"Art & Ideas" Series offered at the Figge

The Figge Art Museum presents the third lecture in a four-part series entitled "Celebrating Ideas" at 7 pm Thursday, April 21. Dr. Emil Kramer, Associate Professor and Chair of Classics at Augustana College will present the lecture "Egypt, Athens, Rome?and Us: Five Millennia of Connections through Art." The lecture series is offered in conjunction with the special exhibition Celebrating Ideas: Bridging Communities with Augustana's  Liberal Arts through the AGES, on view at the Figge through May 29. The exhibition of 100 works is in celebration of Augustana's 150^th anniversary, and presents a rich and diverse art historical overview of pieces from the Augustana College Art Collection.

Professor Kramer's talk will highlight the ideas behind School of Athens, a fresco painted by the Renaissance master Raphael in 1510-11. This well known image depicts the Classical Greek Philosophers Plato and Aristotle surrounded by mathematicians, naturalists, astronomers, geographers, and other philosophers. Pope Julius II commissioned School of Athens, along with twelve other frescoes, for one room in the Vatican palace. An engraving by Joannes (Giovanni) Volpato after a drawing by Joseph (Giuseppe) Cades of Raphael's School of Athens is included in the Augustana exhibition.

The "Celebrating Ideas" series is part of the Figge's weekly Thursdays at the Figge programming. Admission to the museum and lecture is $7. Admission is free to Figge members and Figge institutional members. The Figge Arts Café and Bar will be open before and after the lecture.  

A space where theater practitioners can come to organize, workshop, showcase and interact.

When:  Friday, May 27 and Saturday, May 28, 7pm until 9pm

Where:  421 Brady Street, 3rd Floor, Davenport

What:  Complimentary hors d'oeuvres, tours of the space, revolving presentations of the original performance art: "A Scenic Place," on-site art creation, displays of artwork by local artists for sale, opportunities to meet and speak with the artists involved.

Ticket price:  $5 per person.

Join the Internet Players as we unveil our new space on April 29th and 30th from 7:00 - 9:00pm!  A performance has been developed by QC native Tom Awad especially for this event, entitled "A Scenic Place" which combines live action, music and installation art.  It will be performed multiple times with the characters aging throughout the evening.  The show willmake audiences reflective of their own lives and allow them to make personal connections to the performance.

Local artists such as Tony Carter and Liz Davenport will have their artwork on display and for sale throughout multiple rooms.  Also, guided tours of the space with details on the future functions of The Internet Players' Studio will be available, as wel as information on upcoming productions, workshops and events put on by the organization.  Please stop by throughout the evening for though provoking performances, intriguing artwork and good company.

Students Can Experience a College-level Drawing Program

The Figge Art Museum and Western Illinois University have partnered to offer the "Summer Drawing Program at the Figge" for high school students from 9:30 am-12:30 pm July 18-22 and July 25-29.  This two-week program gives talented high school art students a college-level experience while helping them prepare their portfolios for college admission and scholarships. The "Summer Drawing Program at the Figge" is open to any high school student in Iowa or Illinois who has completed 9th, 10th or 11th grade. To be considered for this program, students must complete the application and submit a portfolio of four drawings and a letter of support from an art teacher. Applications are due by April 16 and the drop-off period for portfolios is 10 am - 1 pm Saturday, April 16.

The program was developed in 2007 with Western Illinois University, and is the only program of its kind in the Quad Cities for aspiring young artists who plan to major in Art or Design.  The course is taught by Western Illinois University Department of Art professors Bruce Walters and Brett Eberhardt. This program is funded in part by the Brand Boeshaar Foundation, Butler Insurance Service, Inc., and Western Illinois University's College of Fine Arts and Communication.

The "Summer Drawing Program at the Figge" program introduces high school students to a college-level drawing curriculum, helps them improve their skills in drawing from observation, which is a required component for most college admission portfolios, and helps them to be competitive for the annual Brand Boeshaar Scholarship. This local art scholarship is funded by the Brand Boeshaar Foundation, managed by the Figge Art Museum, and administered by the Community Foundation of the Great River Bend. In addition to daily drawing assignments, students will participate in individual and group critiques, which will help teach them learn how to talk about their work with others when they apply for college admission.

Students selected to participate in this program will be notified by May 1. If accepted into the program, students must pay the program fee of $175 and provide some of their own art supplies. For more information about the program, or to complete the application online, please visit www.figgeartmuseum.org. For more information, call Ann Marie Hayes-Hawkinson, Curator of Education, at 563-326-7804 x7887.

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Artists & Writers series offered at Figge

The Figge Art Museum presents the final talk in the series Artists and Writers at 7 pm Thursday, March 31. Dr. Owen Rogal, who teaches nineteenth-century British literature, will present the lecture "The Beauty of Life: Ruskin, Morris, and Wright." Dr. Rogal will explain how John Ruskin, William Morris, and Frank Lloyd Wright made connections between the natural world and the things men and women make, between those things and the health of society, and between the things and the nature of the work that produces them. The talk explores what the three writers learned from each other, how Morris developed and spun Ruskin's ideas in new directions, and how both Ruskin and Morris's radical ideas about the role of art in society?what a building means, for example, to the lives of the people who live in it? shape in part Wright's own thinking and practices.

The Artists and Writers series is part of the Figge's weekly Thursdays at the Figge programming. Admission to the museum and lecture is $7. Admission is free to Figge members and Figge institutional members. The Figge Arts Café and Bar will be open before and after the lecture.