QUAD CITY ARTS ANNOUNCES 2026-27 PUBLIC SCULPTURE SEASON MAP

7/6/2026

The Quad City Arts Public Sculpture Program just completed another year of installations, reflecting our commitment to fostering cultural engagement and enhancing the urban environment.

Quad City Arts has facilitated the leasing and installation of public sculptures in the Quad Cities since 2002. This year, our organization facilitated the installation of 32 sculptures in addition to 3 that remain on display from previous years. New sculptures were installed between May 28-June 18. Sculptures are chosen by committees representing each city or venue and are leased for one year from sculptors across the country. All the sculptures are for sale. Information on price can be found on the plaque at the base of each sculpture. All newly installed sculptures, along with permanent sculptures purchased from past exhibits, can be viewed on Quad City Arts’ website.

Public art transforms everyday spaces into places of discovery, conversation, and community pride. These sculptures invite residents and visitors alike to slow down, explore their surroundings, and experience art in unexpected places. They create landmarks that strengthen a community's sense of identity, support local businesses by encouraging people to spend more time in commercial districts, and make the Quad Cities a more vibrant and welcoming place to live, work, and visit.

The most exciting part of the process is watching a Hampton Cranes operator use their boom to lift a sculpture from an artist’s vehicle, hoist it high in the air, and skillfully bring it down gently onto a concrete pad, as directed by the artist who created it. The artist then drills holes into the concrete and secures the sculpture. (Hampton Cranes generously donates their services for the heaviest pieces.) Rock Island has leased 5 sculptures to enhance parks, libraries and the downtown area. The Moline Public Art Commission has chosen 5 sculptures that have been placed along 5th Ave. in Moline, plus one near the Kone Building. Bettendorf rented 12 sculptures to draw attention to local businesses, including 4 for the Geifman First Equity business park. The Downtown Davenport Partnership has chosen 6 sculptures to bring new interest to their collection of 10 permanent sculptures along 2nd Street between Western Ave. and Pershing. The City of Clinton joined the program in 2024 with the selection of 6 new sculptures each year. With positive feedback from the public, Clinton has purchased two bronze sculptures by James Haire for their public libraries and has leased 6 new sculptures installed near the riverfront.

We encourage everyone to share their experiences and interactions with the sculptures on social media using #QuadCityArts.

Bettendorf, IA

Be the Light Park

Lumenfly by Kirk Seese
This dragonfly is made from a delightful mix of new building materials, and antique metal parts.Repurposed fire extinguisher tanks and an antique head light make up the head and body of this oversized insect, while Plasma cut steel and CNC cut colored transparent polycarbonate make up the wings.The base is made from industrial plastic painted copper with rebar reeds.

Faye's Field

Music Plays On by Tim Adams
The wonder of music weaves through generations and cultures. The notes circle and flow through and around us never ending but evolving with each passing generation. Older music transforms into newer melodies and the beat goes on. My inspiration for this piece comes from the role music has played in my life and the universal appeal of certain sounds, and songs.

Bettendorf Public Library

Bloom by Hilde DeBruyne
Bloom is a contemporary sculpture in metal. It is part of the Botanical Series DeBruyne has been exploring. It is an organic abstraction of a flower. Flowers speak a universal language and are able to put a "smile" on people's face.

Bettendorf Community Center

Totem of the Inner Eye by Paul Bobrowitz
Totem of the Inner Eye by Paul Bobrowitz embodies a powerful synthesis of industrial material and spiritual symbolism. Fabricated in painted metal and rendered in a commanding red, the vertical form evokes a guardian figure both mechanical and sentient. The spiral crown functions as an “inner eye,” suggesting perception beyond the visible and awareness that radiates outward in quiet vigilance.

Base of the I-74 multi-use path

Purple Coneflower by Tim Adams
The vibrancy of coneflowers catches our attention from mid to late summer. This perennial attracts pollinators, provides medicinal qualities, deep tap roots of 5-6 feet deep, and is drought resistant. These beauties remind that a deep foundation is the key to resilience and longevity.

Build to Suit, Bettendorf

Impulse by David Zahn
Creating art has always been part of my life. The human form is often the center of my work, and the abstract elements of art are just as important to me as any subject matter I may be portraying. I strive to make pieces that have a timeless quality, contain strong aesthetics, and are a mystery for the viewer. Realism can be part of my sculptures and it is often blended with other forms to create an interesting, thought provoking image. I love the idea of a relic from another time or place and the magic of things unknown. It is a purposeful twist that some of my pieces are made to look futuristic, and appear as a relic from the past at the same time. The exciting thing for me is the evolution of my work over the years. New themes and motifs arise, past ideas resurface in new ways, and the relationship with the materials grows richer and the images more personal.

