Quad City Arts hosted Randy Cohen, VP of Research at Americans for the Arts, on May 16. Cohen was in town to share the findings of the Arts and Economic Prosperity 6 study released in October (AEP6 Results Release Blog). Quad City Arts worked with Cohen and his team in 2022 to collect data in our region from nonprofit arts and culture organizations to ensure the Quad Cities were represented in the national study and to learn more about the impact locally. Some of the highlights Cohen covered included:
Randy Cohen shared this and more throughout the Quad Cities meeting with the public at an event at the Figge Art Museum in partnership with Visit Quad Cities, at a lunch event with local legislatures, to the media, as well as a keynote at the Quad City Arts’ Celebration of the Arts. Looking for Reasons to Support the Arts in 2024? Or looking for words to express the impact of the arts locally? Look no further! Download the 10 Reasons to Support the Arts in Quad Cities in 2024. In addition to the Arts and Economic Prosperity Study, Quad City Arts also invested in a location-based economic calculator. This calculator will help determine your organizations economic impact based on the data collected in the Quad Cities: Calculate your impact! To dive deeper into the AEP6 findings: In addition to these findings, Executive Director, Kevin Maynard, shared the impact of Quad City Arts from 2023, which can be found in our Annual Report. Maynard also shared a look ahead to 2024 as Quad City Arts launches two pilot programs! - The Quad Cities Performing Arts Mentorship program: Designed to work with performers in our community to help them create an educational component. We are often asked why we don’t hire locals for our Visiting Artist Series, and one big reason is that local performers don’t have a school show. This pilot program will work with a handful of local talent to help them highlight the educational components already there in their work. This will help artists learn how to support their touring endeavors outside of the QC by supplementing it with an educational engagement add-on. This pilot program is a proof of concept to develop something bigger in future years. - Project L.A.B.: A partnership with the Creative Empowerment Initiative, Project LAB. (Learning the Art of Business). This will create an opportunity for artists to learn the business of the arts to take them to the next level. Allowing artists to increase their knowledge and skills in areas including financial literacy, legal obligations, marketing, and more. In addition to the business component, it also will help artists network with one another and connect them deeper with our programs. Thank you to everyone who joined us through the day, we can't wait to host more events that help our community gain knowledge of the economic impact of the arts and help our community of artists! Quad City Arts is honored to announce Atlanta Dawn, CJ Parker, Daniel Sheridan, and Phil Vernon as winners of the Lloyd Schoeneman Community Impact Awards, to be recognized at the organization’s upcoming Celebration of the Arts. Since 2005, the awards have been given in honor of Lloyd Schoeneman (1951-2001), who began his career with Quad City Arts Council in 1978 and worked tirelessly for the arts and artists in our community. The awards honor outstanding artists, arts educators, and arts supporters, and the winners were selected from nominations from the community.
The Lloyd Schoeneman Community Impact Awards recognize excellence in the Quad Cities arts community. The award features an enclosed rubber band ball; a symbol of Schoeneman’s playful and creative spirit, and his penchant for making rubber band balls and shooting them over the cubicle walls. Creating something colorful, fun, and unique from everyday objects was second nature to him, and the award acknowledges the creative spirit of all its winners.
