​VISITING ARTIST SERIES

MAKING QUALITY PERFORMANCE
​ART ACCESSIBLE TO ALL

The Visiting Artist series makes the Performing arts accessible by bringing the program directly to schools. providing ACCESS to see Live performances that would otherwise be out of reach. 

About The VISITING ARTIST SERIES 

Since 1974, the Visiting Artist Series has engaged Quad City residents of all ages in quality arts experiences with professional performing artists. Accomplished and engaging artists of various disciplines present demonstrations, workshops, and master classes at preK sites, elementary, intermediate, and high schools as well as college campuses and community organizations.

The 2020-2021 roster includes groups like a hip-hop ballet company of Black professional dancers, a bilingual Mexican folk/rock band, and an East Coast theatre rep company, all arts experiences that students would otherwise not have access to.

The Visiting Artist Series makes it possible for students to see live professional performances right in their school building or classroom and for teachers to use these artists, a world-class educational resource, for a nominal fee.

​This is how we enrich the quality of life in the Quad Cities region through the performing arts.

The Visiting Artist Series, Quad City Arts’ own artist residency and outreach program, will host the following artists and ensembles for outreach performances in the Quad City region this summer as part of its 48th season.
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Art of Motion

Dance Repertory Company

Concert: 6 p.m.  |  June 17, 2021
Location: Bass Street Landing Plaza
Address: 17th St, Moline, IL 
Cost: FREE and open to public
​
Art of Motion Dance Theatre is a repertory company performing original works by Associate Artistic Directors Olivia Galgano and Lynn Needle as well as guest artists. Hailing from the Nikolais and Ballet Russe legacies, Needle and Galgano have created works defying logic. The multidisciplinary company features exotic handmade costumes, conceived, and constructed by visual and performing artist Annie Hickman. AOMDT was hailed by Out and About as "absolutely fantastic." Their summer residency with Quad City Arts featuring excerpts from a nature myth "Secret Life of Gardens".

Residency dates​: June 16-18, 2021
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aomdt.orG

Justin RobertS

​Children’s singer-songwriter

Multiple locations, all shows are FREE and open to the public:

July 14 at 11:30 AM |  Fejervary Park
July 14 at 4 PM | Wilton Public Library
July 15 at 9 AM | Cambridge  Market
July 15 at 2 PM | Geneseo Public Library 
July 16 at 4 PM | DeWitt Library

Justin grew up in Des Moines, IA where he would wander aimlessly collecting autumn leaves on his way to school sometimes showing up very late for class. His first instrument was the piano, followed briefly by clarinet, and after singing the solo in a variety show at the Des Moines Civic Center, he was asked to join a rock band in 7th grade and learned to play the guitar. From there, music followed him everywhere he went, to college where he formed the post-folk band Pimentos for Gus with Mike Hallenbeck and Tracy Spuehler to preschool where he started writing songs for his students. Now he sings songs about the alphabet and whales wandering in the desert.

Residency dates​: July 14-16, 2021
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justinrobertsmusic.com

Squonk Opera

Multidiscplinary music & theatre ensemble

Concert: TBA
Location: Next to Davenport Skybridge 
Address: W River Dr, Davenport, IA
Cost: FREE and open to public

Composer Jackie Dempsey and artist Steve O’Hearn work with an ensemble of 10-20 artists to create post-industrial performances with original music, design, and staging, outside the rules of mass culture, fashion, or academia. Their current show, “Hand to Hand” is propelled by two giant puppet hands, each the size of a house and rigged like a sailing ship. The Squonkers, dwarfed by the hands, climb a multi-tiered stage. Music rises from a single finger flicking an organ key, as natural an expression of humanity as a wave or a fist. Squonk's original chamber rock drives a journey that is spectacular, plaintive, and comic. Audience members come together to grab the rigging, each individual powering a larger movement of giant fingers, a web of connections, a single dance.
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(presented in collaboration with Alternating Currents Festival)
Residency dates​: ​Aug. 20-21, 2021
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squonkopera.org

FUNDING Partners

Significant support for the Visiting Artist Series is provided by: Scott County Regional Authority, National Endowment for the Arts, Bechtel Charitable Trust, Regional Development Authority, Iowa Arts Council, Arts Midwest Touring Fund, U.S. Bank Foundation, Rock Island Community Foundation, Doris & Victor Day Foundation, Community Foundation of Greater Muscatine, Melvin McKay Trust, Mary Iva Gittens Knouse Trust, Rauch Family Foundation I, Bettendorf Rotary, Moline Rotary and Kiwanis Club of Davenport

Quad City Art's Visiting Artist Series is the winner of the 1999 William Dawson Award for Programmatic Excellence awarded by the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. For over 45 years, this nationally recognized performing arts residency program has brought distinguished artists and ensembles to Scott, Clinton, and Muscatine counties in Iowa, and Henry, Mercer, and Rock Island county in Illinois. 

Visiting Artist Series Archive

Questions? Contact us!

Questions about using our Educational Resources for students? Interested in learning more about our traditional Visiting Artist Series residency activities? Contact us. We welcome your ideas and suggestions for artists and collaborations.  ​

margot g. day

Performing Arts Director
309.793.1213 ext. 106

Email

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Along with our Educational Resources, artists in residence are featured online for brief spotlight performances through our Performing Arts Signature Series. To purchase tickets or learn more, visit our PASS page.

Learn More