100 years of Davenport art and a young person's cause that impacts all of us in the cities.

You may have never heard of Nikolaevna Pappas, but this 14 year old from the cities is getting national attention for a nonprofit she created six years ago when she was just eight.

We'll talk with her in just a moment.

But first, celebrating 100 years for an institution in the cities.

The damn Port Municipal Art Gallery opened its doors in 1925, featuring the collection of former mayor Charles Figgy.

It's grown into the figgy Art Museum and has received national, even international acclaim.

The figure is marking its century of existence with an ongoing 100 years of collecting exhibit, celebrating the items that make it so special.

We're joined by museum Executive Director and CEO Melissa Moore.

Well, what's interesting about the 100th birthday of the effigy is it actually started with a man named Vicky.

So you got to be careful.

But Mayor Vicky had an amazing collection that started this whole thing.

He did so before we had a municipal art gallery or any art gallery in the Quad Cities back in 1925, he had already traveled the world a number of times, collecting art as he went over 300 paintings.

And he thought that, you know, when you when you have that sort of wealth, when you have that sort of privilege that you owe it to the people who come next, based on those who came before, who got you to where you are.

And so he donated those pieces to the city of Davenport, knowing that they would create what is now an art museum.

Well, let's be honest, when it came to books and art, you'd have private collections that were far better than anything that the public could see.

Yeah, and he did the same.

He donated many books to the Davenport public Library, a number of artifacts and artworks to the Putnam Museum.

So he really has a legacy in this community.

What I think is really cool is once you establish a collection, other people that are inspired in the same way.

And so we see collections from Clara Brant, who was a woman who donated works in the 30s.

She loved landscapes, American landscape paintings.

You see Lindy Linley, the Adler family loved Western art.

So we have a number of these families that came forward, inspired by what Vicki had done that got us to where we are today, because now we have over 6000 artworks in the collection.

So hundred years later, when we talk about the collection, in 100 years of collecting some of these rich parts of the original contribution are going to be seen.

Yes.

In fact, this is the largest amount of those works that have been on view for a very long time, probably the most that have been on view ever since we've been in our current building, the figure Art Museum, which is 20 years old this year as well.

So we're celebrating a lot of anniversaries.

So when you come to 100 years of collecting, you get to see you get to see more of these paintings than you have before.

An entire wall is hand salon, salon style, which is really exciting for us because we have very tall ceilings.

So floor to ceiling art.

Well, when you're talking about the figure and I know this is frustrating for you at times when you talk about any museum is somebody will say, oh, I've already been to the 50.

Yeah.

You know, and that's okay.

I think I get that, but you do move things around a little bit.

So let's talk about.

Yeah, I mean, this is an exciting time to celebrate 100 years.

Yeah.

And thank you for bringing that up.

I understand that, you know, I was lucky enough to grow up in museums, so I know a little bit more about them.

But for somebody who maybe came in fifth grade on a field trip, you got to see a lot.

You don't always realize that we have three major exhibition spaces that we're turning over every 3 to 6 months, and in our permanent collection galleries.

So the permanent collection or the pieces we own versus the exhibitions, often we're borrowing from other museums or putting together for a time bound period.

We're constantly moving things around.

There's always something new to see.

Just because we feel like inspiration and creativity.

They come in many forms and we want to share as much as possible.

When I think of the fig, you know, I think of your collection.

I instantly think of the Haitian art exhibit, because of the prominence of that in the figures collection.

And let's talk about that.

The significance of of the Haitian collection cannot be understated.

No.

That's correct.

It's one of the top in the world.

And I think that it's unexpected here in Davenport.

But when you go back through those, those collections that came to us, Doctor Walter, Nice Walker, the Beaux Arts Society, you know, so many different individuals and groups saw the importance of these works and wanted to make sure they had a home here.

It's also really interesting to me because you have similar stories in Waterloo, at the Waterloo Center for the Arts in Milwaukee and Chicago, just in the Midwest.

We have such an appreciation for these works by Haitian artists, and they really are stunning.

You know, we had the great grandson of a former president of Haiti, Ahlam Hippolyte, was here just a week ago to see a portrait of his great grandfather that we have in our collection that his family has not seen before.

