EACQC...
Supports the Quad Cities as a place of creative and
celebratory environments in which encouragement is given to innovative events,
participatory arts projects and a destination for artist residencies - for
advocating, demonstrating and creating works that celebrate the Midwest Region
and Mississippi area life and environmental issues of our home in the Quad
Cities area. It is the belief of the EACQC that people sense of identity,
attachment and sustainability to their hometown can be improved with these
provisions.
Being born and raised in and around the Quad City area, I have had the privilege of enjoying the Mississippi riverfront, serene countrysides, storybook farms, and recently, cultural and artistic effectiveness. Just in the last twenty years alone, the improvement and development of galleries, museums, art festivals and non-profit creative arts and cultural organizations has more than doubled. I have witnessed the birth of this Midwest region evolving into a tourist destination site with multimedia art forms in aesthetic beautification, offering nationally recognized entertainment, and providing creative high standards in alternative arts education through non-traditional outlets.
As an adolescent, I spent many days dreaming of leaving my home front to pursue grander endeavors in larger communities, but have reconciled that old dream and invested in my community to help create and support a community I could brag about and feel proud to raise a family in. Over the course of twenty two years, I founded and directed "Gaia Gemma Productions"; a not-for-profit fine and performing arts organization, founded and served as an education coordinator of "The Mobile Art Clinic"; a traveling creative arts educational program celebrating cultural appreciation, self-esteem building and traditional and literary arts, served on the Iowa Sesquicentennial Commission and assisted in contracting and promoting our regions best musicians, founded and advocated for "Earth Corner" an in-school environmental awareness campaign, founded "The Quad City Girl Power! Club" in celebration and collaboration with the National Campaign, and many other involvements with "Art with Mr. I" a public television on-air art lessons show, contributing editor for an environmental column in the local Families First Magazine...Point being, if I saw a need, I addressed it. If there was a worthy cause, I supported it. If there was a talent worth acknowledging, I exhorted it.
The Quad Cities remains to be my home, and I am proud to be a part of the Eco Arts Council of the Quad Cities. It will be with great passion and pleasure that I support the mission of the EACQC and I look forward to working with friends of the community and meeting new creative and environmentally conscious individuals!