Waterfront Convention Center

Guardian of Many Souls by Paul Bobrowitz
Guardian of Many Souls by Paul Bobrowitz presents a dual-faced figure standing in vigilant balance between shelter and cosmos. One arm bears a small house, an intimate symbol of refuge, while the other supports an open sphere filled with cut-out human forms, suggesting a world carried lightly yet deliberately. The figure’s doubled visage evokes watchfulness in opposing directions, holding past and future, private and collective.Fabricated in painted metal, the sculpture transforms industrial material into a totem of community and responsibility. It speaks to the role of the individual as both protector and participant guardian not of one, but of many.

Veteran's Memorial Park

Heart of Iowa by Anna Modeland
Heart of Iowa speaks for itself. This sculpture illustrates the beauty within this state. The bold, metallic colors represent the richness we have. Not richness of monetary value, necessarily, but the richness we raise and grow here. From our kids to our crops, we put our hearts into everything. Not only are our communities the beating heart of Iowa, but our state is the central heart of the country. This place is our heart; this place is our home. I want everyone who sees this sculpture to feel like the hearts beat and pump through the sculpture, so the hearts are extended from the state on each side, and the entire upper half of the sculpture manually spins when pushed.

Geifman First Equity

Long Way Home by Nathaniel Pierce
I love the surprise that we get from seeing out of the ordinary things in ordinary places.That moment of surprise helps bring awareness to our surroundings and creates an opportunity to reimagine our sense of place. The relationship that these pieces have with the environment communicate to the viewer. It is this connection that helps activate our imagination, which helps us see the world differently. In my most recent work I have been exploring the idea of unity and how we learn to feel connected through new perspectives.

Geifman First Equity

The Catch by Anna Modeland
I chose this piece because, as the national bird, the eagle embodies the strength and freedom of our country, especially through these tough times. It’s a reminder that through war, hatred, and racism, and a panic inducing pandemic, we can all still stand tall, spread our wings and choose to rebuild this place that we call home.

Geifman First Equity

Bench, Please by Ben Pierce
Wanting to create a sculpture that was both true to my design aesthetic, functional and identifiable as a bench so people would instantly recognize and utilize the design, hopefully elevating the normal bench sitting experience by at least a little.

Geifman First Equity

Twist by Michael Young
When designing sculpture, I always remember that each viewer will have an individual, emotional response to the piece. Because I want that response to be positive, I frequently use birds in my work – both as imagery and as symbol. The idea of birds swooping up and taking flight is incredibly uplifting, lending an inspirational feel to the sculpture.

Clinton, IA

City Hall parking lot

Selective Memories by Chris Wubbena
As an artist, I fluctuate between interdisciplinary ways of working; at times, focusing on public art with the fabrication of outdoor landmarks; at other times, by constructing artifacts within found material compositions and multi-media installations. Such fluctuation allows for a wide range of expressive capabilities, stretching from the creation of lasting monumental sculptures to transitory moments. The reference of historical and geologic documentation is often apparent in my work, whether through sedimentary layering represented in sculptural form, the accumulation and erosion of text and imagery across surfaces, or the melding of seemingly disparate conglomerate materials and objects.

Riverview Park

Variation on a Circle of Fifths by Isaac Kidder
Variations on a Circle of Fifths, winner of the 2022–23 ArtStreet Kids’ Choice Award (Hopkins, MN), is an interactive musical installation featuring 12 tone pipes representing the Western chromatic scale. By tapping the levers, viewers can play a wide range of melodies. The sculpture explores the harmonic relationship between the tonic and dominant—the first and fifth notes of a scale—common across many music styles. This relationship is expressed both through sound and through intersecting lines on the wooden base, forming a colorful, symmetrical design. The installation invites everyone to play, explore, and learn about music theory.

Pavilion on Riverfront bike path near Sawmill Museum

Hydraulic Jump 1 by Kristin Garnant
This towering sculpture takes its title from a phenomenon in the science of hydraulics. When a fast moving liquid enters a zone of slow moving liquid, the fast flow is abruptly slowed and increases in height. At high enough speeds the front will break and curl back upon itself. The tension steel experiences when bent back upon itself is similar to this undulation and wave action. A series of waves have been stacked to form this flowing, fluid work.

