Thank you to everyone who’s supported MidCoast this year (attending the Storm hockey game, enjoying Panera or making a direct contribution).
Please help with a Census of Community Visual Artists
MidCoast is happy to announce receipt of Illinois Arts Council funding that gives the opportunity to undertake a long-needed project for our community – building a better picture of our community’s talents.
Our task is to determine the number of self-declared visual artists who are active in the area we serve (the QCA and a 90-mile radius around it). This information is crucial for grant applications, as many grants are awarded based on where artists reside.
Your participation will help our community receive better recognition from state and federal agencies. We’ll share the results with other agencies if requested. This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
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Visitors from Davenport’s Sister City
Rachael Steiner dropped in with members of a Sister City visiting delegation from Kaiserslautern, Germany, who explored Bucktown Center for the Arts on April 12. They found some treasures to purchase!
-Sherry Maurer
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I’m glad we have MidCoast and want it to stick around!
~ Rowen
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How do we do it without your support?
MidCoast receives funding from several sources including grants, sponsorships and donations. Our largest source of funding -- operating grants -- has dried up.
We provide exhibition opportunities for approximately 300 artists per year. In addition, MidCoast runs:
- Three exhibition galleries in Moline, Rock Island and Davenport with no admission charge! Only a $35 entry fee to the artists, with monthly receptions/programs/local music at Gallery West and Bucktown. Exhibits change every two months.
- ArtWorks Expo High School Pastel Mural competition for area students to feel that being a visual artist matters as they earn cash awards for their art departments.
- Riverssance Festival of Fine Art, a weekend with 90 quality visual artists, live local music, children’s activity tent and great food in beautiful Lindsay Park, Village of East Davenport.
- Support for every level of artist at Bucktown Center for the Arts, from mentored sales spaces run by a gallery manager to suites for studios/classes/sales.
It's up to
YOU to see MidCoast continue. Only a handful of you have responded to our requests asking for financial support. For that we thank you.
More still needs to be done. Without MidCoast, what would remain of visual arts opportunities in our community?
Support the Visual Arts. Support MidCoast because we can’t continue without your support—really!
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CALL FOR SCHOOLS: ArtWorks Expo Competition & Exhibition
Deadline to register: May 15
Free to participate
Competition: May 25, 9:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Bucktown Center for the Arts
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Open to all high schools within a 90-mile radius of the Quad Cities! Teamwork and creativity reign at the annual challenge for high school student teams who complete a pastel mural in six hours.
Registration opens at 9:30 a.m. and lunch is provided. Teams compete for awards to fund and improve education in the participants' art departments.
Zaiga Thorson, art professor and assistant to the chair in Communication and Fine Arts at Black Hawk College, will jury the awards. The murals will be exhibited in the MidCoast Gallery in Bucktown Center for the Arts.
This project is supported with funding from the Rock Island Art Guild.
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THANK YOU to our Adopt-an-Artist sponsors
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Becky Hausmann
sponsored by Quad City Bank & Trust
Becky Hausmann, has a degree in Art Education from the University of Wisconsin. She's worked as a freelance designer, but most enjoyed 11 years of teaching art in the Kimberly School District. When her husband was transferred to the Quad Cities, she re-focused on making her own artwork. She's one of the most longstanding participants in the Bucktown Artists’ Market, showing drawings, paintings and more.
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Tony Seabolt
sponsored by Adolph's Mexican Foods
Tony Seabolt studied art at Black Hawk Community College and has worked as a chef and pre-school educator. His presence at Bucktown goes back to its beginning in 2004-2005 when he was affiliated with the Eclectic Eye Gallery.
Since October 2014, he's managed the Bucktown Artists’ Market, and today represents 40 participating artists.
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If you would like to Adopt-an-Artist, please contact Sherry at
info@midcoast.org or 563-424-1210.
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SPACE AVAILABLE at Bucktown
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First floor
Casements are all rented, but applicants will be placed on a waiting list.
Second floor suites
Suite 203: 966 sq. ft. $725/month or $75/day
Suite 205: 815 sq. ft. $611/month
Suites 202-206: 2,030 sq. ft., $1,523/month
Leases will run through December 2019, with the option of month-to-month rental. Access 24/7, utilities included. Suites do not have individual sinks. There's access to second floor restrooms, as well as first-floor mail delivery. Visual artists are encouraged, other activity options, including office space, will be considered.
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Shop Amazon. Support MidCoast.
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We know you love shopping on Amazon. It's ok, we do too.
Did you know when you shop through AmazonSmile (
smile.amazon.com), the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the purchase price to MidCoast Fine Arts.
How cool is that?!?!
We'll make it SUPER easy, just click on the AmazonSmile button or go to
smile.amazon.com and search for MidCoast Fine Arts.
Happy shopping and thanks in advance for your support!
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Support the Arts. Support MidCoast.
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We're a non-profit community arts agency founded and run by artists. Our mission to stimulate our community's cultural and economic vitality through the support of regional visual arts and artists is accomplished by having amazing art-focused programming and events like Final Fridays, ArtWorks Expo and Riverssance Festival of Fine Art.
