Colorful paintings and fascinating installations will be showcased in the first 2021 exhibitions at the Quad City Arts Center, with the Rock Island venue, through March 19, housing installations by Wisconsin artist Keith Kaziak in Turn on the News and paintings by Rock Island native Elaine Rexdale in Machinations of a Colorholic.

Long before Martha Stewart, there was Betty Crocker, and from now until January 24, the Bettendorf Public Library will host exclusive access to the Community Connections presentation Betty Crocker: Her Cookbook That Changed How America Cooks, in which Leslie Goddard, Ph.D., highlights the history of the iconic advertising figure and her famous Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook.

Forgeries, mental illness, intrigue, and rapid fame – the dramatic circumstances of Ralph Albert Blakelock’s life often overshadow the merits of his work. But the Figge Art Museum hopes to amend that in the Davenport venue's new exhibition Blakelock: By the Light of the Moon, a showcase (on display through April 25) of eight exceptional artworks from the museum collection.

Winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the inspiration for the Oscar-nominated Nicole Kidman film, playwright David Lindsay-Abaire's family drama Rabbit Hole will enjoy a one-night-only virtual reading in a January 8 event hosted by Princeton's Festival 56, with the acclaimed work lauded by Entertainment Weekly as “a transcendent and deeply affecting new play which shifts perfectly from hilarity to grief.”

A virtual dose of holiday cheer featuring some of Iowa City's and Coralville's most familiar performers, City Circle Theatre Company's online presentation A Christmas Cabaret will be available for home viewing from December 18 through 25, this collection of song-and-dance vignettes professionally recorded and edited by CoralVision, and boasting dynamically talented stars of stage and television.

Everyone will no doubt agree that 2020 has been a challenging year, and Davenport's Figge Art Museum invites guests to reflect on the long journey in 2020 Vision: You Are Here, You Are Not Alone, a new exhibition – on display through February 14 – that provides several chances for visitors to participate and contribute both in person and from home.

Beloved seasonal songs and familiar Midwestern performers will be showcased December 18 through 20 in the virtual yuletide performance Let It Show, Let It Show, Let It Show, a family-friendly celebration of the holidays hosted by Galesburg's Orpheum Theatre.

Brazilian brothers and formidable musicians Walter and Wagner Caldas invite audiences to a virtual party on December 18, 19, and 25, when the popular duo B2wins will present its its yuletide performance Home Together for the Holidays, a seasonal celebration hosted by the University of Dubuque's Heritage Center.

An edifice no doubt familiar to Quad Citians who routinely venture through Davenport's Hamburg Historic District, the history behind stately mansion at 1208 Main Street – and the prominent German lawyer, businessman, mayor, and art connoisseur who once lived there – will be explored in the Davenport Public Library's December 21 presentation Charles A. Ficke: The Man and His Mansion, a fascinating virtual program by Dr. William Roba.

A lauded performer and playwright serves as the latest guest in the University of Dubuque's Live(stream) with Heritage Center series, with the virtual December 17 program boasting an interview with Patrick Dewane, who will also performs scenes from his forthcoming, holiday-themed sequel to his critically acclaimed one-man muli-media show The Accidental Hero.

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