So just there's there's this, current connection to that our collections can inspire to bring really important individuals here to help move us forward into the next century.

Well, and it's not only that, let's talk about I mean, you've got a Rembrandt, you've got a Goya, you got Warhol, Renoir, Ansel Adams, Andrew Wyeth, Thomas Benton.

It is amazing.

Some of the artists that you have.

Yeah, and a lot of it goes back to those early collections.

So, you know, because we have artists like that in the collection, it also helps us cultivate partnerships with larger organizations so we can continue to show even more like that.

For example, we're partnering with the National Gallery of Art in D.C.

we're one of ten museums that were selected by the National Gallery as part of the Across America project that they're doing to try to get their collections across the nation.

And we have a Frans Hals painting that's on view right now.

We have Carnac the the elder, these amazing works from the 16th and 17th centuries that you would typically have to go somewhere, somewhere like Chicago or DC or, you know, New York to see.

And here we have them at the figure for two years because of the partnerships we've been able to build, because of the strength of our own collection.

You were talking about the traveling exhibit.

And that is always kind of, kind of inspirational, too, because it's not always typical artwork.

I mean, you've done I don't want to say you've done illustration, I want to say comics illustration.

Yeah.

And and you've done different types of mediums.

It's not just paintings on a wall.

No.

I think one of our most popular exhibitions, I, I've been with the figure for about 16 years now.

One of our most popular exhibitions I've ever seen was Charles Schulz of Peanuts.

Right.

And that's maybe not something that people would automatically think of in terms of art, but it is art history, and it is, everyday artistry that you see that inspires people.

So yeah, we've done that.

We've done more experimental contemporary exhibitions, and then we'd like to balance that out with what you would traditionally expect to see things that are maybe more realistic, like portraiture or landscape.

We like to have a lot of fun.

There is a warm, warm spark, a warm spot in the heart of many Iowans because of Grant wood.

Yes.

And the connection to, eastern Iowa in particular, University of Iowa, of course, where you, taught.

And it's pretty much a renowned collection that the effigy has as well.

It is in an addition to the collection.

I mean, we have his painted self-portrait, sketchbooks.

We also have his entire estate.

And so when Grant wood died, unfortunately, two young, his sister, Nan Wood inherited his estate, and she ended up selling it to the Davenport Museum of Art, which is now the Art museum.

And so we have his mattress.

We have his spectacles, we have the little cameo that his sister Nan was wearing when she modeled for American Gothic, that famous painting that's in the Art Institute.

We have all of the American Gothic parodies that you can see online.

We've partnered with Special Collections at the University of Iowa to digitize all of that so people can have fun exploring the archive.

But yeah, Grant wood is very important to us and also to, to other art.

You mentioned Thomas Hart Benton, John Stuart Currie, other analysts who were doing very interesting things and who if they weren't working together directly, they were all working kind of in tandem during a time when it was very tough.

You have the depression, you have the Dust Bowl, and they're looking at the goodness of the people and the strength of the land.

You know, really getting back to that.

So American Regionalist is an important collection for us as well.

Beyond Grant wood there in the art world, there is some believe that that Grant wood was not professionally trained, perhaps that his work is pedestrian.

But it really does connect with people.

And as you said, it came during a period of time of the Great Depression, where Americans needed some uplifting 100%.

And, you know, he did.

He traveled to Europe.

If you look at some of his pieces, he was doing all different styles.

He just happened to land on the one that has become so iconic for with the rolling Iowa hills, anybody who says Iowa has flat has never looked at a Grant wood painting or driven or ridden a bike across like it with Ragbrai.

Yeah.

Very true.

So that, let's talk about the eastern, Asian and the East Asian collection as well.

I'm really bouncing from one type of genre to there, but that really is what the figure has.

It's got a little bit of everything, but but some real amazing works, a lot of woodblock prints works on paper.

And, you know, because their works on paper, this kind of goes back to what you said earlier about how things are always changing.

We have to be careful with those because they can't be on view for quite as long as, say, a painting, because of the delicate nature of how they were created and what their materials are.