This year’s Lloyd Award winners will be recognized at Quad City Arts’ Celebration of the Arts at The Bend Event Center. The evening will also feature remarks from Quad City Arts’ Executive Director Kevin Maynard, performances by Visiting Artist Daniel Pak and Grammy-nominated pianist Josh Rawlings, and a keynote address by Americans for the Arts’ Vice President of Research, Randy Cohen. Since 1991, Randy has propelled national arts advocacy, initiating studies like Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 and collaborating on the National Arts Policy Roundtable with Robert Redford. Experience his profound insights and support our vibrant community! At Celebration of the ARTS dive into a night of inspiring talks, networking, and a special look at the AEP6 study in the Quad Cities, which shows the arts generated over $29 million in economic activity in a single year. 🌟 Keynote speaker Randy Cohen, VP of Research from Americans for the Arts 🎶 Entertainment from award-winning artists Daniel Pak and Grammy-Nominated Pianist Josh Rawlings 🍸 Tickets include complimentary hors d’oevres and cocktails **All proceeds support the Quad City Arts’ Metro Arts Youth Apprenticeship Program!** Tickets can be purchased at the Quad City Arts website: https://bit.ly/3Uh184w Teachers and principals of all Quad City Area schools are invited to schedule an arts engagement for their students from a professional performing artist during the upcoming school year through Quad City Arts’ Visiting Artist Series. Students will have access to professional performing artists who celebrate the diversity of the students and communities we serve as well as workshops and masterclasses to learn more about careers in the arts. The series will provide engagement visits featuring music from Hawaii, Brazil, Belgium, India, Ireland, Canada, Japan, and Mexico, plus a children's puppet play, and return visits from a Chicago-based hip-hop/contemporary dance company and a Mexican folk/rock quintet. School staff from public and private schools can schedule residency engagements for this fall and next spring by visiting www.quadcityarts.com/vas-scheduling. The 2024-2025 season is filled with music, dance, and theater across genres and from around the world. The first three artists of the season represent Native Hawaiian culture, music, and dance, Afro-Brazilian music, and a blend of 1780s Belgian music with modern jazz. Chicago Dance Crash returns for a week-long residency in mid-January 2025 to serve as ambassadors of street dance for area students. Known for its diverse repertoire, Crash’s performances feature choreography and freestyles by some of the nation’s top dance practitioners and tours annually across the U.S. Visiting in late January 2025, “Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch” is a puppet play based on the book by Eileen Spinelli, illustrated by Paul Yalowitz and adapted and directed by Chris McGregor. This performance tells the story of when Mr. Hatch’s world is turned upside down and he begins to make friends and enjoy all the fun parts of life that he once ignored. “Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch” a heartwarming puppet play for K-7th grade students that examines the effect that kindness can have on a dreary existence. The popular and multi-award-winning quintet Goitse will be in residence mid-March 2025. The band was forged in the white-hot creative crucible of Limerick’s Irish World Academy. Named Live Ireland’s “Traditional Group of the Year”, Chicago Irish American News’ “Group of the Year”, as well as winning the prestigious “Freiburger International Leiter 2016” award in Germany, Goitse have become a leader of the new generation of traditional Irish ensembles. Since 1973, San Jose Taiko has captivated global audiences and critics alike with the powerful sounds of the taiko.Inspired by traditional Japanese drumming, company performers express the beauty of the human spirit through the voice of the taiko, creating a vibrant, contemporary art form as they strive to connect people through cultural understanding, creative expression, and rhythmic heartbeat. The company visits Quad City area schools in March 2025. Residency host sites can sign up for visits ranging from all-school performances to hands-on workshops or performance opportunities with artists in residence hosted by Quad City Arts. The full roster of artists in residence is as follows:
As a keystone program of Quad City Arts, the Visiting Artist Series, which started in 1974 to present multi-disciplinary performing arts residencies in schools and community sites, has brought in 490 residencies, more than 847 artists, over 10,570 school visits, more than 457 concerts, and nearly 2.76 million reached. The series serves students and community members in Clinton, Scott, and Muscatine Counties in Iowa, and Henry, Rock Island, and Mercer Counties in Illinois. Since 1974, the Visiting Artist Series has engaged Quad City residents of all ages in quality arts experiences with professional performing artists. Artists of various disciplines present demonstrations, workshops, and master classes at pre-K sites, elementary, intermediate, and high schools as well as college campuses and community organizations. For more information on this residency program, visit www.quadcityarts.com/vas.
About Quad City Arts Quad City Arts is a nonprofit local arts agency dedicated to enriching the quality of life in the Quad City region through the arts. Quad City Arts receives significant support for the Visiting Artist Series from Scott County Regional Authority, Regional Development Authority, Bechtel Charitable Trust, National Endowment of the Arts, Iowa Arts Council, Illinois Arts Council Agency, Quad Cities Cultural Trust, The Amy Helpenstell Foundation Fund, the John J. Quail Fund and the Marsha and Don Pedersen Endowment at the Quad Cities Community Foundation, Rock Island Community Foundation, Geneseo Rotary Club, Rauch Family Foundation I, Kiwanis Club of Davenport, and Quad City Arts donors. Contact: Margot Day, performing arts director at Quad City Arts, mday@quadcityarts.com or 309-793-1213, ext. 106. |
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