Davenport, Iowa (March 28, 2013) - PechaKucha Night builds at the Figge Art Museum this Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in the museum lobby.

PechaKucha Nights are informal and fun gatherings where creative people get together and share their ideas, works, thoughts, or hobbies in the PechaKucha 20x20 format. This format allows presenters to show 20 slides for 20 seconds each (six minutes and 40 seconds in total) to keep presentations concise and fast-paced. The images advance automatically and the presenter talks along to the images.

PechaKucha Night this Thursday will feature eight presenters including Vincent Briley, Assistant Dean of Academic Advising & Testing at Eastern Iowa Community Colleges; Tony Singh, Senior Vice President of The Singh Group at Merrill Lynch; Diane Franken, artsBASICS Co-Project Director at Davenport Community Schools; Ann Love, Director of Museum Studies at Western Illinois University-Quad Cities;  local artists Matt Pulford and Jeff Tady; local artist and financial advisor of The Singh Group at Merril Lynch, Thomas Behne; and Bruce Walters, professor of art at Western Illinois University.

Devised by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham architecture, the first PechaKucha Night was held in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network and show their work in public. Now, they are held in over 600 cities around the world by a city organizer. According to Figge Director of Development Raelene Pullen, "Our first night was a great success. We will continue to organize this vent on the last Thursday of each month."

Museum admission is free on Thursday evenings and this event will include free light appetizers beginning at 5:30 p.m. along with a cash bar. Thursday is the first of many PechaKucha Nights the Figge will be hosting. For more information on future dates, visit www.figgeartmuseum.org. If you are interested in becoming a presenter please contact Melissa Hueting at mhueting@figgeartmuseum.org.

 -end-

SIOUX CENTER, IA (03/26/2013)(readMedia)-- Area students are part of Dordt College's concrete canoe team working to create the college's canoe for the third year in a row. Participants include :

Erin Conley of West Liberty, Iowa, is a senior majoring in engineering. Conley is serving on the administration committee and the paddling team.

Brendan Conley of West Liberty, Iowa, is a sophomore majoring in engineering. Conley is serving on the concept design committee and the paddling team.

The 200-pound canoe will be entered into the annual Concrete Canoe Competition held by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The regional competition is slated for Friday and Saturday, April 19 and 20, at the University of Minnesota-Mankato. Dordt's 2012 Kernel placed third regionally and the 2011 Cannon took fifth.

This year's canoe earned the Greek name Koinonia, a word meaning "fellowship," the team said. "As a smaller college with fewer students in our engineering department than larger schools, our concrete canoe team has a unique opportunity to reach out to other majors and organizations on campus for recruiting and support," reads the project's executive summary. "To reflect this campus-wide effort as well as the relationships built during the year on the team, the theme for the canoe this year is 'community.'"

The Greek theme is carried into the design as well as it resembles classical Greek pottery. "The terracotta dye for the concrete combined with black concrete and stains for detailing give Koinonia a distinctly Greek look," the summary continued. "The outside face of the canoe is lined with people holding hands drawn in Greek style as a visual representation of community."

Examining and learning from their work from the last two years the team came up with ways to save on water usage during the curing process. This year, a new misting recycling system was designed and built to re-use the misting water. Other environmental and economic issues were considered during the design process, including reusing foam and molds from last year to decrease waste and cost.

Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa, is a comprehensive Christian college rooted in the Reformed tradition. U.S. News & World Report, Forbes.com, Washington Monthly, and Princeton Review all list Dordt on their best colleges lists. Dordt is home to approximately 1,400 students. To learn more about Dordt College, visit www.dordt.edu.