Showboat on Riverfront

Autumn Melody by James Haire
Years ago I did a drawing of three children playing musical instruments. Autumn Melody is the first of these three children. A young girl plays a violin.

Farmer's Market Pavilion

Time to Fly by Kyle Fokken
The title of this piece references the saying ‘when pigs fly’ meaning something will happen if only the impossible happens first. This piece is about how your time is your only true commodity and that impossible things will happen when you use your money for good and for fun.

MTA transfer point on 6th Ave. and 2nd St.

SkEYEward by Tim Adams
In life we “see” things through our patchwork of filters—past experiences, the culture we live in, and attitudes and beliefs we have patched together. It is hard to objectively “see” situations in life. It is also difficult to understand another’s perspective. SkEYEward speaks to the need to clear our vision and see the world from an elevated or skyward point of view-go beyond and above our limited views. Looking up and looking forward changes our perception of the world and we can “see” more clearly what is often right in front of us.

Davenport, IA

Figge Art Museum

Basics #72 by Mathias Neumann
Educated as an architect, my work is based in a spatial practice, with a particular focus on installations in the public sphere. Over the past decade I have been engaged with a series of public interventions under the title “Basics”, exploring an abstracted notion of form, space and utility in public sculpture. Each installation is unique to its site, but all share a material language that wants to be experienced as a sculptural gesture in dialogue with its environment. Initially conceived as part of a larger museum installation, the series has since had a substantial number of iterations (70 to date) throughout the US and Europe. All installations within this ongoing work series are realized by using untreated 2x4 lumber, the most ubiquitous material in the North American context. The work is allowed to weather over time, and at the end of its installation the material is cycled back into the material stream of the everyday. I like to think of the work as temporary formations of material in transition, of material borrowed from the cycles of material consumption.

Common Chord Plaza

Pronouns by John McNamara
My art is rooted in industrial fabrication. I have been a member of theSheet Metal Workers International Union for over twenty years. I have a bachelor’s degree in art and education. I have been teaching Welding and Metal Fabrication in our apprenticeship Program for eighteen years.I don’t limit my art to one media. I am known as a metal worker, but I love to paint and draw and work with textiles as well. My public work reflects my love of metal and its seeming permanence, I layout and build my pieces with age-old techniques of pattern development and mathematics.Pronouns is a refection of this work.

Current Hotel Corner

Magnify by Kirk Seese
This interactive, kinetic sculpture acts as a giant magnifying glass, except sunbeams pour through the colored lens as the viewer swivels the rings into position to catch the light, casting a stained glass reflection on the ground, or anything else it hits.Made from Plasma cut 1/4” steel plate and a 1/2” thick piece of circular, clear acrylic with designs directly printed on using a large format printer, this piece is sturdy and meant to be enjoyed outdoors by the general public. Magnify instantly becomes an education tool as it demonstrates the concepts of transparency, light reflection and refraction, even the physics of mobility with its rotating top.

in front of 2nd St. parking garage

Everlasting by Tim Adams
Everlasting is an abstract representation of the flower which flourishes in the summer and produces vibrant color. It is resilient and hardy; able to withstand extreme heat and drought of summer. The summer growth leans into fall, but the colors never fade. The bright colors of “Everlasting” span the seasons with its petals splashed with a range of colors that bring a smile, rain, or shine, hot or cold, day or night. “Everlasting” reminds us that personal growth occurs when we experience times of “heat” and “drought” in our lives which force us to adapt and develop resilience. The strength we gain in difficult circumstances prepares us to move through the “seasons” of our lives.

RiverCenter south entrance

Snowbird by Tim Adams
Snowbird is a whimsical representation of the concept of the “Snowbird”. The “snowbird”, like our feathered friends, migrate from the cold northern winter temperatures to warm southern temperatures.

Downtown Davenport Public Library

Go Ask Alice by Anna Modeland
Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s 1865 children’s novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Jefferson Airplane’s 1967 hit song White Rabbit, Go Ask Alice is a celebration of adolescent dreams from an era defined by fantasy, whimsy, adventure, escapism, freedom and the limitless power of the imagination. With bright colors and trippy lines, Go Ask Alice adds a fun touch of life to an already beautiful nature.

