PELLA, (11/10/2014)(readMedia)-- Davenport native Daniel Kuttler will perform across the Midwest with Central College's A Cappella Choir. This 60-voice ensemble performed Nov. 7-9 at schools, churches and performing arts centers near Des Moines, and the group will make an extended Midwest tour in May.

Director Mark Babcock, an associate professor of music, said tour performances help the group to raise their artistic vision and serve as ambassadors of Central College. "I am extremely proud of their professionalism, consistency and persistence this fall," Babcock said.

Central College is a residential liberal arts college dedicated to the education of 1,500 undergraduate students. Founded in 1853, the college is affiliated with the Reformed Church in America and NCAA Division III athletics. Central is a recognized leader in study abroad as a result of its international, residential programs. The college is located in Pella, Iowa, a thriving community of 10,000 two minutes from the state's largest lake and 40 minutes southeast of Des Moines. Learn more at www.central.edu.

Communion Clubnights in November are right around the corner with another incredible new lineup! Every month Clubnights brings together a roomful of talented artists for a unique musical experience and November is no different. We are excited to announce some of this month's artists including Highasakite, Count This Penny, The Soil and The Sun, and Mikhael Paskalev. Check out the full lineup's for all cities and get pre-sale tickets at www.communionmusic.com

Oslo residents, Highasakite make pop music, but an adventurous brand of indie pop full of contrasts. Once you hear Highasakite you'll wonder how you ever got by without them, they have an endless sound oscillating between density and spaciousness. Their debut album, Silent Treatment is filled with radical texture and startling immediacy, Ingrid Helene Håvik's idiosyncratic vocals perfectly joins the albums eccentricity and accessibility. With drummer Trond Bersu, Øystein Skar and Marte Eberson on synthesizers, and Kristoffer Lo on guitar, flugabone and percussion make up the rest of the band. All of this combined gives the band a richer texture and more potent sound.

Count This Penny formed in 2009 when Amanda and Allen Rigell cancelled their cable and picked up a couple guitars. In the time since, they've appeared on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion, seen their debut EP chart in the iTunes singer songwriter Top 10, and shared stages with The Head & The Heart, Shovels & Rope, Kacey Musgraves and The Lone Bellow.  After amassing sold out shows throughout Wisconsin, they were named one of "10 Wisconsin Bands to Watch" by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The duo has since expanded to a four piece band for their forthcoming EP Wolves Are Sheep. Catch them at Communion Club Nights in November.

The Soil & the Sun is corn-fed, Michigan-made, Experiential Spiritual Orchestral Rock. Originating in 2008 as a two-piece band, the group has grown and matured into a seven-piece community of friends and musicians. Oboe, violin, guitars, accordion, percussion, piano, keys and vocals, cooperate to create complex harmonies, layered melodies, and driving rhythms. The careful orchestration and intentional instrumentation will speak to your soul.

Mikhael Paskalev makes pop music with a twist, but roots in indie and alternative country rock, inspired by names such as Paul Simon, The Shins, Edward Sharpe, The Mamas and the Papas and The Everly Brothers. His songs are recognized by the instrumentation, unusual structures and strong melodies. At times they are shamelessly catchy, but never leave the lovely and raw soundscape in which he and producer wonderkid Joe Wills chooses to operate.

Listen up New York City, this month's clubnight will be running their Les Amis thrift store in support of The Bowery Mission. The Bowery Mission feeds over 8,000 people on Thanksgiving day alone! All the money raised will go directly to feeding the homeless on Thanksgiving day so come out on Tuesday, November 4th at Rockwood Music Hall and shop for a good cause.

We couldn't be more excited to bring all of these artists to you! It's been one year since we launched Clubnights in the US, and we're glad to have such a fantastic community of artists and listeners in our family. With over a year of tours under our belt -- we still feel the best is yet to come and we'll be back next month with another round of specially curated shows. Stay tuned!

