Bettendorf ? Get ready to explore with Dora and Diego at the Family Museum in the new exhibit Dora and Diego?Let's Explore! The exhibit features beloved characters Dora and Diego from Nickelodeon's hit preschool series Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego, Go!, along with their friends Boots, Map, Backpack, Isa, Tico, and of course Swiper, now in their own exhibit for your preschooler to explore as they learn and play along.

This new, interactive traveling exhibition was created by The Children's Museum of Indianapolis in partnership with Nickelodeon, presented by the WellPoint Foundation, and made possible locally by DHCU Credit Union, Scott County Regional Authority, The Family Museum Foundation, and Ann E. Whitman. The exhibit will be open Saturday, May 24 through Sunday, September 14, 2014.

Media and their families are invited to the ribbon cutting and member-only opening on Friday, May 23 from 5:30 - 7:30 pm. The QC Chamber will cut the ribbon at 5:30 pm.

Dora the Explorer follows the adventures of the 7-year-old Latina heroine Dora and her friends in an imaginative, tropical world. Go, Diego, Go! stars Dora's 8-year-old cousin Diego, a bilingual animal rescuer who protects animals and their environment. The exhibit gives children and their families the opportunity to go into the worlds of Dora and Diego to engage in problem-solving and active play. Young children play along as they join an adventure and learn how to solve problems, be a good friend, and care for animals and the environment. Spanish vocabulary is incorporated throughout the exhibit to introduce Spanish-speaking skills to preschool children.

Dora the Explorer is a ground-breaking children's series that draws kids into an interactive quest using a variety of learning techniques in every episode. Dora and Diego?Let's Explore! carries the play-along theme throughout the exhibit as children are encouraged to actively play while they solve problems, share and learn about the natural world.

Favorite friends and places from episodes of Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego, Do! are incorporated in the exhibit including:

The Purple Planet

Visit the Purple Planet with Dora and Boots! A Purple Planet home invites young visitors to climb inside and slide down on the surface of the Purple Planet.

Rocket Ship

Dora's outer-space friends want to go back to the Purple Planet and need help getting there. Aboard the Rocket Ship, preschoolers are invited to put on a spacesuit, pilot the ship, and test their memory with images of colorful planets as they help Dora and Boots take their outer-space friends home.

Constellations

On the way to the Purple Planet, Dora and Boots encounter some interesting star groupings. Children and their families are invited to help identify the patterns made out of stars by inserting star shapes to light-up a constellation.

Isa's Flowery Garden

Dora's friend Isa the Iguana demonstrates how to take care of flowers, plants, and animals. Preschool visitors can tour Isa's Garden to pick flowers, interact with bird, butterfly, and insect puppets, and pretend-fly with toddler-sized bird and butterfly wings. Even the littlest visitors will enjoy smelling the flowery scents and picking soft-fabric posies.

Tico's Tree and Car

Dora is a good friend to Tico the squirrel and young visitors are invited to be a good friend to Tico too. Tico needs help picking nuts from the tree for a family picnic. Children can play along with Swiper to swipe the nuts and watch as they shoot up and over to fill Tico's basket. Tico's car is in need of fuel! Visitors can help Tico fill up his car with nuts so he can begin his journey.

Pirate Ship

In the Pirate Ship, preschoolers can join the Pirate Piggies crew and dress like a pirate to pretend-play along sailing the ship and divvying up the treasure. Visitors can raise and lower the Pirate Piggies' flag, look through the telescopes to spot the treasure chest and then divvy up the coins into the Pirate Piggies' banks and help them share the treasure.

Animal Rescue Center

Young children can practice caring and helping rainforest animals in Diego's Animal Rescue Center. Preschoolers can be an animal rescuer, like Diego, as they diagnose and address an animal's problem from the 'Scanner' bed, bandage and apply cold packs at the 'First-Aid Station,' and bathe stuffed animals at the 'Care Station.'

Rainforest Maze

Preschoolers will explore a rainforest to locate rainforest animals. Active play is encouraged as children swing across the Bobo Brothers' monkey bars, crawl through a fallen tree, climb across Jaguar Mountain, and jump or hop across the River Rocks.

"Old Man" by Brianna Paup to be displayed in U.S. Capitol

Washington, D.C. - Congressman Dave Loebsack announced today that a pencil drawing by Brianna Paup, a junior at North Cedar High School in Stanwood, was selected to represent Iowa's Second Congressional District in the 2014 Congressional Art Contest. For the first time, the People's Choice Award winner was selected in an online competition in which nearly 2,500 votes were cast. Paup's winning drawing, "Old Man," was one of a record 167 entries from 13 different high schools in 10 counties. It will be displayed in the U.S. Capitol for one year and Paup will receive a free trip to Washington, D.C. to attend the unveiling as well as a reception held to honor all of this year's winners.

"Each year I am more and more impressed by the creativity, ingenuity, and talent of our local high school students. I send my congratulations to all of the young artists whose record number of submissions made it a very close contest this year. I especially want to congratulate Brianna and look forward to welcoming her and her family to Washington and seeing her artwork hang in the U.S. Capitol," said Loebsack.

