Local and regional artists and crafters are sharing their talents for a great cause this holiday season, and the Muscatine Art Center invites everyone to join in the fun. The beloved Heartfelt & Handmade Ornament Competition, its decorations on view through December 5, has returned, and the first day to purchase these ornaments on December 6, at the Heartfelt & Handmade Family Festival and Market.

An arresting exhibition of sculptural works is on display at the University of Dubuque's Bisignano Gallery through December 17, with Nature's Faces: Crow Haven Ceramics and Mississippi Mud Studios treating visitors to the talents of Dean Wellman and Denise McCullough, as well as Mississippi Mud Studios' Gary Carstens.

With both artists hoping that viewers will take some time to look for meaning in their works and enjoy a diversion from the tensions of the day, talents from Iowa and Wisconsin will be showcased at the Quad City Arts International Airport Gallery, the Niebuhr & Ryan exhibit, through January 5, boasting arresting oil paintings by Michael S. Ryan and mixed-media works by Gary Warren Niebuhr.

With the project supported by Quad City Arts' re-granting program Arts Dollars, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, the Hubbell-Waterman Foundation, and the Quad Cities Community Foundation - Isabel Bloom Art Education Endowment, Lucas Berns' exhibition Artificial and Still: Woven Works on Paper is on display at St. Ambrose University's Morrissey Gallery through December 12, a Q&A and reception scheduled for November 6.