the atrium watched us paint every day. After we left, the mural we created brought color and beauty to her world. That was the moment I realized why public art matters. It has the power to transform spaces and lives.
“Through the Metro youth program,” Phares said, “I met my mentor Heidi Sallows. Heidi believed in me at a time when I didn’t believe in myself. She gave me the confidence to take my art seriously, and encouraged me to apply to art school – something I never thought I could do. Her guidance helped shape the artist I am becoming.”
“Public art and accessibility are at the heart of my creative practice. In an art world that can often feel exclusive, where galleries can be hard to access – museum tickets come at a cost, public artwork is for everyone – it doesn’t matter your background, where you come from. Art is a human right. It’s a tool for connection, for change, for joy.”
Metro Arts didn’t just teach her how to paint a mural. “It showed me the power of art and community. It gave me a mentor, a mission, and a future,” she said, noting she took part in the program all four years of high school and is now a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. And this past spring, Phares helped muralist Sallows in painting the intricate concrete patio for Café San Lorenzo, run by Half Nelson restaurant in downtown Davenport.
The Business Side of Art
Since its start, Metro Arts has empowered young creatives across the region with a powerful message: Art is work, and young artists are essential to the vitality and creative backbone of our communities. Ben Gougeon, the community-engagement coordinator at Quad City Arts, heads the summer program, including finding suitable locations for new murals.
“We aim to teach students art skills, and further their art careers – we really approach it as teaching them that art is work,” he said at the July 15 showcase. “They deserve to be paid for their work as artists.”
Apprentices receive a stipend of $500, and Senior Apprentices (project leaders) receive $750, for working at least 80 hours over the five weeks.
Gougeon has worked many years as a performing artist, and couldn’t count the number of times people would ask him to perform for free. With visual arts, it’s often the same.
“Teaching students the value of their work while they’re still young and developing their skills is so important,” he said. “If they choose to go on to having a career in the arts, they have that worth inside of them.”
Part of the design process of Metro Arts is having students present their concepts to clients and get approval for the murals – as Gougeon called it, “the teaching of those soft business skills, and the business side of art.” This year, the clients were Buckrop Chiropractic in Milan, Lonnie Ray’s Academy in Rock Island, and the Good Neighbor Project and Davenport Police Department.
The 2025 program was supported by the Brissman Foundation, Quad City Bank & Trust, Modern Woodmen of America, Downtown Davenport Partnership, City of Rock Island, Morency Family Foundation, Davenport Noon Optimist Club, Metronet, and the Davenport Police Department.
Each year, the number of Metro Arts projects depends entirely on the generosity of the community, said Quad City Arts executive director Brian Allen, who added that the public murals help make the area more vibrant and beautiful.
This summer, Metro Arts tackled the largest murals in the program's history, with lead artists who have both worked with Metro a long time: Sallows, and also Sarah Robb, who completed her 19th year as a lead artist and worked on the Davenport and Rock Island murals (the former in the morning, four days a week, and the latter in the afternoon). Both Robb and Sallows, the latter of whom led the creation of the Milan mural, make their full-time living as artists.
The new murals are:
Good Neighbor Project Mural (416 North Harrison Street, Davenport)
Led by Sarah Robb, this mural near the Davenport Police Department (at the southwest corner of Fifth & Harrison) celebrates connection, trust, and neighborhood pride.Lonnie Ray’s Academy Mural (815 Ninth Street, Rock Island)
Also led by Sarah Robb, this mural honors the history and future of Rock Island’s West End through the lens of youth empowerment.Buckrop Chiropractic Mural (331 Fourth Street West, Milan)
Led by Heidi Sallows, this vibrant, nature-inspired mural with patriotic themes is transforming downtown Milan.
“All three of the mural projects we did were absolutely enormous,” Gougeon said, noting the Davenport one, in particular, was challenging, being 18 feet high, and requiring scaffolding and a lift.
Massive in Milan
The Milan mural is the largest one Metro has ever completed: 90 feet long by 15 feet tall. The Brissman Foundation approached Gougeon to support public art in Milan, so he looked for a big blank wall, while Sallows led that project
“A lot of hard work went into this mural,” she said. “Everybody was great and on point, it was a lot of fun, (and) it was so big. I think it was a good learning experience.”
Building owner Karla Buckrop really liked all three designs, said Gougeon, and didn’t want to pick one, so they combined all designs into one massive mural. “They did a terrific job of putting it all together,” he said.
Eighteen-year-old Eden Myers of Andalusia was among nine apprentices who painted the massive Milan mural. She graduated this year from Rockridge High School, completed her fourth Metro Arts summer, and will be attending Lindenwood University next year to major in musical theatre.
“Metro Arts is a phenomenal program that brings together young artists from all over the Quad Cities who otherwise may not have met, and gives them the opportunity to create something that will bring the entire community together,” Myers said recently. “Over five weeks, artists between the ages of 15 and 21 work together to design and paint a mural. The first week is typically design week, where the group splits off into three separate groups and use prompts that the client has given us to design the mural. At the end of the first week, we present the designs to the client, who picks which design they like best. The chosen design will become the mural.
“What I love most about Metro Arts is the community aspect,” she added. “I have met so many friends through this program that I never would have without it. Not only that, but while we are painting the mural, so many people drive past and honk at us to tell us they like the mural. The coolest part about Metro Arts is seeing the murals you painted while driving around the Quad Cities. It’s an amazing feeling to drive past one and think, ‘Hey, I painted that!’”
Rock Island and Davenport Murals
The city of Rock Island reached out about a mural for the west end of Rock Island, and Lonnie Ray’s Academy was at the top of the list.