The artwork of the first and second runners-up will be displayed in Loebsack's district offices in Davenport and Iowa City. The first runner-up was a photograph by Pimpaporn Teerathammongkol, a senior at Davenport West High School, entitled "Sunset in Iowa." The second runner-up was a painting by Alli Herr, a freshman at Keokuk High School, entitled "Silhouette Tree."

Winner:  Brianna Paup, North Cedar High School

"Old Man"

First Runner-up:  Pimpaporn Teerathammongkol, Davenport West High School

"Sunset in Iowa"

Second Runner-up:  Alli Herr, Keokuk High School

"Silhouette Tree"

ROCK ISLAND, IL (05/02/2014)(readMedia)-- Jordan Kirkbride of Rock Island co-curated "Whistler and His Context" as part of her Senior Inquiry for art history. The exhibition examines the works of James McNeill Whistler and artists working before, during and after his career, in an effort to understand Whistler's life and art in their context.

This exhibition reflects the sustained research on Whistler from the Centre for Whistler Criticism. The center's mission is to promote scholarship related to Whistler, and to create a digital archive of lifetime criticism of Whistler and his art. Kirkbride was afforded the rare undergraduate opportunity to research original archival collections from such international centers as the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Glasgow.

Kirkbride will present her senior inquiry paper on May 13 at 7 p.m. in Room 12, Bergendoff Hall of Fine Arts (3701 7th Ave., Rock Island, Illinois).

Founded in 1860, Augustana College is a selective four-year residential college of the liberal arts and sciences. The college is recognized for the innovative program Augie Choice, which provides each student up to $2,000 to pursue a high-impact learning experience such as study abroad, an internship or research with a professor. Current students and alumni include 149 Academic All-Americans, a Nobel laureate, 13 college presidents and other distinguished leaders. The college enrolls 2,500 students and is located along one of the world's most important waterways, the Mississippi River, in a community that reflects the diversity of the United States.

Marvin Cone: Quiet Integrity art talk will be given on the third Thursday, May 15, at 5:30 p.m. at Muscatine Art Center. The program will provide information about the life of Marvin Cone, including his long friendship with Grant Wood. The two met in high school, traveled to Paris, attended the Art Institute of Chicago, and joined forces in the summer of 1932 and 1933 to create Stone City Art Colony. As people they were opposites and each followed a different path, but they did influence each other.

Cone and Wood were both active in the Cedar Rapids Art Association, one of the oldest art organizations in Iowa, which later becomes the Cedar Rapids Art Museum. The program will include the history of the association and many images from the Muscatine Art Center, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Coe College and Figge Art Museum  The cultural environment of Cedar Rapids provided both Cone and Wood with exposure to well known artists and the inspiration to become artists.

Marvin Cone lived in Cedar Rapids, married, raised a family, and taught at Coe College. Although, he does not have the fame of Grant Wood, it is clear that he was a skilled artist and an important figure in American painting.

After graduating from Coe College with liberal arts degree, he attended the Art Institute of Chicago with Grant Wood. Both joined the army during World War I. Because Marvin Cone could speak French, he was selected to attend the University of Montpellier, France, in February of 1919 before returning home. Marvin returned to Cedar Rapids to teach French at Coe College. The following summer Cone and Wood traveled to Paris, London, Liverpool, and Antwerp. Both painted in the Impressionistic style and held an exhibition of their artworks on the ship as they return to Cedar Rapids.

On the same return trip home, Grant Wood introduced Marvin to Winnifred Swift whom Marvin married in 1921. Winifred and Marvin had one daughter, Doris.

During the 1920s, Cone's activities included starting the art department at Coe College and keeping an active schedule of exhibitions with the Cedar Rapids Art Association. At the time, Cedar Rapids was a thriving atmosphere for the arts and in 1928, the American Federation of Arts and Carnegie Foundation provided a $50,000 grant to open The Little Gallery, and Edward Rowan was hired as a trained museum administrator. Rowan arranged for Cone and his wife to go back to Paris in 1929. In 1930, Grant Wood, received the Art Institute award for American Gothic and became famous.

1932, Marvin Cone and Grant Wood taught at the Stone City Colony and Art School. Background information and images of the Stone City Colony are included in the program. Courses at the Stone City Colony were accredited by Coe College. Unfortunately, the Depression caused the Colony to close after two summers. Grant Wood went on to teach at the University of Iowa, while Cone was appointed professor of painting at Coe College.

The art talk will take you through Marvin Cone's styles: landscapes, haunting interiors, barns, circus scenes, and finally abstract images. Unlike artists associated with regionalist and American scene painting of the 1930s, Marvin Cone would integrate his firsthand observation and move from realism to abstraction. Cone's work includes more than rural Midwest scenes.

On May 18, 1965, Marvin Cone died. As a tribute to his forty years of teaching, Coe College established the Marvin Cone Collection and the Marvin Cone Alumni collection with his artwork on display. The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art provided images for the program as the museum has one of the largest collection of Marvin Cone's works in the United States.

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