Swing Dancing on the Ped Mall!

Spring banished winter from Iowa City this past weekend, and the Ped Mall was in bloom with the Hawkeye Swing Festival, sponsored by the University of Iowa Swing Dance Club. Accompanying them was a lively jazz band from the University of Iowa. The Festival, which ran April 9 & 10, attracts college dance club members from as far away as Chicago and Des Moines. Music included traditional Lindy Hop style all the way to ultra smooth jazz. Downtown workers were much distracted by all the festivities, as shown in these pictures taken by staff members at Iowa Artisans Gallery. The Hawkeye Swing Festival is held every spring.

Landlocked Film Festival is here! (what a great name...)

Landlocked Film Festival, Thursday, August 26 - Sunday, August 29
 Landlocked Film Festival presents independently made documentaries and narrative films and videos of lengths ranging from 2 minutes to 2 hours. You'll find animation, art films, outrageous comedy, sweet stories, action and adventure, heartwarming and heartbreaking drama, hard-hitting documentaries and even some zombies and aliens. An added bonus is that many of the directors, actors and film artists who made the movies will be at the festival.

Select Movies have a $5 fee, most are FREE for screening.  Please visit the Landlocked website for more information and to obtain tickets.


FILM SCHEDULE

FRIDAY, AUGUST 27, 2010

Englert: 
1:15 pm Love & Valor; 
3:15 pm Can't Go Native; 
5:00 pm From the Badlands to Alcatraz; 
7:30 pm Is It Just Me?
; 9:45 pm earthwork

Iowa City Public Library: 
3:00 pm Not Evil Just Wrong; 
5:00 pm Shorts Program #1
; 7:00 pm Ballhawks

Sheraton/Hotel Vetro
: 3:00 pm Shorts Program #5 Comedy; 
6:30 pm Documentary Short Films; 
9:00 pm Shorts Program #4 Comedy

Bijou: 
6:00 pm Voices Unveiled
; 8:00 pm Shorts Program #3 Drama

SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 2010

Englert
: 12:15 pm Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead; 
4:00 pm Play On; 
7:00 pm Ashley's Ashes; 
9:30 pm Splatter: Love, Honor and Paintball

Iowa City Public Library: 
11:00 am Kid-Friendly Under 10
; 12:00 pm (noon) Kid-Friendly Over 10; 
1:15 pm Music Videos
; 2:45 pm Shorts Program #5 Comedy

Sheraton/Hotel Vetro:
12:00 pm (noon) Not Evil Just Wrong
; 1:45 pm Dumb Dumb; 
3:15 pm Shorts Program #1
5; then From the Badlands to Alcatraz
; 7:00 pm Roll Out, Cowboy; 
9:00 pm Scrappers

Bijou
: 2:00 pm Student Program at the Bijou; 
11:30 pm Endure

SUNDAY, AUGUST 29, 2010
Englert: 
12:00 pm (Noon) Ballhawks
; 1:45 pm First Stop, Iowa
; 4:00 pm Shorts Program #2 Drama; 
7:00 pm Broken Dreams
; 9:00 pm Landlocked Awards Ceremony

Iowa City Public Library: 
12:00 pm (Noon) Kid-Friendly Under 10; 
1:00 pm Kid-Friendly Over 10
; 2:15 pm Shorts Program #3 Drama

Sheraton/Hotel Vetro: 
2:30 pm Music Videos; 
4:00 pm Vivir de Pie; 
6:00 pm Home/Land*; 
6:30 pm Shorts Program #4 Comedy
*Home/Land is a 30-minute documentary made by a former scholar in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa (IWP). The film will be followed immediately by a panel of current IWP scholars and faculty.

Get Ready for the Taste! Wednesday 4-8, 40 downtown restaurants

The third annual Taste of Iowa City returns on August 25, 2010 from 4:00p - 8:00p. Enjoy the unique and vibrant culinary atmosphere spanning the Pedestrian Plaza through the historic Northside Marketplace. Approximately 40 participating restaurants will serve sample portions of their favorite menu items and guests will be entertained with live music, entertainment and a festive street-fair environment. Taste of Iowa City allows the Downtown Association of Iowa City to introduce the varied culinary delights available in Downtown to new and returning University of Iowa students and reintroduce patrons from the community to the dishes they may have forgotten.

Food tickets will be available at locations in the Pedestrian Plaza and Northside Marketplace. All tickets are $1.00 and participating restaurants typically charge between one and three tickets per dish. Mark your calendar now for the "foodie" event of the summer!

Sand in the City time! Friday-Sunday, August 20-22

Last year, I stumbled upon Sand in the City (pictures included) and it's really fun, not to be missed. Great for families. Find your beach experience!  

Hours are Friday 9am - 9pm; Saturday 10am - 8pm; and Sunday 10am - 4pm. See below for details about food, music and other activities associated with the event.


Here's basic information from the
Summer of the Arts website  (SOTA):
Sand in the City, presented by Bank of the West, is a wonderful late-summer event to bring out family and friends to downtown Iowa City for a weekend of free entertainment.  Giant sandboxes filled with fantastical sand sculptures will line Iowa Avenue (from Clinton Street to Linn Street) as well as our FUN Zone, Kids Sandbox, Artist booths and Culinary Row along parts of Dubuque St. and Iowa Avenue.

Sand sculptures will be designed and constructed by teams representing some of the community's most beloved businesses and local organizations.  Incredible sand sculptures will come to life through the collaborative and team building efforts of our teams.

The community has an opportunity to decide their favorites by contributing "sand" dollars in the name of the team building their favorite sculpture.  Event goers will also be entertained by live music and an array of adult and kid friendly activities.  Our participating businesses contribute not only their time but also financial resources that allows us to raise funds that help to support the Summer of the Arts festivals and events throughout the year.