“It’s a basketball academy,” Gougeon said, “but Lonnie Ray does so much for the community in terms of building community. He has a backpack giveaway program; he gives away 500 backpacks a year to kids in need. Just really supports the youth in that west end of Rock Island and helps them ignite their dreams.”
Robb said that Ray was touched with the students’ design, and what they thought he had done for the community. “I truly am blessed by this program, to work with the young people,” she said. “You keep me feeling young. Thank you for your hard work and your creativity. It was a wonderful five weeks.”
The Good Neighbor Project was initiated by Davenport Police Sgt. Andrew Harris, and Davenport community engagement coordinator Allie McWilliams is also a Metro Arts alum.
“This was one of those projects that was a win-win for everybody,” Gougeon said, noting that they partnered with the Good Neighbor Project, as well as the city and police department. GNP is all about bringing the community together, as Metro Arts does.
Like Milan, the GNP mural ended up combining two of the designs together, Robb said. “I think you really did a wonderful job,” she told the students. “I’m proud of all of you.”
“This mural is more than just a work of art,” McWilliams said. “It will be an inclusive destination for all to admire, take a picture, and maybe even strike up a conversation with a new neighbor.”
The mural is on the train bridge wall next to the Davenport Police Department building on Harrison Street. Created in the spirit of the Good Neighbor Project mission, the mural represents connected neighborhoods, meaningful relationships, and Davenport pride. Now in its fifth year, there are 154 GNP partners citywide.
The Power of Public Art
In the past, Metro Arts has encompassed poetry, improvisational comedy, dance, theatre, mosaics, sculpture, music, photography, and graphic design over 113 projects. For the past two years, Metro Arts has partnered with Augustana College’s film program, and while last year produced individual short narrative films, this year produced a collaborative 24-minute documentary on the history of Metro Arts, including interviews with current and past apprentices and lead artists.
The Figge showcase featured the entire film, edited by Stacy Barton, who runs the Augustana film program. The new doc opened with a Star Wars-like crawl that listed the areas tackled by the program each year.
Lori Roderick, who had worked for Metro Arts, said there’s value in bringing students together from different towns and schools to create new friendships and learn from professional artists.
Program alum Kelly Lao (now the Putnam Museum & Science Center’s vice president for museum experiences) was part of the first Metro Arts class in 1999, and she completed four summers during her time at Orion High School. She went on to earn her master’s in museum studies from Western Illinois University-Quad Cities, and served as executive director of Davenport's German American Heritage Center & Museum.
Lao’s high school art teacher connected her to Metro Arts, and friends she made then are still friends today. “It was a really special period of my life,” she recalled. “Many years later, I was able to have my children participate in Metro Arts.”
In summer 2024, Lao also chose students for Metro Arts and coordinated a new pollinators mural they painted on the concrete side of the Putnam theatre building, overlooking the hillside.
Gougeon admires the amount of public art in the Quad Cities, including the huge new murals created in 2024 in Arts Alley (separate from Metro Arts), next to Rock Island's Quad City Arts building at 1715 Second Avenue. Public art enlivens any city, and helps improve quality of life for residents and visitors alike.
“Those are the towns I want to stop in and walk around,” Gougeon said, noting that such art aids in boosting the local economy. “I cannot overstate enough the power of public art.”
Lao did a small mosaic tile square after her senior year that is still displayed on an exterior wall of River House in downtown Moline.
“It really is a gorgeous way to bring color to a stark gray and white side of a building,” she said of the Putnam mural. “That was wonderful to be able to work with students and bring it back full circle.”
As Robb says in the film, “This is my favorite thing. Doing something positive for the community is important. I just love it, and participating in something like this gives back to the community in a way I don’t even think the community understands. When you walk down the street and see a ginormous piece of artwork on a wall, I think it adds something to your day.
“We need color in our life; we need positivity in our life. And art does. You gave that to people – you gave them a smile and a positive attitude for the day. That’s a pretty cool thing.”
Erin Mahr – band director at Assumption High School and Black Hawk College – was a lead artist in 2019, 2020, and 2022, and also teaches improv comedy at Davenport Junior Theatre. In the film, the ComedySportz veteran said, “Metro Arts definitely sparked my love of improv, and gave me the courage and excitement for it. Improv gives you so many skills in self-confidence, and public speaking, that are hard to find in a traditional classroom.”
Ryan Collins, executive director of Midwest Writing Center, was a lead artist on a few projects, and directed Metro Arts from 2007 to 2008. “There’s skill development, professional experience, getting paid for your work,” he said in the film. “It helps to give students a sense of community here that’s not just Illinois or Iowa. You can work together to showcase that.”
Sallows also teaches students how to take constructive criticism and feedback, and how to constantly try to improve their skills.
“Your critique becomes a way to grow,” she said in the film. “You see who has the fire for this kind of work, because it is a lot of work. You’re sweating, bugs, it’s dirty, you’re gonna spill.
“Because I paint murals for a living,” she added, “I will hire some of these kids over the years to work with us,” noting that one of those hired was four-year Metro Arts veteran Atticus Norman. He was eventually commissioned by the Figge to do a mural for the Clock Inc. LGBTQ community center.
“It’s probably the most career-impacting thing I’ve ever done,” Norman said in the film. “I gained a lot of self-confidence through it. I started to build networking connection.”
Gougeon paid homage to Robb as “the heart and soul of this program” at the Figge showcase, the artist receiving a standing ovation from those in attendance. “She’s really my boss, because I just get calls: ‘Ben, I need this.' I love doing it.”
“At Quad City Arts, we believe that art makes life worth living,” executive director Brian Allen said at the showcase, adding that Metro Arts is just one way the nonprofit enhances quality of life in the legion. “Arts are essential to human connection, community identity, education, and economic vitality.”
For more information on the program, visit QuadCityArts.com/metro-arts.html.
