A seasonal followup to the popular exhibit housed at the Putnam Museum & Science Center this past summer, Build! Create! Innovate! Winter Edition will, through February 28, introduce visitors of all ages to matters of problem solving and abstract thinking using mathematics, physics, and design with the fun, simple building materials known as KEVA blocks.

Before the Rock Island Public Library became a literally public library, there was a subscription library that started in 1855. And on November 29 at the downtown branch, the informative and engaging program A Library Is Born: RIPL the Prequel will take participants back to the very beginning, detailing the process that led to the building's 1872 opening as Illinois' first truly public library.

On November 27, the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts invites audiences to celebrate the holiday season in style by attending Christmas with Jim McDonough & His Orchestra: The 20th Anniversary Tour, a dazzling stage production featuring International Steinway Artist and Iowa native McDonough alongside his 14-piece professional orchestra, performing spectacular arrangements of favorite Christmas music and other all-time hits.

Lauded by the Chicago Tribune as “hilarious and heartwarming” and praised for its “bright comic zest” and “swinging music” by the New York Times, the stage adaptation Elf: The Musical – based on the 2003 screen comedy starring Will Ferrell – enjoys a November 30 through December 4 run at Moline's Prospect Park Auditorium, this Quad City Music Guild season-ender treating patrons to a holiday tale that Broadway World called an “upbeat, oddball, and tuneful concoction.”