So what we say we typically rest works on paper.

So we'll have some of the prints off and then we'll we'll rotate them out with others so they can then have more time in art collection storage that, you know, we just need to be very careful about that.

So the same is true with textiles.

The same is true with photographs.

You may see a painting that's up for five years that you're probably not going to see a work on paper that is that often, like with some of the Asian pieces that we have.

That kind of brings me to the fact that you're displaying 100 years of collecting.

What made you decide what gets included in that exhibit and what you're sadly is left behind?

It is so hard.

This is probably one of the hardest challenges that our curatorial team has.

So when we started to conceptualize 100 years of collecting, how do you begin to show a story of the past 100 years?

We decided pretty early on that it was the story of the collecting that we wanted to focus on.

So we started with the individuals and families and organizations that had that had really given these larger gifts that helped catapult us to what came next.

And so we have, everything from the fishes I talked about, Clara Brandt Lily, we have the Adler's Brant Sikkema more recently, he was a photographer.

He had a gallery in New York, gave us a lot of photography, really helped us beef up that part of our collection.

And most recently, doctor Randy and Linda Lewis, who gave an extraordinary gift to us in 2020 for 44 works of American modern and contemporary, valued by Christie's at $14 million.

It's just unbelievable.

So we really wanted to show, kind of these big surges in the collecting.

And what's been really cool is because of everything that we've been able to celebrate this year, especially around Evanescent Field, which is the light sculpture that we were able to to do with the help of so many, there are others who have come forward to give us gifts to help launch us into the next hundred years.

So just last week, I don't know if you knew Jim Victor.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And he he died tragically two young, seven years ago in his estate.

He left money to have, some a way to memorialize him and so his brothers, as part of his estate, have worked with the figure.

And we've unveiled and dedicated last week to monumental digital works by Teamlab Teamlab.

It's an artist cohort out of Japan.

These are works that will blow your mind.

And they are all going back to the values that Jim Victor lived around community of family, creativity, education.

So there are there are gifts coming in, even as we are sitting here talking, that are going to help get us to the next hundred years.

And it's just it's going to be an even bigger challenge to tell our story at 200 years because of the amazing generosity of everybody who is is here right now.

Well, you, you know, full well I mean, being in the industry of museums is that not every museum is doing necessarily all that well know.

And you take a look at the figure and you're looking at a prosperous future.

I mean, what sets the figure apart from perhaps some of these other institutions?

I think it's our community.

I mean, we we were founded as a community and a city, museum.

And it's really the community that has helped continue to grow what we're able to do.

I also think that we have, we we put education at the front of our mission.

And I know a lot of museums do that, but we really live by that.

We also, because of how our community is, is inclusive and so collaborative.

We always collaborate and the educational programs and some of the exhibitions that we're doing in fact, one of our exhibitions right now, we have pieces were borrowing from the Putnam, you know, so just, all of our museums and organizations here are so interwoven that I think that that is why we are positioned to be in such a strong place right now.

Well, it's interesting because the Denver Museum of Art was on Museum Hill.

Yes, next to the Putnam for the longest time, kind of, you know, it was a beautiful building.

It was, but not compared to what you constructed 20 years ago.

No, no, the downtown figure is actually a piece of art in itself.

It is.

How do you think that building transformed, the art world for the city?

I mean, this is one of Sir David Chipperfield masterpieces.

The architect who did this, he just won the Pritzker Prize last year.

I mean, he is such a prolific architect.

The fact that the steering committee and the community supported bringing in an internationally renowned architect like Sir David Chipperfield to create this museum, says so much about the investment that they wanted to make in this.

It really transformed the riverfront, which I know was part of the vision.

I, you know, that helped, that helped to happen when we then, you know, originally Chipperfield really wanted to light the building.

He wanted to have it illuminated.

And this is 20 years ago, you know, as they're opening.

But there was just something we weren't able to accomplish at the time.

Now, this year, bringing in artist Leo Villareal to do Evanescent Field.

He's worked with Chipperfield in the past on other projects.

He really, took it to the next level.

So the building, like you said, is an artwork.