Can Trauma Spur Creativity?
After His Devastating Loss, a Man Finds Healing
Through Writing

Can an emotional trauma flip a switch in the creative brain? Does profound loss offer a new perspective from which to peer into one's soul?

For LeRoy Flemming, author of the "Timelightenment" series (www.timelightenment.biz/) and volume one of "Soulsplitting," the answer is a resounding yes! And, there's psychological research supporting this idea.

In role-playing, veterans who've endured trauma resulting in PTSD "were better able to represent the boundary between reality and the role-playing, to immerse themselves in the scene, to enact identifiable characters consistent with their setting, and produce complex and interactive scenes that told a coherent story," compared to non-PTSD vets, according to researchers Robert Miller and David Johnson.

The non-PTSD group created more stereotyped, and unimaginative scenes, despite a higher education level and greater role-playing experience, the two wrote.

"I was never diagnosed with PTSD, but I know profound emotional trauma can trip all kinds of coping mechanisms in the brain and soul, including creativity," Flemming says. "When I suddenly lost my mother, it was a profound, life-altering shock. She was fine when I saw her last - Dec. 25, 1999 and she died on Jan. 1. That's what started me writing."

His mother was, by far, the most stabilizing and inspiring person in his life, he says, and losing her rocked him to his core. Rather than seeming abstract, the larger questions in life became the most important, and that's when he knew he had to write.

"I didn't have much of a background in writing," he says. "But since her passing, I've been in close contact with a part of my soul that has spawned several books, all of which have helped me heal."

The creativity caused by pain is a cycle, "because the creative process has significantly healed me," he says. "I'm not surprised that creativity increases within those who've suffered; it makes sense."

How does a grieving individual make something good out of a heart-wrenching loss? Flemming offers perspective.

•  Don't force it. One of the last things a grieving person needs is an assignment they don't want. Grief is a process that entails a host of negative emotions: denial, confusion, anger and more. Prescribing creative therapy to oneself or another before one is ready for it can backfire.

•  Let it flow naturally. We are all unique individuals and, though we know in the backs of our minds that we'll someday face the loss of a loved one, we can't predict how we'll handle it.

"Grieving and creativity actually share some traits," Flemming says. "Both are processes, and both prompt individuals to express feelings in their own terms. When creativity can be used in conjunction with the grieving process, the catharsis can be profound."

•  You have many options. When a person is desperate for an outlet, he or she will often gravitate toward what he knows. A onetime aspiring painter, for instance, may return to that familiar and comforting form of self-expression.

"But the mind can be unpredictable; it may be that gardening is the process that is most therapeutic for a grieving person, even though she never pulled a weed or planted a seed in her life," Flemming says. "In other words, be open to where your intuition guides you. As most grieving people understand, life doesn't always work out as planned. Be open to helpful new possibilities."

About LeRoy Flemming

Leroy Flemming is a graduate of Alabama State University, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Montgomery, Ala. He always wanted to show people that with spiritual guidance you can make things happen. Through his determination and inspiration from his Creator, he completed his five-part series of novels, "Timelightenment," (www.timelightenment.biz/), in hopes of demonstrating to the children of this world that they can dream big, and accomplish those dreams. Though inspired by many people, his biggest influence comes from his mother, who said shortly before she passed away, "Son, I may give out, but I never give up!" Flemming recently completed volume one of his new series, "Soulsplitting."

Groundbreaking Touring Exhibition Made Possible by a Generous Grant from the Henry Luce Foundation as part of its 75th Anniversary Initiative

Davenport, Iowa (November 10, 2014) - A groundbreaking exhibition originated by the American Folk Art Museum in New York will be making its first stop on a national tour at the Figge Art Museum in downtown Davenport. The exhibition opens this Saturday, November 15.

Self-Taught Genius: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum features 115 artworks made between the early 18th and 21st centuries, ranging from portraits and needleworks to wooden shop figures and found-object sculptures. All are the compelling, beautifully realized work of self-taught artists which provide a fresh perspective on artistic impulse and our national character.

