(Le Claire, Iowa - May 28, 2015)   Mike Wolfe, creator and star of HISTORY's® series "American Pickers" and  proprietor of landmark Antique Archaeology, is hosting Iowa's first KID PICKER FLEA MARKET on Saturday, June 13, 10am to 4pm at the Le Claire Levee.  The event, designed by Wolfe to continue to encourage kids to collect, learn about, buy and sell their picks, is open to vendors ages 7 to 13 and to shoppers of all ages, and will be filmed by the "American Pickers" television crew for a Season 7 episode of the network's hit show.

Kid Pickers and their families, along with the general public, are invited to the Levee, just steps away from downtown Le Claire and the original Antique Archaeology store, to share and shop.  There will be live music throughout the day, and the opportunity to see Wolfe, along with co-stars Frank Fritz and Danielle Colby as they meet and talk with the young Pickers.

The Twilight, a Mississippi riverboat, will be hosting the Kid Pickers on a sunset cruise at the end of the day.  Tickets are also available for friends and families.

Wolfe, who wrote (with co-author Lily Sprengelmeyer) the popular KID PICKERS: HOW TO TURN JUNK INTO TREASURE (Feiwell & Friends), was born and raised in Le Claire and the Quad Cities.

Davenport to Read and Celebrate The Great Gatsby During The Big Read

June 2, 2015– The Davenport Public Library is a recipient of a grant of $10,000 to host The Big Read in Davenport. A program of the National Endowment for the Arts, The Big Read broadens our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book. Managed by Arts Midwest, this initiative offers grants to support innovative community reading programs designed around a single book. The Davenport Public Library is one of 75 nonprofit organizations to receive a grant to host a Big Read project between September 2015 and June 2016. The Big Read in Davenport will focus on The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and activities will take place during October 2015.

NEA Chairman Jane Chu said, "The Big Read is a powerful example of how the arts can bring communities together and help us to connect with one another. These 75 organizations are creating valuable opportunities for their communities to share wonderful stories and characters and to have meaningful conversations."

The Big Read provides communities nationwide with the opportunity to read, discuss, and celebrate one of 37 selections from U.S. and world literature. The 75 selected organizations will receive Big Read grants to promote and carry out community-based reading programs. The NEA has also developed high-quality, free-of-charge educational materials to supplement each title, including reader's guides, teacher's guides, and audio programming, all of which are available to the public on neabigread.org.

Established by Congress in 1965, the National Endowment for the Arts is the independent federal agency whose funding and support gives Americans the opportunity to participate in the arts, exercise their imaginations, and develop their creative capacities. Through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector, the NEA supports arts learning, affirms and celebrates America's rich and diverse cultural heritage, and extends its work to promote equal access to the arts in every community across America. For more information, visit arts.gov.

Arts Midwest promotes creativity, nurtures cultural leadership, and engages people in meaningful arts experiences, bringing vitality to Midwest communities and enriching people's lives. Based in Minneapolis, Arts Midwest connects the arts to audiences throughout the nine-state region of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. One of six non-profit regional arts organizations in the United States, Arts Midwest's history spans more than 25 years. For more information, please visit artsmidwest.org.