On August 20th, the regularly scheduled Friday Night Concert Series will be pre-empted for Sand in the City's live entertainment from 5 p.m. - 9 p.m. on Iowa Avenue.

It's Jazz Festival time!

 Rowell Rudd's Trombone Tribe, headliner on Saturday

Iowa City swings...Check out the Iowa City Jazz Festival, Friday through Sunday July 2-4. Saturday nights' 8pm headliner is Roswell Rudd’s Trombone Tribe. Sunday night's is the Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio. And the list of ensembles is long- read more here.

Live music takes place on various stages in downtown Iowa City, Friday 4:30 pm to 9:30 pm; Saturday 1:30 pm to 9:30 pm
  and Sunday 1:30 pm to 9:30 pm. Sunday's performance will be followed immediately by fireworks in Hubbard Park on the UI campus. Three stages include the Main Stage at Old Capitol Building; the Youth Stage at Iowa Avenue; and the Local and College Stage at Clinton Street. Grab a bite, bring your lawnchairs and let the fun begin.

Public Property, a local favorite

The Summer of the Arts website introduces a new feature to this year's Jazz Festival: Listen, Learn and Ask Questions of Three Unique Jazz Performers. This presentation will take place Saturday, July 3rd 10am to noon in the Carver Room at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Iowa City and is sponsored by aGrant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Here's a chance to listen to some of our internationally known mainstage performers tell stories about their musical odysseys, their approaches to learning how to play jazz and answer your questions. The workshop will include:

Roswell Rudd, trombonist and composer & leader of the Trombone Tribe, performing on the mainstage at 8:00 pm Saturday evening. This year Rudd was selected as one of the top jazz trombonists in the Downbeat Magazine’s Critics poll and leader of the best jazz CD’s of the year by the Village Voice. In addition to having played with such jazz notables as Carla Bley, Archie Shepp and his long-time collaborator, Steve Lacey, Rudd also has performed and recorded world and ethnics music with traditional musicians from Mongolia, Mali and Puerto Rico.

Bob Washut, pianist, composer, arranger and educator is Professor of Music at the University of Northern Iowa. He has received numerous commissions for collegiate jazz ensembles and directed the award-winning UNI Jazz Band One. Washut was also the founder of the well-known salsa band, Orquestra Alto Maiz. Washut’s Dream Band will also be the headliner on the mainstage Friday evening.

Deborah Weisz, jazz trombonist and educator. From playing in the Sahara Desert, just North of Timbuktu, to creating music in a grain silo at an artist colony in upstate New York, to traveling all over the world with Frank Sinatra (1987 - 1994). Weisz will be performing with the Trombone Tribe on Saturday evening.

Riverside Theatre's Shakespeare Festival- now through July 11

There's still time to visit Riverside Theatre's Shakespeare Festival, ongoing in Lower City Park now through July 11. If you've never attended, you're in for a treat, and the spectacular weather of the last week makes it even more fun. Riverside alternates Shakespeare's Love’s Labour’s Lost with Romeo and Juliet. Love's Labor's Lost is directed by Theodore Swetz and is shown on July 3, 6, 8, 11. Romeo and Juliet is directed by Riverside Theatre founder Ron Clark and can be seen on July 2, 7, 9, 10. Read more about these performances on the Iowa Theatre Blog or in reviews in the Gazette or Daily Iowan posted on Riverside Theatre's website.


Based in downtown Iowa City, Riverside Theatre is celebrating 30 years of excellence. The Shakespeare Festival is one portion of the Theatre's lineup. In order to pull of the Festival, Riverside showcases a separate 2010 Acting Company, as well as a 2010 roster of interns. Riverside has been on the Iowa City Press Citizen's "Best of the Area" list for 2001-2009, and KCRG's A-list  as "Best Theatre Group 2009." The Iowa Theatre Blog was founded by Matt Falduto in 2007.

Countdown to Iowa Arts Festival: Friday Gallery Walk & Music galore!

 Glass at AKAR

Friday evening, listen to music and walk on the artful side! Gallery Walk is the kickoff to the three-day Iowa Arts Festival, and it's surrounded by great music, including Sarah Jarosz at 7pm and Darrell Scott at 9pm on the Main Festival Stage.

Bao Pham, Chait Galleries

Gallery Walk takes place Friday, June 4, 5-8pm, at 16 venues in downtown Iowa City. This is the biggest Gallery Walk of the year; it's self-guided, free, family-friendly and open to the public. This time, check out Arts Iowa City’s new exhibition space, in the lower level of the Wells Fargo Bank Building, 114 S Dubuque St. Also special to this event is the Big Brothers, Big Sisters photo display at US Bank. Gallery Walk venues include AKAR, Arts Iowa City, Bella Joli, the Chait Galleries, the Englert Theatre, Glassando, Iowa Artisans Gallery/D.J.Rinner Goldsmith, MidWestOne Bank, MC Ginsberg, Revival, the Senior Center’s Old Post Office Gallery, Textiles, United Action for Youth (UAY), and US Bank. Other Gallery Walk participants in the Near Northside are Home Ec Workshop and RSVP.

 Emily Reason, Tulipiere, clay, at Iowa Artisans Gallery. Emily was an intern at the energyXchange in North Carolina, an innovative approach to using landfill methane to power artist studios

And just wait til you see what's up for Saturday & Sunday. More information about the Iowa Arts Festival schedule may be found on the "At a Glance" column on this weblink.

 at Chait Galleries, Youngjoo Yoo

 sterling silver bracelet, Louise Rauh at DJ Rinner Goldsmith