Joel Franken Department Head of the Creative Arts Academy, Davenport school board Vice President Linda Hayes, and Robert Kobylski Superintendent of Davenport schools cut the ribbon during their official ribbon cutting ceremony to honor their move into their new downtown campus, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019, in Davenport. JESSICA GALLAGHER / [email protected] Article courtesy of JONATHAN TURNER [email protected] Oct 17, 2019 Over a year ago, the Creative Arts Academy of the Quad Cities moved just three-tenths of a mile to its current home in the Charles J. Wright Transit Center at 306 W. River Drive. But a special ceremony on Thursday was proof positive that it has come so much farther. Leaders, staff, supporters, and students of the six-year-old public arts magnet school gathered in the second-floor theater space to officially cut the ribbon for and sing the praises of the facility, open to any grade 6-12 student in the area. "This is a fantastic day," CAA department chairman Joel Franken said, noting about four years ago, as he and his wife Diane were at the Figge cafe, looking across the street at the building, she suggested it as a larger home for CAA, which launched in the downtown Davenport Public Library. Its current space was formerly occupied by the Eastern Iowa Community College District. Joel Franken Department Head of the Creative Arts Academy during their official ribbon cutting ceremony to honor their move into their new downtown campus, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019, in Davenport. JESSICA GALLAGHER / [email protected] "The stars aligned and we are here, and we really love it here," Franken said. "Some say our ribbon-cutting is overdue since we've been here a year, but a year ago our priorities were somewhat different. We had to set up shop, had to get things going first. In our classrooms, we had to get them presentable for our students. And we had to move those darn cubicles out of here." "We still have a lot of work to do - this is our black box theater and we have to get it more a black box theater, with seating that is more stadium seating, and raise the ceiling," plus new sound and lighting, he said. New Davenport superintendent Robert Kobylski called CAA "one of the crown jewels of our school system." "Our main job is to engage students in the learning process and to do that, we have to be creative and innovative. We have to make sure we touch students in ways they feel that their education is relevant, and instill in them that burning passion to learn," he said. "This is what education should look like in the 21st century. We're doing it here. The student outcomes are quite extraordinary." Robert Kobylski Superintendent of Davenport schools speaks during the Creative Arts Academy official ribbon cutting ceremony to honor their move into their new downtown campus, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019, in Davenport. JESSICA GALLAGHER / [email protected] "When the academy was housed in the library, I remember visiting and looking at the wonderful things that were going on, but thinking it was such a small space," said Linda Hayes, vice president of the Davenport school board. "This building became available and now here we are in this wonderful, beautiful, state-of-the-art facility, where we're able to afford more children the opportunity to experience some of the arts not available in other communities." "We are a world-class facility right now and our students are able to benefit from that; that's what the district is about," she said. Davenport school board Vice President Linda Hayes speaks during the Creative Arts Academy official ribbon cutting ceremony to honor their move into their new downtown campus, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019, in Davenport. JESSICA GALLAGHER / [email protected] The CAA currently has over 300 students, including some from Bettendorf, Pleasant Valley and Illinois Q-C districts, said Jessica Taylor, CAA coordinator, and development specialist. At the ceremony, she thanked many CAA investors and supporters, families and community partners. "One of our tag lines is, the community is our classroom, and we value our project-based learning. Without our community partners, we wouldn't have these real-world problems our students get to solve, and they get to have a voice in our community." They have over 70 partners, including the Figge, Putnam, German American Heritage Center, River Music Experience, Vera French, King's Harvest and Rick's House of Hope. Creative Arts Academy students play steel drums before the ribbon-cutting ceremony at their new downtown campus. JESSICA GALLAGHER / [email protected] "I love the CAA; I would even go so far as calling it a second home for me," CAA 8th-grader Reuben Leveridge said. "I'm not gonna forget any of the things I've done here because this is the place. I came here and I was surrounded by a bunch of cool, kind, different individuals, capable of a lot of things that I wasn't. That was disheartening at the beginning, but I used that as an encouragement to be a better person inside these buildings and outside." "When I first started here, I was awkward and shy," said 8th-grader Olivia Reinbold. "I soon learned the academy is a great place to just be yourself. Anybody here who wants to be different is encouraged and helped."
Miss Iowa, Emily Tinsman of Bettendorf, speaks during the Creative Arts Academy official ribbon cutting ceremony to honor their move into their new downtown campus, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019, in Davenport. JESSICA GALLAGHER / [email protected] Miss Iowa Emily Tinsman, a Bettendorf High graduate, spoke about the importance of her platform, arts education, and CAA.
"It is a place where people are allowed to express themselves, create new friendships and have experiences they wouldn't have otherwise," she said. "I reached out to the Creative Arts Academy because of all the wonderful work they were doing for students, creating an outlet for them to go beyond what they were learning in their classrooms. "They're able to come here and work on developing their skills," Tinsman said. "This is such a unique facility for students to have access to. I want to use this place as a role model for other schools to take initiative, creating more opportunities for students."
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