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MidCoast Musings:
Spotlight on Jodean Rousey Meleski
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| | Jodean Rousey Meleski |
Jodean Rousey Meleski currently is the Call for Entry Coordinator for the Riverssance Festival of Fine Art, a role she has taken since MidCoast assumed responsibility for the event in 2003. She has a long history with MidCoast, going back to 1995 when she was an Augustana College student. Having heard about her interest in becoming more involved in the art community, a fellow student, Audrey Brown, invited her to a meeting. Intrigued by the grassroots creative energy, Jodean dove in.
Jodean became involved with the Art Under Glass Window Walk, helping to install vacant windows along Second Street. She then handled all of the Call for Entries procedures. She ran the MidCoast gallery at the LeClaire Welcome Center and the iWireless kiosks until those were discontinued. She also has overseen the casements at the Davenport RiverCenter and Moline Centre Station, and the MidCoast Gallery at Bucktown.
"There were great discussions about supporting local art" she recently recalled. She continued her association with MidCoast while completing a master's degree in Contemporary Art History, Theory and Criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2001). As part of her degree thesis, she determined that of the Quad Cities, Dubuque and Iowa City areas, the lowest support for local artists was Iowa City, probably due to the turnover in student population. She also brought some of her MidCoast experience to Chicago, and set up a window walk event there.
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The Hazmat Last Supper
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Jodean was hired in 2006 as Curator of Education for the Rock Island Arsenal Museum. Currently, she's the Visual Information Specialist at the U.S. Army Garrison, Rock Island Arsenal. Her duties include photography, communications and video teleconferences.
I have known Jodean since she was an Augustana summer student assistant who helped me to write and assemble an art collection catalogue. I recall her verve and humor that still shine. She recounts one of the memorable events associated with MidCoast. During an early stage of Gallery HOP!, Dean Schroeder revealed he had some hazmat suits. Someone had painted a rendition of Da Vinci's Last Supper on a wall and it was decided a MidCoast group would don the suits and pose in front of the mural. She laughingly notes, "It was such a bizarre concept but we had a blast".
"I've always maintained my interest in MidCoast because of the grassroots component" she explains. Jodean is organizing artists for another stellar Riverssance, to take place Sept. 17-18, again in Lindsay Park, Davenport. Mark your calendars!
~ Sherry
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A Fond Farewell and Thanks
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Volunteer Randi Freeborn in action at Bucktown
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Due to a variety of circumstances, several MidCoast board members are setting out for new horizons.
We thank them for their community service, and bid farewell to Thomas Behne (returned to Denver), Heather Pederson (new job in Washington, D.C.), Wynne Schafer and Rian Waterman.
~ Amy Orr, MidCoast President, and Sherry Maurer
MidCoast thanks Randi Freeborn, a senior art student at Pleasant Valley High School, who has been volunteering assistance with exhibitions and database development at Bucktown Center for the Arts.
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Gallery HOP!
May 6, 6-10 p.m. | The District of Rock Island
The District, MidCoast, The ARTery and Quad City Arts present Gallery Hop!, a fun, festive and free downtown art stroll unique to Rock Island. More than 300 artists will be showcased in over 20 locations throughout downtown Rock Island during the event.
These locations are not limited to art galleries; artists will exhibit in coffee shops, restaurants, retail shops, and entertainment venues. Jewelry, photography, glass, paintings, drawings, book signings, sculpture, and more will be featured. There is something for everyone and a wonderful opportunity to find a perfect gift for Mother's Day, or an unforgettable item for you.
There will be Gallery HOP! BINGO game cards at each "HOP Stop." To play Gallery HOP! BINGO, just visit at least five locations, have the artist or owner sign off, and make a straight line on your card. Cards can be picked up and turned in at MidCoast Fine Arts/The ARTery or Quad City Arts. The winner gets a prize basket full of fun gifts, and art!
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MidCoast Gallery West / The ARTery
1629 2nd Avenue, Rock Island
Open: Wed - Sat, 11 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
May 6
Gallery HOP! will open a new exhibition Poetic Vision, that partners poetry with visual art, featuring new works by Jeanne O'Melia.
The Gallery HOP! featured ARTery ARTist is the painter Amanada Sabel.
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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.; and Sun, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Jeff Selander and Barabara Lundeen
through May
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| | Dan's Gate by Barbara Lundeen |
Two artists make their MidCoast Fine Arts debut. A Quad Cities native, painter Jeff Selander's art enthusiasm was launched by winning a yearbook design contest in middle school. He's developing a "hometown theme" emphasis.
Barbara Lundeen began her life in Canada, and now calls the Sauk River Valley home. She notes, "My paintings preserve some of the experience of where I live now: the rural landscape, the disappearing farms and way of life." She returned to painting with the Eagle's Nest's plein air group and joined the Rock River Valley Painters Guild, attending workshops given by Dan LeTourneau and Stuart Roddy.