The lighting of the building is an artwork that comes in view at night, every single night that we have it here.

I mean, this is it's remarkable that our community has this.

Well, I still remember, when it opened, and you're walking into a building that is basically glass on and off, I know, and you're going, wait, how are you going to show art?

I know you're right.

And just the, the mechanical aspect of that building, how its air conditioned, how it how the windows actually do shield the rays of the light.

It is an architectural masterpiece.

It is.

And we have students coming from very strong architecture programs like at ISU to come and see the building, because they understand the importance of this to our region, but also to the to the story of architecture and what they can learn and what they can be inspired by as future architects.

Yeah, the Hvac systems, you know, I the reverse osmosis machine, I know there's nobody on top of that.

Yeah.

Climate control, even the crates that the artworks come in, like when the National Gallery sent their works.

Or we have some on loan from Crystal bridges right now, which is another outstanding museum.

The crates themselves have to be, climate controlled.

Exactly this.

And cared for the same way as the artworks, just to make sure that you don't have any expansion or contraction.

There.

So it's a really fascinating field.

If you think about a museum, it's like a whole city, like business within a building all focused around the art and the education and the community.

But one last time, it's 100 years of collecting, the figure marking 100 years, like we said.

I mean, if you haven't been to the figure, this might be the time to come back and visit.

It absolutely is.

And I'll give you a few opportunities to do that.

So every second Saturday of the month we are free and open to the public.

And we have activities for you to engage in.

Or you can just come and visit every Thursday night from five until 8 p.m.

we go free and we have, we have dining service in our cafe.

Come have a drink at the bar, or bring your family and, get a sandwich basket, see for free.

Test it out, see what you think.

And every summer we're free.

During the month of July.

But we want you to come now.

We want you to see this 100 years of collecting.

Because it's.

You're never going to see anything like this again.

It's really special.

Our thanks to Figgy Museum of Art Executive Director and CEO Melissa Moore.

Just ahead, a 14 year old girls mission in the cities that's getting national attention.

But first, some events you might want to consider for yourself, your family and your friends.

Thanks to visit Quad Cities.

Check out the things to do this week in the Quad Cities.

Celebrate science, inventions, art and history during Museum month.

Sign up for free for the chance to win amazing prizes.

Then head to the Adler Theater for an unforgettable experience.

You'll see incredible costumes, music, and choreography.

Next, explore the gardens and learn about the creatures who make up the gardens ecosystem.

Then Miller's Petting Zoo will be coming to the Frey House Farmers Market on October 18th, and finally get ready for a night of cocktails, competition and pumpkin carving at the Mississippi River Distilling Company.

For more events like these, check out our events calendar at visit Quad cities.com.

Nikolaevna Pappas was just eight years old when a viral video of a turtle struggling with a plastic straw stuck in its nose helped her create a nonprofit, Nicholas Turtle Company.

It's all an effort to reduce plastic use and increase awareness about conservation.

Now, the Rock Island girl has just received the 2025 Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes, one of 25 young people highlighted for making a significant positive impact on people.

Nick Olina joined us in our studios.

Well first off congratulations on the recognition.

Thank you.

How cool is it to get national recognition for something that you started here in the Quad Cities.

It's pretty awesome.

It's been my dream since I was a little kid to get something this, like, globally and nationally known so well.

Okay.

You're 14 years old right now.

You started when you were just a kid.

Eight years old.

And you created Nicholas Turtle Company because of a viral video?

Yup.

A straw and a turtle.

Tell me what.

Why did that sparked something in you?

Yeah.

So as an eight year old, seeing a sea turtle with the plastic straw being pulled from its nose by a marine biologist, that just wasn't a visual that I thought was happening in the world.

So as an eight year old, I thought of all the things I could do to maybe help, decrease the amount of plastics in our oceans to help maybe take down the percentage of animals that this was harming.

And I came up with my nonprofit, Nicole Ines Rocha.

So it tell me how it grew from there.

I mean, it's been, what, six years now?

Yeah.

So I started out with just making these metal straw holders, and selling them with metal straws.

And then I donated all the money.

I was about $30,000.