Moline, IL

Atlas Collective

DIBS by Dan Eller
DIBS, a sculpture made from 32 used Illinois traffic cones, embodies the labor and ingenuity of the Midwest’s working-class communities whose efforts helped build the cities we inhabit and visit today. While grounded in this history, the sculpture is intentionally lighthearted and playful, inviting curiosity and reflection. Through humor, scale, and material transformation, DIBS encourages viewers to reconsider the objects that shape our daily lives and the stories they carry.

LeMekong Vietnamese

Seeing Everything by David Zahn
Creating art has always been part of my life. The human form is often the center of my work, and the abstract elements of art are just as important to me as any subject matter I may be portraying. I strive to make pieces that have a timeless quality, contain strong aesthetics, and are a mystery for the viewer. Realism can be part of my sculptures and it is often blended with other forms to create an interesting, thought provoking image. I love the idea of a relic from another time or place and the magic of things unknown. It is a purposeful twist that some of my pieces are made to look futuristic, and appear as a relic from the past at the same time. The exciting thing for me is the evolution of my work over the years. New themes and motifs arise, past ideas resurface in new ways, and the relationship with the materials grows richer and the images more personal.

Old Moline Public Library (504 17th St.)

Infinity - Pushing Things Forward by Eoin Cullen
I begin with a word, emotion or memory – it is from those feelings that I create. I approach each piece as a journey – often starting with a figurative base but letting the piece evolve with my emotions – hoping to tell a story. The human journey is the basis for my art, including our shared history as the human race. As my practice continues, I am exploring the use of negative space. I like the idea of illusion. It also signifies the pieces that make up a life. Influences from people, society, and experiences all come together to make up the whole, but sometimes it is just the illusion of the whole. To me, the infinity symbol stands for unstoppable momentum. A quiet, powerful reminder that progress never truly ends. It represents the belief that anything is possible when relentless dedication meets the simple discipline of putting one foot in front of the other. It’s about moving forward with intention, staying grounded in positivity, and understanding that every twist and curve along the way isn’t a setback, but a necessary part of the path toward something greater.

Corner of 13th St. and 5th Ave.

Structure 6442 by Jon Kamrath
The name "Structure" comes from both the building-like structure itself and the scaffolding support structure below that serves as the physical representation of the various societal and personal support structures we all use in our lives. We often take for granted the permanence of things such as relationships, health, or the environment, and build elaborate structures upon them assuming their longevity and eternal support. Events such as the pandemic, health crises, or natural disasters highlight the fragility and fleeting nature of our existence.

Heritage Plaza

127 by Howard Russo
My public art series is driven by the sphere form and its presence in nature. The spheres range in size from gumball to boulder size. I am intrigued with repetition in nature and the images used in these sculptures allow me to create an appearance of volume without mass. The balance between positive and negative space is also a main concern in this work. My intent is for the viewer to interpret what is seen.

Great River Trail by Kone building

Quantum Flock by Michael Young
I’ve been interested in quantum mechanics and I came across a description using MC Escher and how there was a duality of images in his work. So this piece references birds starting from one single bird dividing into two diverging flocks.

Rock Island, IL

Rock Island Public Library SW Branch

4 Seasons by Jeremy Burdette
4 Seasons is a 48" circle divided into 4 even quadrants. Each quadrant shows a colorful picture of each of Mother Nature's beautiful seasons. Paint application is dry brushed which allows the hammer marks to still show.

Longview Park

Pentatonic by Isaac Kidder
Pentatonic is an interactive installation featuring five colorful tone pipes arranged on a pentagon base, forming a pentatonic scale. By tapping the levers atop each pipe, viewers create music using the piano’s black-key notes (C♯/D♭, D♯/E♭, F♯/G♭, G♯/A♭, A♯/B♭). Because the pentatonic scale lacks strong tension and resolution, the sculpture invites anyone to easily create harmonious, balanced melodies.

Five Points

Patches by Don Gaber
This life sized bottle nosed dolphin was crafted using 55 gallon drums, license plates, and miscellaneous scrap

Corner of 14th St. and 3rd Ave.

The Feather by Kirk Seese
The Feather is my debut sculpture design, after spending four years designing themed climbing walls in the active family entertainment industry for a company called ClimbZone, and almost twenty years painting public and private murals for my own business, BB Murals.

Downtown Rock Island Public Library

Metro and Orbit by Todd Wiling
This is a fun, happy sculpture created from scrap metal. I love the idea of kind, helper robots.That's who Metra and Orbit are.

View 2026 Public Sculpture Map