With numerous performance troupes, cultural groups and Office of Student Life events, students are given the opportunity to immerse themselves into the arts without having to step foot off of Augustana’s campus. But being nestled inside of the Quad Cities, students have access to four cities worth of locales.
Rock Island’s Adler Theater and Davenport’s Circa ‘21 Dinner Playhouse are well known for their plays, concerts and theater dance. The Quad City Music Guild provides a similar experience, outdoors.
Taking audience members out of the auditoriums and into Moline Prospect Park, hosting “Broadway in the park”, community members perform popular musicals, such as upcoming renditions of “White Christmas” and “Margaritaville”. Junior Ava Coussens first attended these shows as an audience member, before participating as a volunteer and performer.
“I was always pretty wowed with what they were able to do. Their sets are really impressive, and their costumes,” Coussens said.
Away from the mainstream of Broadway and ballet, Rock Island cafe Rozz-Tox becomes a venue for both local and visiting artists, as well as regularly hosting DJs and film screenings. The smaller venue creates an intimate setting, giving room for more alternative and experimental expressions of music.
Senior Liam Haynes says this creates an opportunity for audience members to dabble in the weird and avant-garde.
“The liberal arts are all about reevaluating the assumptions that we come into school with,” Haynes said. “I think Rozz-Tox is really friendly to this spirit of reevaluation, it is the place that fosters that most here.”
To experience music and dance outside of the audience, but as a community, junior Sofia Garza says that Mercado on Fifth gives students a new way to participate in Quad City culture.
“Overall, you get to take part in a community that you’re joining here at Augustana,” Garza said. “Of course you have the Augustana community, but you also have the greater Quad Cities area, and it’s important to partake in that as well.”
The non-profit Moline street markets are hosted every Friday night from May until November, offering live Latin music and dancing. From 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., the street is lined with vendors selling art and refreshments while attendees enjoy the musicians. With the entire 5th avenue blocked off, all are encouraged to participate together.
“Not only were there Augie students, but then people from the community started joining,” Garza said. “So it was just this massive circle and everyone was just enjoying it, it was a really special memory for me.”
Regardless of the setting, Haynes says it is this ability to experience art with others that makes these events meaningful.
“I think the beauty and the importance of art is to reevaluate your place and your reaction to things greater than yourself,” Haynes said. “This is a connection with the artists, but it’s also with these people who are wrestling with the same questions in life that I am.”