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Bucktown Center for the Arts
225 East 2nd Street, Davenport
Open: Wed - Sat, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
April in Paris Final Friday, April 29, 6-9 p.m.
Enjoy colorful and Impressionistic art, and refreshments of a French persuasion. The Quad Cities will have a preview of Carousel of Delights, a new French pastry shop opening during the summer in north Davenport, under the ownership of French pastry chef Alison Farrier.
Presentation on French Impressionism, 7:30 p.m., Suite 203
Sherry Maurer will offer an overview of the precursors, achievements and significance of French Impressionism in a 45-minute public program. She'll touch on her master's thesis topic of Claude Monet's Giverny and late nineteenth-century garden theory.
Laura Goldman Weinberg's Abstract Expressionism "Inspirational Art, The Blissful Artist"
MidCoast Gallery through May 27
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Abstract Series: Pink Pansies
by Laura Goldman Weinberg
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Laura Goldman Weinberg's acrylic paintings emphasize active linear movement and patterns. As a child in elementary school, she won a blue ribbon for the color balance in a crayon drawing. Since then, she has studied and explored drawing, watercolor, oil, acrylic, tissue paper collage, and mixed media.
A cancer survivor, she works in a non-objective action-art style that is divided into two sections in the current exhibition. One area displays her explorations in black and white, and one celebrates her studies of color. Whether black and white or color, the works share a vitality of process that she hopes will inspire and uplift others. Weinberg creates and resides in Fairfield, Iowa.
Fiber Jam Bucktown Second Floor Casement through May 27
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Wave Dancer by Colleen Curry
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Fiber Jam is a wide-ranging exhibition of regional fiber works co-curated by Colleen Curry and MidCoast staff. Incredible pleats! Eye-defying needle felting! Daredevil fiber structures! Don't miss it.
Participating artists are: Rosalie Baker (Mt. Vernon), Mary Bent (Bettendorf), Rita Bowen (Orion), Chris Clark (Muscatine), Colleen Curry (Donahue), Kimberly Darling (Davenport), Diana Engelbrecht (Eldridge), Jeanne Elliott (Bettendorf), Julie Ferring (Dubuque), Laura Hopkins (Davenport), Abi Hutchison (Letts), Sue Kirk (Davenport), Donna Kitchell (Davenport),Terre Klipsch (Davenport), Linda Klyman (East Moline), Jeanne Knape (Davenport), Georgeann Kreiter (Moline), Rosanne Krubsack (Davenport), Barbara McIntyre (Rock Island), Penny Pearcy (Maquoketa), Mary Pement (Moline), Diana Strait (Maquoketa), Cher Testroet (Bettendorf), Dorothy Towler (Rock Island), Deb Veber (Moline), Mary Wells (Davenport) and Cheri Wujek (Galesburg). Dave Anderson Ballet Quad Cities Show Pas de Deux - Dance for Two Bereskin Fine Art Gallery and Studio through May 6 Another Door Opens Bereskin Fine Art Gallery and Studio May 11-21
Enjoy the artwork of three young women entering the world of art in a new direction. Award winning senior high school artists Emily Hummel, Paige Jackson and Amy Van Fossen are students of the Beréskin Gallery and Mrs. B.'s Art. The public is invited to the closing reception May 21, 4-6 p.m.
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Get Your Paint On: Glass Painting to Support Riverssance
Third Thursday, May 19, 7-9 p.m. | Bucktown Suite 103
We had so much fun in April, we're doing it again! Please join us to enjoy painting wine glasses to support Riverssance. No previous experience needed.
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| | Student artists from 2015 ArtWorks Expo |
ArtWorks Expo High School Pastel Competition
May 28, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. | Bucktown Center for the Arts
Teams from area high schools (nine schools in 2015) create mural-sized pastel drawings in competition for prize awards for their art departments. The 2016 juror is Heidi Draley-McFall, whose drawings were exhibited at Bucktown in October 2015. Artist Paul Lange and Sherry Maurer also will be on hand for individual portfolio reviews with the participating students.
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Save the Date: BASH! 11th Anniversary Celebration and Fundraiser, ArtWorks Expo Awards
June 24, 6-10 p.m.
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The Creative Collective
Bucktown Center for the Arts | Suites 203 + 205
The Creative Collective, downtown Davenport's first coworking space, continues to grow and become a hub for creative entrepreneurs, remote employees, and freelancers. Community members enjoy the benefits of office and conference space, collaboration, professional development, and a beautiful, cutting-edge work environment located within Bucktown Center for the Arts.
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Support the Arts. Support MidCoast.
We are 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.
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Copyright © 2016 MidCoast Fine Arts. All rights reserved. MidCoast Fine Arts PO Box 4142 Rock Island, IL 61204-4142 225 East 2nd Street Davenport, IA 52801 (563) 424-1210 | midcoast.org MidCoast Fine Arts programs are partially supported by operational grantsfrom the Illinois Arts Council and the Iowa Arts Council. |
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