The newly created Davenport Municipal Art Gallery opened its doors to the public in October of 1925. Fourteen thousand people – a fifth of Davenport’s population – visited the gallery on West Fifth Street near Main in its first three months. Charles August Ficke’s initial gift of 270 traditional European, Asian, and Mexican paintings to the city of Davenport created the momentum and need for a municipal gallery, one of the earliest in America.

This spring, the Figge Art Museum's Katz Gallery will be transformed into an oasis within the museum with the Davenport venue's new Sculpture Garden, providing a space for contemplation, mindfulness, and relaxation from April 6 through June 23.

On April 11, area art lovers are invited to celebrate the Figge Art Museum's popular 43rd Rock Island Art Guild Fine Arts Exhibition through a series of quickfire presentations from a selection of featured regional artists, the exhibit boasting 62 works - paintings, sculptures, installations, and more - by 42 artists living within a 200-mile radius of the Quad Cities.

More than 200 works by gifted student artists will be on display at Rock Island's Quad City Arts Center through April 25 in the expansive 47th Annual High School Art Invitational, a glorious celebration of local talent featuring the Quad Cities’ most promising artists expressing themselves through paintings, drawings, sculpture, paper, recycled materials, and film.

2024 Reader Photo Contest Secret Records Transparent Promo Photo

With spring in the air, it's time again for the River Cities’ Reader's annual Spring Photo Contest!

For 2024, the three new categories for your submissions are: “Secret,” “Records,” and “Transparent.”

Entrants are welcome to interpret the categories however they wish.  Click photo or headline for full list of rules. 

With each artist capturing the natural world in abstraction and their works complementing one another through color and texture. a trio of gifted Iowa artists combines their talents in the Quad City Arts International Airport Gallery's new exhibition Ciccotti, Davis, & Stewart, a showcase on display from March 5 through April 22 boasting glass vessels by Art Ciccotti, paintings by Larry Davis, and pastels by Deb Stewart.

A collection of arresting ceramics by a talent who grew up along the Mississippi River will be on display at Black Hawk College's ArtSpace Gallery through March 29, with Laura Vincent-Arnold's Wallflower revealing its artist's continued interest in, as she says, "creating in multiple mediums, exploring where my mind takes me, solitude, and nature … always a nod to nature."

Man’s best friend, barnyard creatures, playful kittens, circus animals, and bucking broncos are among the creatures portrayed in the Muscatine Art Center's exhibition Animals in Art, with paintings, prints, drawings, and sculptures from the venue's permanent collection – alongside selections of art pottery on loan from Mark and Marie Latta – on display through June 16.

With his works a testament to the belief that there is no distinct beginning, middle, or end when exploring the boundless nature of creativity, a noted painter will be showcased in the Voices Studio exhibition beyond the boundaries: Paintings of John C. Badger – Abstract Expressionist, its housing at the Dubuque venue, from March 1 through April 27, a retrospective celebration of life, art, and evolution of pieces that defy convention.

With the exhibit's artist known for his large public murals using the latest in equipment, materials, and technique, as well as for being one of the most famous of the "Mexican muralists," Revolutionary Artist: The Prison Fantasies of David Alfaro Siqueiros will be on display at Davenport's Figge Art Museum from March 2 through June 9, this lithograph series on loan from the Deere & Company collection for an intimate exhibition on view in the Lewis Gallery.

Pages