Donations can be mailed to:
MidCoast Fine Arts
225 East 2nd Street
Davenport, IA 52801
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MidCoast Gallery West / The ARTery
1629 2nd Avenue, Rock Island
Open: Wed. - Sat., 11:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
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Karen Blomme and Elaine Rexdale
through May
Friday, May 10, 6 to 9 p.m., closing reception for Karen Blomme and Elaine Rexdale featuring live music from
Roger Carlson & the Usual Suspects. Chair massages by Pam Kaufman available ($1/minute).
Snacks, drinks, and lots of new ART!
Karen Blomme’s signature graffiti style uses silkscreened images printed with acrylic paint onto canvases, sometimes with oil pastel additions. She notes that her selected graphic images, colors and patterns “are layered and layered; repeated over and over….symbolizing many interpretations.”
The color pink dominates this selection of new works. Blomme takes silkscreen to a large scale with works such as the one reproduced here, that is around 3 by 5-1/2 feet in size.
Elaine Rexdale recounts “I officially began my love affair with painting by secretly responding to a ‘Draw Me’ newspaper ad in
The Rock Island Argus at the age of nine.” For 35 years she has been involved in early childhood education, working with privileged and under-privileged families, which “has exposed me to many cultural variations,” including people with disabilities.
She explains that she's self-taught as an artist, and some of her inspiration comes from watching people while she is playing competitive billiards: “many of my figures are composites of real people….the major influences in my creative process.”
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Hustler by Elaine Rexdale
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Moline Centre Station
1200 River Drive, Moline
Open: Mon. - Fri., 6 a.m. - 7:30 p.m.;
Sat., 8 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.; Sun., 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
This is the only art gallery in town that is open every day of the week!
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Laura Vincent-Arnold
through April
Nathaniel Kraft
May—June
Nathaniel Kraft is topping off his graduation from Western Illinois University with an exhibition of his abstract acrylic paintings.
He states, “My art process is driven by the desire to bring suppressed feelings, memories, and ideas to the surface through abstraction. Specific themes being explored in the work deal with personal and public space around family dynamics and individual growth.”
His inspiration draws from works of art of the Surrealist and Abstract Expressionist movements that explore the subconscious.
Kraft will receive his MA in Museum Studies in May and has a BA in Art History and Studio Art from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN.
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Ripple 2 by Nathaniel Kraft
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Bucktown Center for the Arts
225 E. 2nd St., Davenport
Open: Wed. - Sat., 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
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Final Friday
April 29, 6-9 p.m.
Free Admission
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There's lots to do at this Final Friday before Mother's Day:
- Drop in for a Mother’s Day and Garden Party: Scott Swanson Photo Booth for taking a photo of you and your mom, or you and your daughter
- Mother’s Day card-making with Karen Klingborg
- Opening reception for CREATE: A Celebration of Davenport Community Schools Art Teachers
- Gift basket raffle to support MidCoast and floral art throughout Bucktown
- Enjoy guitar music by Ren Edstrand—blues, folk and soul Americana
This month’s Final Friday is supported by Eriksen Chevrolet of Milan and the WQAD Three Degree Guarantee program.
Eriksen Chevrolet representative Tom Pospisil, with his grandson Sander, helped present the check to MidCoast representatives Kathy and Michael John (Bucktown artist) and Sherry Maurer. In addition, MidCoast presented WQAD chief meteorologist James Zahara, with daffodils in honor of the first day of spring.
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MidCoast Gallery at Bucktown
CREATE: A celebration of Davenport Community Schools Art Teachers
through May
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MidCoast will be representing over 238 years of collective service to Davenport Community Schools.
Organized by David Schaeffer, this exhibition includes works by an impressive list of 22 teachers:
Clint Balsar (Creative Arts Academy)
Anna Blackburn (Walcott Intermediate)
Leana Carter (Jefferson Elementary)
Nicholas Neil Vito Digioia (Central High/Creative Arts Academy)
Nikki Gillette (Blue Grass Elementary)
Heidi Hernandez (Creative Arts Academy)
David Houk (Munroe Elementary)
Stacey Houk (Jackson Elementary)
Andrew Lehn (West High)
Adam Little (Wilson Elementary)
Dan MIlburn (Wood Intermediate)
Alexandria Naughton (Sudlow Intermediate)
Brian Nickell (Madison Elementary)
Michele O'Brien (North High)
Renee Ott (Central High)
Juan Rangel (Central High)
Anthony Ryder (Adams Elementary)
David Schaeffer (North High)
Sherry Smith (Garfield Elementary)
Colleen Tomlinson (Creative Arts Academy)
Lisa Weideman (Buchanan Elementary)
Brian White (F. L. Smart Intermediate)
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May 25
ArtWorks Expo High School Pastel Competition
with support from the Rock Island Art Guild
Bucktown
May 31
Final Friday. Wine Walk and demo by artist Paula Crandell
Bucktown
June 14
Opening reception for QC Pride exhibit
Gallery West
June 28
ArtWorks Expo award reception and
Bucktown 15th Anniversary BASH!
Bucktown
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Copyright © 2019 MidCoast Fine Arts. All rights reserved.
MidCoast Fine Arts
PO Box 4142 Rock Island, IL 61204-4142
225 East 2nd Street Davenport, IA 52801
MidCoast Fine Arts programming is accessible to the community, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation including gender identity, disability, age, marital status, education, military status, unfavorable discharge from the military, or citizenship status.
MidCoast Fine Arts programs are partially supported by operational grants
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