Public Presentation: Saturday, November 9, 7 p.m.
Central DeWitt Performing Arts Center, 519 East 11th Street, DeWitt IA
Additional Presentations: Tuesday, November 5, through Friday, November 8
Various Area Locales
In a brief break from its fall residencies with lauded musicians, Quad City Arts' Visiting Artists Series welcomes best-selling author, award winning documentarian, and longtime history enthusiast Rick Beyer for an area stay November 5 through 9, with the widely acclaimed creator of PBS' The Ghost Army a frequent guest on CBS News, MSNBC, CNN, the Discovery Channel, Fox News, and NPR.
Rick wrote and produced the PBS documentary The Ghost Army, which premiered on PBS in 2013 and has been honored with a CINE Golden Eagle and audience awards at several film festivals. TV Guide called the work “entrancing,” while the LA Times praised it as “fascinating, detailed, and oddly delightful.” He also co-authored (with Elizabeth Sayles) the New York Times bestseller The Ghost Army of World War II, with the book and documentary currently being developed as a Hollywood movie by producers Andrew Lazar and Bradley Cooper. In addition, Beyez has produced films for PBS, the History Channel, National Geographic, the Smithsonian Institution, and other outlets, with his documentary credits including Expedition Apocalypse, The Wright Challenge, Secrets of Jamestown, The Patent Files, and Timelab 2000, the latter an acclaimed collection of 200 history minutes hosted by Sam Waterston.
A popular national speaker, Beyer's presentations are spiked with humor, creative visuals, and quirky props, and have proven popular at conferences, corporations, universities, libraries, and other venues including the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. and the Music Teachers National Association Annual Conference in Los Angeles. He Rick has written for The Daily Beast, History Channel Magazine, Politico.com, America in WWII, the Princeton Alumni Weekly, and other publications, and has also worked as a radio reporter, TV news producer, ad agency creative director, and janitor – although, as he states in his online biography, not in that order. Beyer has also curated a Ghost Army traveling museum exhibit, several Ghost Army art exhibits, and multiple exhibits for the Lexington Historical Society. As stated in the Army Times: “Just when you thought you knew everything about everything, along comes Rick Beyer to prove you wrong.”
Rick Beyer will deliver his public presentation as a Quad City Arts Visiting Artist at the Central DeWitt Performing Arts Center on November 9, with admission $10-15 for the 7 p.m. event. Beyer will also appear at the Moline Public Library (3210 41st Street) at 6:30 p.m. on November 5; at DeWitt's Frances Banta Waggoner Library (505 10th Street) at 5 p.m. on November 7; and at Black Hawk College's Building 1, Room 308 (6600 34th Avenue) for a 12:30 p.m. Ghost Army screening and 1:45 p.m. discussion on November 8.
For more information on Rick Beyer's area residency and the 2019-20 Visiting Artists season, call (309)793-1213 or visit QuadCityArts.com.
