One of the area's most vitally important and well-attended charitable summertime events kicks off in front of Moline's TaxSlayer Center on June 8, with the amphitheater's exterior the starting point for the 2019 Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure Quad Cities, designed to help raise funds for breast-cancer education, research, advocacy, health services, and social-support programs.

Works by a critically acclaimed, commercially successful, and absolutely singular talent will be on display at Davenport's Figge Art Museum June 8 through September 29, with the exhibit Vik Muniz: Hand Remade showcasing the one-of-a-kind gifts of the Brazilian photographer and mixed-media artist who has inspired both global raves and an Academy Award-nominated documentary feature.

A hotly anticipated summertime festival returns to the District of Rock Island on June 8, as this year's celebration of Cajun culture Gumbo Ya Ya treats guests to a veritable Mardi Gras complete with a quartet of electrifying concerts, a French Quarter Marketplace, Cajun cooking, street performers, and, as always, more than 20,000 strands of Mardi Gras beads.

A Noël Coward masterpiece boasting period elegance, touching romance, loads of laughs, and more than a hint of the supernatural graces Geneseo's Richmond Hill Barn Theatre stage May 31 through June 9, as the British classic Blithe Spirit treats audiences to one of the most popular comedies of 20th Century world theatre, as well as the show whose most recent Broadway version won co-star Angela Lansbury her fifth Tony Award.