Now, this award today to to this day, and, now we're sort of towards conservation education.

And with my ship, the plastic campaign, it's like getting the word out on single use plastics and what people can do.

You know, I think, I don't know if you know Chad for cracky.

He was a young guy and he wanted to do something.

He decided to clean a river.

And now you got living lands and waters and you know, nationally known, nationally recognized.

And we have you doing this as well.

I mean, it's really truthful that young people can change the world.

Yep.

Yeah.

Well, no, you're right.

I mean, are you surprised at the power that you that you might have?

Yeah.

So starting out, I thought that maybe my voice wouldn't really get the point across to especially, like, older generations, like adults.

Since I was just eight years old at the time, and even me being 14 now, was really proved that people.

Listen, if you have a reason and if you have a voice and you have, statistics to back that.

So.

So why do you think that that your voice has resonated because other kids have thought about this to other kids.

Saw that video.

Lots of people saw, you know, other types of videos of animals in harm's way or that huge trash, of plastic that's in the oceans.

Why is it you think your voice made the difference?

I feel like a lot of people say that they're going to do something and then they don't.

I, as an eight year old, took action on it, and I started something that can be built up from the ground and up.

And I basically took on the role of sort of getting that word out there.

So.

So Nicholas Turtle Company, you're at a point right now like you said, you started with, selling some products and and trying to get rid of the plastic straws.

Now you're doing it more as education, making people learn about conservation.

Let them know about the world.

Where do you see this growing?

Where do you live?

Because, like you said, you're 14.

You got a couple more years left.

So where do you see this growing?

So my biggest goal is to really get on national level.

We're looking into ways to contact Eric Sorensen and talk to him about maybe getting my campaign.

Skip the plastic campaign.

So so Western Illinois Congressman Eric Sorensen is what you're talking about.

And what do you hope to get from him?

So my campaign, Skip the plastic campaign is basically urging restaurants and other eateries to only hand out single use plastic straws and, like, cutlery upon customer requests.

And we basically we got that through the Illinois State Senate and House of Representatives, and our next goal is to maybe sort of get it up there and be able to present.

What do you think this is so important?

I think it's important because minimizing our intake of plastic and our usage of plastic in our daily lives, really, like, decreases the amount that we put in the, into the ocean because every single piece of plastic that we that has ever been made is still on the earth in some form today, because it just keeps on, breaking down into minuscule pieces, so it never really fully goes away.

Do you think people would be surprised at how much plastic we do actually throw away?

And and let's be honest, Americans are among the worst.

Yeah, honestly, I don't really think that people mentally see when they're, like, throwing away food wrapper.

Oh, I'm throwing away this much plastic.

And then you do it consistently throughout the day.

And I don't really think people realize that.

So like you said, you received the award.

Along with the, reward comes a little extra cash.

And that's important for you?

Why?

I mean, how do you think that you're going to be able to use this money to move your message forward?

Basically, we're looking into different ways.

Like, if I do end up getting, to national level with Eric Sorensen, I will be using that to, like, get up to DC and to be able to testify and stuff.

So it's really it's really just anything to get me up to that level.

Our thanks to Nick Pappas, the founder of Nicholas Turtle Company and one of 25 winners nationwide of the 2025 Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes.

Next year marks 250 years since America declared its independence in 1776.

And throughout the coming year and leading up to the 4th of July, we're asking people about their civic spark, why they chose their career, and how it impacts our society.

We asked Jerry Jones, executive director of Rock Island Martin Luther King Junior Center, about his civic spark, what drew him to be a part of the MLK center for more than 25 years.

It's really simple.

For me it is.

The concept of freedom of speech is the ability to be able to espouse different ideas in an open forum without being jailed or sequestered, especially during this incredible time of such polarization from left to right and even in the middle.

This is where we can find middle ground and really push our nation to be better than it is now, to really realize the potential that exist in this great experiment.

Our thanks to Jerry Jones, executive director of Rock Island's Martin Luther King Junior Center.

On the air, on the radio, on the web, on your mobile device, and streaming on your computer.

Thanks for taking some time to join us.

As we talk about the issues on the city's.