Energetic, multi-hued works by an Arizona-based artist with significant ties to the Quad Cities will be on display in the next exhibition at the Beréskin Gallery & Art Academy, with the Bettendorf venue, through July 8, housing Tim Schiffer: Paintings within Paintings, a collection of arresting pieces created by the former executive director of Davenport's Figge Art Museum.

Thrilling hits from a career boasting 13 studio albums, six live albums, 61 singles, and 23 Grammy Award nominations will be heard on May 29 when Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse hosts the Milwaukee-based talents of 52nd Street: The Music of Billy Joel, an eight-piece band whose outdoor concert will be chock full of classics originated by one of the best-selling and most lauded music artists of all time.

The culmination of an Illinois State University Honors Program project six months in the making, the German American Heritage Center's virtual presentation The Dirndl: Reclaiming German Dress will, on May 30, find Hannah Hoge discussing heritage, culture, and ancestry through study of traditional German dress, with specific insight into the origins of this clothing, its use in Nazi propaganda, and how the symbol of the dirndl can be reclaimed to express German pride.

On May 23 and 26, the joys of youth, friendship, and cherry-favored Pez will be revived on the big screen when Fathom Events and Rave Cinemas Davenport 53rd + IMAX present 35th-anniversary screenings of Stand by Me, director Rob Reiner's Oscar-nominated Stephen King adaptation that Rolling Stone called “timeless” and “a staple of youthful nostalgia for its deft straddling of the line between childhood and adulthood.”

Delivering a blend of local history, environmental issues, education, entertainment, and fresh air, Davenport's River Action will again present a series of outdoor presentations in the first month of the annual Channel Cat Talks and Riverine Walks, weekly programs that, from June 1 through July 1, will address such topics as commercial fishing, German American heritage, hydropower, and the Mighty Mississippi.

Gifted family members and longtime friends will gather on-stage at the Adler Theatre for a special live concert event on June 3, with the Davenport venue rocking the house via the talents of The Nielsen Trust, a new band featuring Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen and his family, and Nick Perri & the Underground Thieves, Philadelphia-based musicians whom Patchchord News lauded for their “sweet harmonies and vocals, scorching guitar work, and a solid rhythm section.”

Works by one of the most gifted and prolific artists of the 21st century will be on display in the newest exhibition at the Figge Art Museum, with the Davenport venue, through August 22, housing Lesley Dill – Wilderness: Light Sizzles Around Me, a showcase for the talent whose wide variety of media including sculpture, print, performance art, and music explores the power of language and the mystical nature of the psyche.

In a unique blend of music and dance launching the 2021 Adler Theatre Foundation Series – a selection of eclectic live performances featuring celebrated national touring artists and lauded local talents – professional dancers from Ballet Quad Cities and professional musicians from the Quad City Symphony Orchestra take over the Davenport stage on May 29, treating audiences to choreographed favorites from the BQC repertoire and QCSO talents Kit Polen, Bruno Vaz da Silva, and Emily Nash delivering Music of Appalachia.

Returning to Rozz-Tox, for the first time in many months, with new readings in the popular SPECTRA series, the Midwest Writing Center brings a trio of lauded literary talents to the Rock Island venue on May 22: spoken-word author and poet KayLee Chie Kuehl, winner of the University of Iowa Chapbook Prize; Xixuan Collins, author of Flowing Water Falling Flowers; and Augustana College's Beth Powers, who will read from her new book Like You.

One of the most horrific periods of modern history will be explored through unique and specific avenues when Davenport's German American Heritage Center hosts the virtual program Fashioning Women in the Third Reich, in which award-winning historian Irene Guenther, on May 23, will look at the rise of fascism through the fascinating prism of couture.

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