The Figge Art Museum announced last week that it was re-starting its search for an executive director and will employ a national search firm. After Executive Director Linda Downs' resignation in May, the Figge board established a search committee composed of board members, representatives from the City of Davenport, and the local artistic community. The committee reviewed applications from 38 candidates and conducted 10 telephone interviews and seven in-person interviews. In October, the board made offers to two different candidates, but personal circumstances prevented either candidate from accepting the position. Figge Interim Director Tom Gildehaus had said he expected a new director to be in place by Thanksgiving. (See "Great Expectations," River Cities' Reader Issue 606, November 8-14, 2006.) Downs left the Figge after she accepted the position of executive director for the College Art Association, a professional membership association based in New York City. During its first year, the Figge more than doubled its membership, showcased six exhibitions, and expanded educational programs, classes, family activities, and outreach. For more information about the Figge Art Museum, visit (http://www.figgeartmuseum.org).

With some regret, I have tendered my resignation to the River Music Experience (RME). The past two years have been a very interesting time for me. Certainly, I gained a fair share of life experience. The great people that I have met and worked with, through our educational programs, River Roots Live fest, and Redstone Room events, have time and again demonstrated their appreciation for our mission. I thank each of you for the opportunity to work and play together. My staff was awesome. I laud their passion for our purpose and their tenacity for hanging in there with me through thick and thin.

Iowa Public Radio (IPR) has announced the creation of a statewide news and information programming service as the culmination of a listener-driven process. The network, which was created in 2005 to align the stations of the WOI Radio Group in Ames, KUNI/KHKE in Cedar Falls-Waterloo, and KSUI/WSUI in Iowa City, is continuing its evolution as a statewide radio service for Iowans, with listener feedback as a critical component. For the past several months, Iowa Public Radio has sought input and feedback from Iowans as part of a "listening project." The information derived from these sessions provided the basis for a shared vision for public radio as IPR looks for ways to best serve all Iowans. The statewide news and information programming service will kick off January 1. Listeners in Iowa will hear new programs, including The Diane Rehm Show, and Iowa hosts for popular NPR programs Morning Edition and All Things Considered will be consistent across the state. Several locally produced programs, once limited to one station's coverage area, will now be available across the network. A full schedule of the news and information service is available at (http://www.iowapublicradio.org). Enhanced classical- and alternative-music programming are currently in development and will be released in mid-2007. 

Shannon Curfman is an old soul in a young person's body.

"Buddy and I were ... talking about that actually - Buddy Guy," Curfman said in a phone interview last week. "He was kind of making fun of me. ... He's like, ‘You know what? That's bullshit. ... You're 20 years old and you've already gone through this. It took me until I was almost 70 to realize half this stuff.'"

"This stuff" is the nearly inevitable souring of a major-label musician on the business of selling records. Many performers need decades of being exploited by big corporations before they realize there's a better way. Curfman, who is now 21 and will be performing this Saturday at the Redstone Room, figured it out in her teens.