The exhibition and the national tour of Self-Taught Genius: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum are made possible by generous funding from the Henry Luce Foundation as part of its 75th anniversary initiative. Dr. Michael Gilligan, president of the Foundation said, "For 75 years, the Henry Luce Foundation has fostered scholarship, innovation, and leadership?also attributes of the American Folk Art Museum. We are proud to sponsor a national tour of their exemplary collection that represents distinctive American creativity."

"This exhibition serves as a landmark," commented Anne-Imelda Radice, Ph.D., Executive Director of the American Folk Art Museum, "by locating the genesis of a field that has grown and become even more complex than ever before, and by clarifying its scope and substance. Self-Taught Genius: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum provides new insight into the critical role of artists all-too-often overlooked."

Developed and organized by Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs, Chief Curator, and Director of Exhibitions Stacy C. Hollander and Curator of Art of the Self-Taught and Art Brut Valérie Rousseau, Ph.D., the exhibition highlights the roles of self-taught artists as figures central to the shared history of America whose contributions to the national life and conversation are paramount. The works are by a diverse group of artists and represent more than 50 years of institutional collecting.

Works on view will include : Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog, c. 1830-1835, an oil on canvas by Ammi Phillips (1788-1865); The Encyclopedic Palace of the World, c. 1950s, a towering model designed by Marino Auriti (1891-1980) for a new museum meant to hold all of human discovery in every field; Flag Gate, c. 1876, a once-working gate by an unidentified artist to celebrate the nation's centennial, which was a donation to the American Folk Art Museum in 1962 and its first acquisition; a 6'-wide paneled watercolor, and various bound and unbound volumes of the writings of Henry Darger (1892-1973), whose archive was established at the Museum in 2000; an exquisitely stitched Whig Rose and Swag Border Quilt, c. 1850, made by unidentified slaves on the Morton Plantation in Russellville, Kentucky; the monumental Mother Symbolically Represented/The Kathredal, 1936, an ink rendering on rag paper by Achilles Rizzoli (1896-1981), who loved to play with words, and frequently used anagrams, acronyms, and neologisms in his work; works by Morris Hirschfield (1872-1946); Sister Gertrude Morgan (1900-1980); Horace Pippin (1888-1946); Martín Ramírez (1895-1963); Judith Scott (1943-2005); Mary T. Smith (c. 1904-1995); and other artists from many parts of the country, working in such media as drawing, painting, textiles, bones, wood, ceramics and more.

"The Figge Art Museum is honored to have the opportunity to make these American masterworks available to audiences in the Midwest. Our region has a rich tradition of folk arts, from duck decoys to weathervanes, and the exhibition will deepen our understanding and appreciation of our artistic heritage," commented Tim Schiffer, Executive Director.

A fully-illustrated color catalog with essays by the curators, published by the American Folk Art Museum and Marquand Books, will accompany the exhibition, and is available for purchase in the Museum Store.

This exhibition is sponsored locally by John Deere Foundation and Genesis. It is funded in part with a grant from the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Self-Taught Genius will be on view at the Figge through March 15, 2015.

Companion Programming:

Exhibition Opening Reception/Curator Talk

Thursday, November 20

5:30 p.m. Opening Reception

7 p.m. Curator Talk

Stacy Hollander, deputy director for curatorial affairs, chief curator and director of exhibitions at the American Folk Art Museum, will discuss the vision behind Self-Taught Genius and share new discoveries about select artworks in the exhibition.

Exhibition Tours

1:30 p.m. Saturdays

November 22, December 6, 13

1:30 p.m. Sunday, November 23

Musical Tour

7p.m. Thursday, February 12

Listen to the acoustic styling of singer/songwriter Sarah Allner as she performs original songs inspired by five artworks in the Self-Taught Genius exhibition.

Free Family Day

Saturday, February 21

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. Guided Activities

Enjoy hands-on art projects, performances and gallery activities. Free admission all day!